Dear TBM,
How do you feel about how Black people having negative images in the media? Is there anything we can do to fix it?
Sharon Smalls
The Black man:
Hi Sharon Smalls,
I feel that there is a lot of focus on the negative things that happen in the Black community and there is a lack of glorification of the positive things that occur.
There is numerous amount of great things that happen in communities worldwide that stem from Black people. If you watch television you can feel that a black people only excel in being an athlete, musician (in particular a rapper), or some sort of crime.
Sometimes it is very sad even to turn on a channels such as the Black Entertainment Television and watch these stereotypes. This does not promote any positive images to the younger generation.
As far as changing it, the most important thing is to be accountable of our own actions. That is what you have to most control of. After that you can work on making your community a better place to live in. Even just helping one person can go a long way.
Taking an indifferent stance on this is this worse thing you can do. If you keep watching it is only going to get worse. The more people that do positive things the better it is for our growth and development.
Spending your time blaming “the white man” or any other people for any of these things occurring is wasted energy. You can talk forever about what happened during slavery and all throughout history. It’s the past and it does not make sense to live in the past. We need to live in the present. I am not saying that what happened is not messed up but dwelling on it is not going to change anything. You can acknowledge it and move forward.
The work needs to start in the households and in the communities. If self-esteem, Self-worth, confidence, critical thinking, aspiration is implemented there, then whatever images are portrayed in the media will not matter nor affect the Black community.
That’s my 99 cents worth.
TBM
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