By Samantha Nwaoshai
Other than Kwanza and Martin Luther King Day, the only other holiday dedicated to African Americans is Black History Month. Let’s put aside the fact that it’s not really treated like a holiday and that it’s celebrated during the shortest month of the year. It’s really just a month that we decide to acknowledge that African-Americans have actually suffered a great deal and have contributed to society.
This acknowledgement is shown through the magic of television by way of documentaries on PBS, commercials on the children channels, and rap gets more air time on MTV. With VH1 (or MTV for people above 30), they pulled out all their “black” specials, which, since they are a music channel, had to do with hip-hop. All their biographies on African American artists, and every episode of “Strangelove” that was aired thus far, played several times during the month. One three-part mini-series entitled “Race-O-Rama” took a provocative, if at times humorous look at the stereotypes that define our great nation. It was not VH1 alone-it was a team effort with VH1 and Ego Trip (creator’s of the book Ego Trip’s Big Book of Racism). It was the follow-up to their first collaboration, “TV’s Illest Minority Moments.” They basically decide to acknowledge Black History Month by having a mini-series that basically names every stereotype in the book. So this is what King worked for.
The first part of the mini-series was entitled “Dude Where’s My Ghetto Pass?” This part of the series sought to try to explain pop culture’s fascination with the most abysmal pass one can be: da ‘hood, and why people try to be black. They posed many mind-bending questions like “can a president be down?” (only if sex was associated with your administration, like Clinton, JFK). One of the moments in the mini-series that would definitely be one to highlight is when each of the guests was asked if they knew what a “wigger” is. The first five guests were befuddled. Towards the end they explored the possibility that the trailer park could be the white man’s ‘hood. The feeling you were left with after the show was done could be best described by a quote from Aaron McGruder, author of The Boondocks comic strip “You’re white, the world is yours. What are you doing? Stop.” Enough said.
The next part of the series was entitled “Blackphobia.” In “Blackphobia” the reason why minorities, particularly African-Americans, are so intimidating is explored. Observations made during the show included the fact that almost all famous white people had big black security guards to protect them and that black police officers are tougher on blacks than white officers. Then at least five minutes was dedicated to the single most scariest black man in America: Mike Tyson. One observation that will stick with you, even after reading this article, is that in the 1970s, during a blaxploitation period in films, all black people played pimp/drug dealers, including some well-known stars today. Oscar winner Morgan Freeman played a pimp and parlayed a diverse career out of it. Teddy Wilson who is best known for playing Isaac the bartender on “The Love Boat,” was a pimp too. Do not think the list ends there. There were former movie pimps in the least likely of places, like “Sesame Street.” Roscoe Ormon, who played Gordon from “Sesame Street,” also played a pimp, the baddest pimp of them all: Willie Dynamite. How he went from the king of the street to “Sesame Street” is still confusing. Lesson learned here: black people are intimidating to everyone.
The final part of the series, titled “In Race We Lust,” explored interracial dating and the offspring of interracial couples. The main question posed through the series was “why?” Why interracial dating? There were many answers to this. Some answers included “the sex is better,” and that your own race is not feeling you. After exploring why there is interracial dating to begin with, they examined the issues of being biracial. Issues included racial confusion and trying to answer the eternal question: which box do you check under “racial affiliation”? Then they showed the most confused biracial person in America: Mariah Carey. The best part of the show was a game called “Taste My Race.” During the game, a guy received a lap dance blindfolded and he had to guess the person’s race.
In the end, the series was basically VH1’s black version of the “I Love the…” series. After March 1 this special is probably not going to receive airtime, except during late-night hours. Then again, this is the same channel that plays “Strangelove” and “The Surreal Life” beyond the point of common human tolerance.