Media Analysis: July 2007 Archives

Barry Bonds, 43, and 3 home runs away from breaking Hank Aaron's career record, may or may not have used steroids to enhance his baseball playing abilities, however, one of BALCO industries chemists is alleging he did.

Last night on HBO's Costas Now, Patrick Arnold, a Bay area chemist, who created "the clear", a form of undetectable steroids, claimed he often heard BALCO's founder, Victor Conte, refer to Barry Bonds as being on "the program".

Regardless of whether Bonds took "the clear", there is no proof that steroids are able to enhance one's ability to play a better game. An increase in strength and muscle mass, yes, a better game, questionable. Patrick Arnold thinks steroids also enhance hand eye coordination. Again, this has yet to be proven.

The better part of Costas Now however, was Chris Rock's hilarious rip on Babe Ruth versus Satchel Paige, a Black ball player. One of his best lines came when Bob Costas asked about why Rock is not a fan of Babe Ruth:

"It's not that I don't like Babe Ruth, I just don't think he was the best of his time. Satchel Paige was striking people out from his wheel chair at age 63! And he was tenth best. There were nine Negro players better than him!"

"It's almost like saying - I won the New York City Marathon this year - but no Kenyans ran!"

"It's not a sport until brothers show up - it's just a game."

To view the Costas Now show, check the HBO listings in your area.

Meanwhile, here's a clip of Chris Rock laying into the Barry Bonds issue on the Late Show with David Letterman. "The government 'ain't trying to get Osama Bin Laden," Rock said. "They trying to get Barry Bonds."

Hilarity.

Pardon me for being a little behind but I had such a mess of reactions to this bit of news that I simply had to share it. Did y'all hear about Robert Novak's comment on how the Democrats move to run a woman or black man for President gives Republicans hope? I assume you all read the news more than me, but in case you missed it:

"During all-white-male Meet the Press panel, Novak claimed "woman or an African-American" Dem nominee would give GOP "hope".

"During a panel discussion of the 2008 presidential election on the July 15 edition of NBC's Meet the Press, syndicated columnist Robert Novak asserted: "Republicans are very pessimistic about 2008. When you talk to them off the record, they don't see how they can win this thing. And then they think for a minute, and only the Democratic Party, with everything in their favor, would say that, 'OK, this is the year either to have a woman or an African-American to break precedent, to do things the country has never done before.' And it gives the Republicans hope."

Neither host Tim Russert nor any of Novak's fellow panelists, Bloomberg News Washington managing editor Al Hunt, Republican strategist Mike Murphy, and Democratic strategist Bob Shrum -- all of whom are, like Novak, white men -- commented on or challenged Novak's assertion. As Media Matters for America documented, the four Sunday-morning talk programs on the broadcast networks, Meet the Press, ABC's This Week, CBS' Face the Nation, and Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday, feature guest lists that are overwhelmingly white and overwhelmingly male.

"A breakdown of the guests on Meet the Press from 2005 to 2006 shows that 76 percent of the guests on the program were white men.

Read July 15 edition of NBC's Meet the Press here.

So...I read this as I'm catching up on my post US Social Forum emails and the message reverberating in my mind is the still radical suggestion that another world is possible and another U.S. is necessary. The message is compounded by bits of proof that people can and do behave differently when given the space to deeply engage with each other and liberating information - the type of information that shifts perspective in a way that makes one realize that if one new perspective is possible, perhaps another, and another, perhaps a 360 degree perspective is even possible, and with that sort of vision perhaps any dream could be realized.

Universe, I'm just at a loss of words about what I'm about to talk about.

Watch the video below, and together, we'll discuss what's troubling but also intriguing about this new sitcom "Aliens in America" that starts this fall on the CW Network.

The CW website describes the show as a look at one white Wisconsin family and its 16-year-old son. Here's the rap:

The son suffers in school because he's not as popular as his sister and of course, because high school is hell for skinny, pubescent, socially awkward white boys. So to change his life around, the family orders an exchange student at the nudging of a counselor who tells the family they'll be getting a Nordic stud who's athletic and charming...you know, someone who can make the American boy look popular by association. But instead--and get this--instead of getting a "cool" exchange student, the site says, the boy gets a Muslim from Pakistan. But eventually, and it better had been this way-- the boy and the Muslim form an "unlikely friendship" that becomes the basis of the sitcom.

(Oh, Allah!)

Here, watch the extended trailer:

Is this show wise in our political climate? Because it's tricky. The sitcom is not full-frontal racism. In fact, and you'll see, the show mocks Midwestern whites who think Pakistanis executed 9/11; and also the sitcom captures how this white boy--a symbol of white America--derives strength from forming alliances with Brown people. After all, like the Muslim boy said in the movie, "if we brush our teeth together, you'll see, we both do it the same."

So yes, the show runs long on stereotypes and the stuff that makes racial justice progressives shift and turn in our seats, but it establishes a pretty clear social critique that asks: aren't we all aliens in some spaces?

ABC Family behind-the-scenes video of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix."

***

One my favorite mental exercises is wondering how things would be different if say Black people had enslaved whites or women dominated men.

My friends often chide me because I've stretched this what-if-racial and gender paradigm to almost every facet of my personal life, arguing things like: my landlord wouldn't be such a pain if I were a white man and not a Black woman. Because clearly he thinks I can't fight back, you know, legally and strategically.

So it didn't surprise some of my friends when I called them up this week in a frenzy of conspiracy. The calls went like this:

"Oh, did you know the new Harry Potter movie is out and people lined up across the country to see its release at midnight," I said.

"I know!"

"See, I'm convinced though, that this Harry Potter craze is just us pandering to white culture. I know the movies are good and the books are page turners, but come one, if Harry Potter were Black, we wouldn't be having this conversation."

"You're probably right."

I called three friends on Wednesday, the day the movie Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix opened in theaters. I talked with all women. Here are their responses.

My good friend Dianna who doesn't miss a Potter movie or book said: "I love Harry Potter. I'd even date him." And this is the woman who's only dated men of color.

My friend Sheeba, a sociologist, said: "I was never interested in Potter. I like to stick to the real world."

Bukola, a marketing analyst and Anime fan, really got me thinking. She said: "But what if Harry Potter were gay too?"

"Then movie wouldn't be shown in theaters," I said.

We laughed about this and talked about why there aren't more fantasy writers of color. Because Potter, the genre, is fantasy. Although it conquers real emotional themes like love, curiosity, and revenge, it's about a white boy who's a wizard. And the series of books written by J.K. Rowling, a white woman, and their movies, have been translated into numerous languages. People all over the world champion Potter as a hero. Just watch the video. Potter is the Br'er Rabbit.

So questions remain, are we ready for a colored, gay hero or heroine who has magical powers? Or does our cultural ability to imagine a fantastical world for people of color and for gays run short?

Further, if Potter were a person of color and perhaps, gay, would millions of people around the world be watching him, and stowing away their fanaticism in Harry Potter clubs where they host Potter parties and pretend to be Potter and friends.

See I'm not sure yet. But one thing is for certain, if I were a white man, I wouldn't be sitting here on a Friday morning writing this.

***

Here, comedian Dave Chappelle evokes this what-if exercise and explores what if Bush were Black. Chappelle concludes a Black Bush wouldn't get away with the corruption Bush can because people would ask too many questions.

I stumbled across this video on YouTube from In Living Color, the sketch comedy and social commentary show popular in the 1990s.

It's worth watching the full six minutes. David Alan Grier is an excellent farce of himself, the egotistical host of the Black People Show who needs constant affirmation in an industry that doesn't support positive roles for Black men.

The video is especially eerie because In Living Color is syndicated on Black Entertainment Television and BET ran its icon on the bottom corner. When the the female actor ironically says: "gone are the days when all we could play were maids and hookers," I couldn't help but think, damn, this skit is not only genius, it's unfortunately still relevant today.

*This first appeared at Racialicious. Carmen Van Kerckhove, co-founder of New Demographic, an anti-racism training company, writes:

I tuned in last night to watch the Paula Zahn Now segment on the Simpsons movie promotion in which they are turning 7-Elevens into Kwik-E-Marts, and was very disappointed.

They basically decided to play it for laughs. I tried to find a video online but couldn’t (if anyone finds one, please post a link in the comments) but you can read the transcript here, it starts about halfway down the page.

However, the transcript doesn’t capture the chirpy tone of the entire segment. From Paula Zahn’s Cheshire Cat-like grin as she introduced it, to Allan Chernoff’s overly-jaunty tone in the voice-over, it was clear that the message was: these hypersensitive desis need to lighten the fuck up.

I’m surprised they restrained themselves from adding some comical, farty tuba tune in the background. You know, the kind of music they play on reality shows whenever someone is about to do or say something really stupid.

It’s great that they interviewed Manish from the blog Ultrabrown, whose post on 7-Eleven I cross-posted here last week but unfortunately, because this is television news, he was reduced to a single [albeit good] soundbite: “This is a very stereotyped, racist caricature of an Indian-American. And, with the 7-Eleven promotion, it is the first time this has jumped into the real world.”

The segment was followed by a discussion with Laura Flanders, a radio host on Air America; Robert Traynham, a Republican strategist; and Julie Roginsky, a Democratic strategist.

First of all, they couldn’t find a single South Asian activist, academic, writer, or politician to address this issue?

Secondly, the discussion was inane. Everyone basically downplayed the significance of this racist caricature, and Traynham, a black man, summed it up thus: “…it’s one of those things where frankly it just makes me feel uneasy, but I’m not Indian-American.”

In other words, racism that is not directed against him is not his problem.

Everyone on the show missed the point. The reason Apu and other racist caricatures are so troubling is because they reduce people to two-dimensional stereotypes, denying them their humanity.

If a gunman holds up a 7-Eleven store and sees a South Asian man behind the counter, and thinks of him as “just an Apu” instead of an actual human being with friends and family and hopes and dreams and feelings, it makes it that much easier to pull the trigger, doesn’t it?

Using racist stereotypes to dehumanize entire peoples has been an effective political strategy for centuries. If you can engrain these stereotypes into the public consciousness using popular culture and the media, even better. Exhibit A: giant Negroes. Exhibit B: rat-eating Chinamen.

Ebony Magazine examines bad words often used in Black communities in its latest issue, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

On the heels of the firing of controversial radio talk show host Don Imus, this month's Ebony magazine took on the issue of what it calls the "culture of disrespect." The 32-page special report examines the growing use of racial and, gender slurs such as "ho" and the n-word among African-Americans and others. Last week, Post-Dispatch Washington bureau correspondent Ron Harris spoke with Bryan Monroe, vice president and editorial director of Ebony's parent company and president of the National Association of Black Journalists, which called for Imus to be fired.

So 32 pages on the n-word and its cousins, ho and bitch. Is it time to move on?

One of cable's most popular networks, Black Entertainment Television--BET-- has been chastised over and over again for reflecting a narrow-scope of Black life, showing degrading rap videos, and cutting its news shows.

Some activists are protesting BET's latest show, "Hot Ghetto Mess," and its marketing which features a black-faced cartoon wearing a hat. WhatAboutOurDaughters.org has asked corporations to pull their ads from BET.com's Hot Ghetto Mess promo. The site reported Saturday:

How long are large corporations going to subsidize degrading images of African Americans? This is just a latest in a prolonged and consistent pattern of BET profiting off of promoting images that malign and degrade African Americans.

The blog, What About Our Daughters?, and the National Congress of Black Women asked advertisers to remove advertising form BET's " Hot Ghetto Mess" promotional page. Less than twenty-four hours later, BET was forced to remove prominent banner ads which had flashed advertising for State Farm, The Home Depot, Yum Brand's KFC, Target, AT&T, and Daimler Chrysler. Both State Farm and The Home Depot said that BET had erred by placing their company's ads on the " Hot Ghetto Mess" site without their knowledge or permission.

But while the use of a black-faced cartoon to market this show is bad, it's still not clear if "Hot Ghetto Mess" is a complete stereotypical disaster. The show is actually based on a very popular website by the same name that captures in pics and commentary, images of Black ghetto life, under a banner-appeal to Black people that "we got to do better." See site here.

Plus, publicity for the July 25 premier depicts the show as an extension of Comedy Central's Dave Chappelle Show , and its subsequent culture of racial satire. And who didn't love Chappelle's ability to crack open our race taboos?

BET explains:

"Hot Ghetto Mess" is an entertaining, tongue-in-cheek examination of the good, the bad and the ugly of Black popular culture.

Utilizing comedy, man-on-the-street interviews, video clips, pictures and music, “Hot Ghetto Mess” aims to shine a spotlight on prevalent images in pop culture and examine what role they play in American lifestyle. “Hot Ghetto Mess” goes where most shows fear to tread.

As host Charlie Murphy guides viewers through shaking booties, thug life, baby-mama drama and pimped-out high schoolers, “Hot Ghetto Mess” will explore what these images really mean to all of us.

Cutting edge, original, relevant and irreverent, “Hot Ghetto Mess” is like the traffic accident you can’t look away from. Viewers will laugh. They'll cry. They'll think. They'll learn, and hopefully they'll recognize they've GOT to do better."

Guess we'll have to wait and see.

Meanwhile, word to Racialicious for the lede on this story. In February, it looked at the website "Hot Ghetto Mess" that the show is based on. Read "Hot Ghetto Mess: social critique or classist mockery?" here.

Singing sensation Beyonce performed "Get Me Bodied" at 2007 BET Awards. Later, fashion critics called her a "roboho," stirring up ghosts of Imus.

Sara Rosell for RaceWire:

****

Last time I checked, Don Imus-gate resulted in “ho” being a punishable word when used in the media to refer to Black women.

But just two months after Imus, the word seems to be gaining ground again, on novelty shirts, and most recently, in a popular fashion review on TMZ, a celebrity gossip website.

After the Black Entertainment Television Awards show last week, Tmz.com posted a blurb, in typical style-review fashion, attacking the guests' evening wear. But what is normally innocent hardballing of celebrity fashion, became another forum used to insult Black women by devaluing their sexuality. TMZ got it wrong when they called powerhouse Beyoncé a “roboho,” for wearing a metallic suit on stage, and rapper Eve, a “streetwalker chic.”

Because when it comes to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, a couple of TMZ’s most covered stars, TMZ portrays their fashion flops as more legitimate fashion mistakes--like copying people's styles or wearing the wrong colors.

Still, we rebuke hip-hop artists and people like Don Imus for calling women of color ho’s. And we should. But we can't be so quick to think the problem stopped with Imus.

"Ho" continues to be associated primarily with Black women, making it not only sexist slander, but a very racist one. Writer Jasmyne Cannick would agree.


--Sara Rosell, an intern at the Applied Research Center, is a junior rhetoric and ethnic studies major at the University of California-Berkeley.