Question de Jour: Do you think White people would watch TV if 99.999% of the people on TV were People of Color?

I don't have cable TV. I haven't had it in a couple of years. It's one thing to be ignored and not pay for it but another to pay for being ignored, as people of color are on TV.

As the new fall television season nears I have noticed that nothing much has changed, at least on network TV, as far as diversity is concerned. There are three shows on NBC, one with Boris Kodjoe, one with Blair Underwood and another with Jimmy Smits. I'll give NBC its due for that but NBC is also the network that will air a show about a call center in India that from the promos looks dangerously racially offensive.

Other than that the new TV season seems as lily White as ever. It gets so bad sometimes that I find myself just scanning channels looking for a person of color on the screen. And when I see one I stop and watch. It doesn't really matter whether it's a commercial or an actual show I'll watch it. Well except for anything produced by Tyler Perry.

I can remember hearing older people talk about how back in the day they essentially did the same thing, looked for a person of color on TV and then if they saw one they watched no matter what it was about.

So it seems that in the new millennium, as the world changes by leaps and bounds, some things never change. Namely, television is as White as ever, heck even more White actually. In the 80's and 90's there were quite a few People of Color on network TV. So TV is actually going backwards.

PBS even seems to be less diverse than ever.

According to people who are supposed to know; African Americans and people whose ancestors hail from Spanish speaking countries (sorry but I really hate the word Hispanic*) watch more TV then other groups.

Which makes me wonder; if most of the people on TV were People of Color would White people watch?




*I hate the term Hispanic because it tells you nothing about a persons heritage. People whose ancestry is from Spanish speaking countries have very different cultures and histories. So the use of the term Hispanic seems like a way of ignoring a persons culture and lumping everyone in a cultureless pot. This country has already taken away most of African Americans pre-American history and culture and now its trying to do it again with the term Hispanic.

Question de Jour: What to do with Facebook friends?

So I was never too hyped about Facebook. The idea of it seemed okay but I was not that anxious to join. Anyway, I suppose I was bored one day a couple of months ago and that's how I ended-up on Facebook.

It was kind of interesting friending people from my past. Although I really must say that more than a few people are unrecognizable from their third grade selves. Anyway once I joined every few days I'd get a friend request from someone that I've known. The usual how are you and I'm fine would follow. The end.

Then things started to change. A person, whom I have not seen nor talked to in maybe 10 years, sent me their telephone number?

WTF?!

Then it happened again from someone else. And again. So far at least 7 or 8 people have sent me their telephone numbers. So I'm confused now. Am I actually supposed to call them? And if I do then what? What the heck are we going to talk about after all of these years?

You can only reminisce about how good the lasagna was at lunch during your freshman year in high school for so long and then you're just sitting their breathing into the phone. I mean really, why are people sending numbers now?

It has really been enough for me to just see people I knew and read their goofy, trying to be clever, Facebook posts. To which I will occasionally click 'like'. And that really seemed to be all there was to it.

So if I don't call these people am I rude?

Do Facebook friends, who you haven't seen or talked to for years, send you their numbers? If so do you actually call?

Question de Jour: Mama's Baby, Daddy's Maybe

The Ihegboro family (Hat tip to Mr. Field for the link)

Should the father of record be given a DNA test at the time of a baby's birth by law?

According to several studies women give birth to a baby that has not been fathered by the man she names as the father at surprising rates. In some countries the numbers of cases of the father of a baby being a man other than the husband or named father is as high as 30%. Obviously this can be problematic for either party if the relationship ends and child support becomes an issue.

Imagine how much time and money the family courts could save if every father was given a paternity test at the time of a baby's birth. And more importantly imagine how many idiots wouldn't need to appear on the Maury Povich Show to get a paternity test.

So wouldn't it simplify things if every new dad was made to take a DNA test to determine paternity?

Question de Jour: Why won't they speak up?

Black women are a very diverse group. There aren't many things I would say are absolutes about us. But one thing I know for sure is if the media and Black men started saying that there were no good Black women around we would speak up and loudly.

So I have to wonder why it is that Black men aren't speaking up. The media has been stuck on the lonely Black woman/ no good Black men thing for a very long time now. And I have yet to see an organized response to this from Black men.

Why is that?

I absolutely know that it's a myth that there are no good Black men. I happen to know quite a few good Black men. Smart, educated, healthy, never been arrested, etc. So when for instance ABC's Nightline does a show about the supposed lack of good Black men why was it that 600 Black women showed up but almost no Black men?


If 600 Black men were going to go on TV talking about the lack of good Black women you better believe there would be 600 Black woman there begging to differ.

So please help me here. Why aren't the good Black men out there standing up to these media attacks? What's going on?

Question de Jour: What if Beyoncé was...

I have a question. I was going to use Queen Latifah as the subject of this but that'd be too easy. So instead I've decided to use Beyoncé. First, I have to state I'm NOT a Beyoncé fan. I think she's a vapid woman. But her popularity makes her perfect for this.

I want to know what you think would happen if Beyoncé held a press conference and announced to the world that she was a lesbian. And that her marriage to Jay z was a sham concocted by her parents and PR people. And that she was in love, planned to divorce Jay and marry her girlfriend.

What do you think would be the fallout?

Would her career crash and burn? Would she become a pariah? Would Black preachers attack her from the pulpit? Would gossip and entertainment sites and bloggers attack her? Would she lose all of her product endorsements? Would she end-up broke and destitute?

Or

Would the public and others accept her and her marriage? Would she change the attitudes of preachers around the country? Would people become more accepting of gayness? Would she become an even bigger star? Would she gain even more product endorsements? Would she become even more rich? Would she and her wife live happily-ever-after?


There has never been an A-list Black celebrity who has been openly gay. Recently a few Black women celebs have used possibly being gay as a way to get attention. But they tend to backtrack once they get the attention they're looking for.

So, what do you think would happen if Beyoncé announced she was a lesbian?