The Ratchet Woman: America's New Comedic Symbol

It’s no secret that in the African American community women are placed on a pedestal, or at least once upon a time they were. Insert rap music and reality television and women have suddenly been demoted to “B****’s,” “hoes” and “thots.” As a fan of rap I give a certain pass to lyrics as it’s almost become mandatory to defame women in music, but recently it seems that the disrespect has reached more disturbing heights. Sure the rappers who promote such language are AA themselves but think about the label owners and stockholders; white men and women who make a profit from the defilement of AA women. Once the last remaining figure of hope for the AA community, this image has continuously been diminished and tarnished with only a comedic symbol remaining. In order to reclaim the prestige and once again become a strong symbol within the African American community, the community itself has to examine the portrayals that have somewhat become the “token” of African American female representation.

The world of reality TV aims to show authentic sides and lives of characters, but as with all things on television nothing presented is authentic; especially when it comes to African American women. As I’m sure there are plenty of earlier examples of the diminishing respect for AA women, however my earliest memory begins with the first season of the VH1 reality series Flavor of Love; a show where black women (the majority), were pitted against one another for the affection of a man; and by pitted I mean fist fight, bitch slap, and be spit upon. This group of women were the first of the new millennium to showcase the decline of the AA woman. While the masses laughed, AA women and girls received brainwashing that this type of behavior was not only acceptable but normal. Keeping in mind that all of the contestants on the show were aspiring models, actresses or singers, it’s easy to notice the lack of authenticity within the show, but the effects are long-lasting. For evidence log onto Youtube, use the correct choice words for searching and allow the disturbing truth to sink in.

Moving on from career hopefuls, the media focused on yet another subset of AA imagery, with Bravo’s third installment of the Real Housewives franchise, which to me only projected the imagery that AA women don’t need a male to influence animosity towards one another, but can fight over anything. The Real Housewives of Atlanta has been the most successful installment of the franchise and of the Bravo network, which is not surprising at all being that 90% of the cast are AA women. One step above the Flavor of Love hopefuls, this group of women claims to fame came through the presence of the man/men in their lives. At the beginning of the series, no one on the cast is “employed” or has a career of her own. Instead, they have achieved their “status” through marriage. One does not have to imagine the negative effect this placed on AA women and girls, the results are evident by the lack of focus on education and rise in aspirations to one day marry a musician, athlete, or any man with enough money to make her life as comfortable as possible.

In hindsight, these shows haven’t been all negative. While the rest of the world laughed, large portions of AA women became angry. Instead of standing by while the media continued to destroy their image, women grouped together to ensure that their voices were heard. Their anger reached it's peaked when AA women banded together to demand the cancelation of VH1 series, Basketball Wives.

 Following in the shadow of Bravo, VH1 once again used reality TV to portray a negative image of AA women. The show Basketball Wives was a paradox from the beginning being that a large percentage of the cast weren’t actually married. They were instead the baby mothers, girlfriends, or exes of players, with one thing in common; they were black women willing to be exploited. A success from its beginning Basketball Wives had it all: hair pulling, drink slinging, booty shaking, fist fighting and more. Despite major protest, VH1 has yet decided to cancel the series—but why would they? I’m sure we all know what type of person makes the final call. It can’t be a coincidence that shows such as these continue to follow the same suit. 

The media and society have always been set against the African American male; media portrayals and music does enough alone to obviously discredit and discourage AA men, that it goes without saying. The African American woman, however, remained a prominent figure in African American homes for years; symbols of strength and perseverance. Of course, the media can’t have impressionable girls gaining self-esteem and respect for themselves, so they place the most deleterious, toxic images they can find  on television, (in many communities the babysitter). Young girls grow up thinking that it’s okay to emulate such behavior and future generations will only think that it’s natural to behave in such ways.

You may not have noticed the correlation between the degrading of African American women for the amusement of white audiences, but it’s happening with alarming results. Next time you tune in and laugh at the buffoonery think about that there is someone profiting from this exploitation, and all the while the image of the African-American woman continues to erode. At the end of the day who is really getting the last laugh?

Gay Is The New Black

In my personal opinion, I feel that the African American community is the biggest critic when it comes to homosexuality, especially among men. The idea of the African American male is this Alpha male, head of the household, breadwinner, ultra masculine, never see him cry type figure or in short the complete opposite of what some people believe homosexual males are. I think this hype, of course, stems from the effects of slavery. It’s an ongoing backlash from African-American males having their dignity stripped and pride broken for years with hope nowhere in sight.

Because of this, the African-American community put emphasis on the new found freedom of  men, expecting us to be the strong superior males that slavery denied us to be, which consequently creates a view that any man willing to have sex with another  man is for lack of better words weak.

I myself find a major flaw with this. As a group, African-Americans should be some of the biggest advocates for the LGBTQ community as not very long being black was the equivalent of being gay today.

Too often the same arguments posed against homosexuals are those that whites used to keep African American’s enslaved for years, even using religion to support their belief that they were our superiors and we were an inadequate species made to serve them. Aside from this, slavery left an everlasting impression on the African American community which leads me to ask the question ‘after years of oppression and injustice why would we subject another group of individuals to the same treatment?’ ‘After years of being persecuted for something as simple as our skin pigmentation, an aspect of ourselves that we didn’t choose, why would we persecute a group for being born a certain way?’ ‘After being lynched, burned, beaten, dragged, and whipped why would we turn around and indulge in the same activities towards others.’

If being gay means being hated and persecuted for the way one is born then it is safe to say that being gay is ironically the new black. Everything about Gay Rights parallels the fight African American’s faced for Civil Rights which is more reason I believe the African American Community should be more sympathetic to the LGBTQ community and their plight. Only time will tell if African American’s will face the reality of the struggle or continue to hinder the struggle.