Let me take a second and voice what has taken me several years to realize. VH1, Shed Media, Mona Scott (and all of the programming executives at Vh1) all hate black women. I know people will sit and say, “but Mona Scott (one of the creators) is a black woman! How can she hate us?” I don’t know how but I am confident that she (along with all of the other producers, directors,etc) all feel like black women are disposable assets in this thing called reality television. Tonight, I had the (dis)pleasure of watching the premiere episode of Love & Hip Hop Atlanta and all I could do was stare at this train wreck of a show. I had promised myself that I would not watch it but all of my Twitter buddies were blogging about it so I figured I’d glance at it for a second-which turned into 60 minutes of my life that I can never get back.
When I finished, I noticed I had a stomach ache that hurt to the depths of my stomach. It wasn’t the ache you get because you’ve eaten something bad but the ache when you know something just isn’t right. As I read (reread tweets) from the cast members on the show and my Twitter friends, I realized what the ache was coming from. I realized that VH1 not only hates black women but they despise us and daily (through their programming) leads a campaign of hate towards us. It’s not the traditional hate where if you see that person(s) in the street you would fight them but it’s the secret type of hate–the kind that’s most dangerous. This type of hate is subtle and undetected by most but the aggressor usually displays it in their actions towards you.
Two years ago I saw that VH1 was trying to reach an audience of black women after the tomfoolery of the Flavor of Love, and began to cast shows like Basketball Wives and Brandy and Ray J. I was hopeful that the new images I would see would be educated women telling stories that I (as an educated woman) could relate to ;however, I was wrong. I just knew that Vh1 had learned their lesson and was going to show the diverse paradigm of black women who were attorneys, musicians, doctors, and mothers but instead they opted to do the opposite. Instead they decided to bring to the “small screen” self centered, violent, pitiful women who let men “run all over them” for the sake of a new handbag or that new sports car.
Every night for the past couple of years VH1 has presented these images to our children like these are women to be admired. Think about it. You have Evelyn, a sassy girl from the Bronx, who instead of being admired about her business ventures is shown hurling wine bottles in fine establishments and cursing like a sailor. Instead of dismissing her from the show due to her violent ways they (reportedly) axed three cast members (Jennifer Williams, Royce Reed and Keisha Nichols) who are actually presentable. Then you have Mimi & Emily (Love and Hip Hop Atlanta and Love and Hip Hop New York) who allow their men to cheat and disrespect them but still stay because they love the glitz and glam of the hip hop lifestyle.
Instead of highlighting Emily’s work as an established stylist, VH1 depicted her as a wallflower, desperate for attention from her boyfriend/rapper, Fabulous. Then you have the new reality show “pushover” who allows her “man” to blatantly disrespect her after 15 years in a relationship. To add more salt to the wound to the black women’s image, tonight on Love and Hip Hop Atlanta, you have a mistress, Jocelyn, who instead of trying to show little girls that despite having a hard life they can still be successful we see her as the irate mistress to mega producer, Stevie J.
It doesn’t even matter if VH1 has black women as producers on their shows–their campaign of hatred for black women is far reaching. Look at Shaunie O’Neal and her role as producer on Basketball Wives. Apparently her role is minimal because she couldn’t stop the violent actions and storylines VH1 displayed for the world to see–and she’s a black woman herself. There simply are no positive role models for any woman of color on VH1.
Where are the doctors, attorneys, teachers, singers–heck where are the women of substance on Vh1? Non existent. I’m convinced that when new programming is introduced, Vh1 producers go out and seek the most dysfunctional women of color and then try to twist it like they are doing us a favor because a woman of color is on the small screen. Instead of doing us a favor they’re basically putting us back in time when the only women of color you’d see would be maids, nannies. Yes, Vh1 is that bad.
Today is my last day of watching any more programming on Vh1. If I want to get comedic relief, I’ll read my Tweeps and hear about all the ratchetness that is occurring on Vh1. Thank you but no thank you..I can do better and so should YOU Vh1!
BMWK, does VH1 hate black women? If your answer is yes then why do black women continue to watch these shows?
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