Miss USA; What’s on TV; Hip-Hop Debate
Miss USA 2010 Rima Fakih
Say it ain’t so, but there will be no more crazy 24-hour days for Jack Bauer or folks trying to get back to the mainland on Lost. And while 24, Lost, and many other favorites recently ended their respective runs, there’s a spate of reality shows featuring Black women that many wish would suffer the same fate. We discuss the developments in TV Land and the minority representation on reality television with Eric Deggans, TV and media critic for the St. Petersburg Times, and Kristal Brent Zook, journalism professor and author of I See Black People: The Rise and Fall of African-American-Owned Television and Radio.
Finally, is hip-hop culture a benefit or detriment to youth in our society? You won’t want to miss this enlightening and lively discussion from two scholars on the topic. We speak with Thomas Chatterton Williams, author of Losing My Cool: How a Father’s Love and 15,000 Books Beat Hip Hop Culture, then turn up the temperature and debate hip hop’s value and literary merit by adding Bucknell University Professor James Peterson into the mix. This is a hot one!
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Dr. Dyson – thanks for introducing me and your audience to Thomas Chatterton Williams and his thoughts on how some very popular aspects of hip hop are stifling and literally killing the minds of Black youth.
It’s one thing for scholars like yourself and Prof. Peterson to write about and discuss the merits and artistic contributions of hip from an academic point of view. But what percentage of our youth out there — who are consuming this stuff day in and day out — is capable of this level of analysis and thought (what’s the average reading level of our students)? And even if they are capable, what percentage is engaging in these conversations (how many play dumb)? Very few, if any at all!
Also, just because a negative cultural trait didn’t begin with Black culture (i.e. “anti-intellectualism”, “George Bush was an anti-intellectual”) doesn’t negate the urgent need for us to stop its promulgation in our community. What’s right or wrong, good or bad, moral or immoral should not be “relative” to what the rich White privilege guy is doing. Just because George Bush and his ilk want to be dumb, doesn’t mean we should follow suit.
Re. my comment about “stifling and killing the minds of Black youth”, I suggest Black intellectuals check out that wonderful PBS series on “the plasticity of the brain” and Charlie Rose’s “Brain Series’. It’s too bad that we don’t find, see, or hear from many Black scholars pursuing and contributing to this type of physiological and sociological research. When you have an understanding of how powerful, yet very delicate the mind/brain is – at all ages, people will be less dismissive of cultural issues and warnings Mr. Williams discusses in his new book.
In addition to buying Mr. Williams’ book, listeners should check out his interview/Q&A on Amazon.com and his op-ed piece that was published in the Washington Post a few years ago.