An Open Letter To Soledad O’brian Regarding CNN’s Black In America
Dear Soledad,
I’d like to thank you for the time and effort put into researching and producing CNN’s Black In America. After looking at the various segments, I can tell you spent much time with the interviewees getting to know their stories, understanding their issues and perhaps giving others ignorant of the plight of this segment of the population a sobering view of what it is like for some blacks in America.
However, as a Afro-Caribbean woman myself, I couldn’t help but feel slighted by the glaring fact that this documentary is clearly one-sided. I will admit to being excited and filled with all sorts of great expectations about what new information this documentary would bring. Sadly, it did nothing to bring to light any new information not already shared by AAs such as myself or my general peer group.
You see, many of us are educated, hold jobs, have not only a college degree, but multiple degrees and are married to men who aren’t running the streets and *gasp* play an integral role in the lives of their children! In fact, our husbands and partners are able to navigate the system moving smoothly from one position to another without the feeling that they are akin to a white man with a criminal record when looking for a job. We are also women who do not value having children out of wedlock as your documentary would like to have the rest of America believe, most of us do value the tradition of family and a two parent household when possible.
CNN’s Black In America lacked dimension in telling the stories of African Americans who do have stable marriages, value education as a core function of their legacy, work hard for what they want in life while teaching their children the value of living a life free of drugs and incarceration.
I can only imagine the questions and the stares I will get as one of few black women in my graduate class. Will I have to battle questions which the documentary left unanswered? You see, the questions left unanswered will be fielded by women such as myself who do not live such a reality. Imagine the questions by my white counterparts? The images displayed all around American households are not representative of our experience, it is representative of the experience a segment of the population. The documentary should have been titled Poor, With No Hope: Black In America.
Why aren’t hard working middle class families portrayed just as in depth as the high school drop outs? Where are the interviews with multiple AA couples who have been married for years or perhaps more than a generation and what that means for the younger AAs looking to them for guidance as they take the trip down the aisle? Your documentary gave black women little hope and/or options for happiness. They are left with the option of marrying a man of another race or growing old and alone with no partner to call her own. After all, they are less likely to get married because many of our men are in jail, high school drop outs or lack the ability to make a solid commitment. Yet, there’s the 55% of black women who are married and 50% of them who do stay married for the long haul.
Where are the interviews with that segment of the population? With the rise of the first viable AA presidential candidate, one would think this would be an important time to cast a positive image of Black America, not reinforce the plethora of negative stereotypes already out there which supports what we all already know. Even then, what answers do we have for the segment of our population that are downtrodden? I understand this is a plight of my people and we will have to figure this out some way, but in the mean time, a follow up documentary is needed. One that celebrates the triumphs of those who did not fall prey to drugs, welfare, absentee fathers or incarceration. One that discusses their struggles of shaking off the constant portrayals of blacks in America as poor, lacking education, drug infested and having a perennial presence in the revolving doors of of the criminal justice system.
Where is that story?
It’s time that large networks like CNN and journalists such as yourself take responsibility for the information disseminated in American households. If you’re going to tell our story, then make a sincere effort to tell all sides. Not the the side that makes for a salacious documentary which garners historical ratings; it is both irresponsible and frankly standard in America today. Because, being black in America means for most of us being bombarded with dismal statistics about our race leaving us with little hope for change or solutions for the problems we face today. The challenge for CNN would have been to take this time to celebrate the leaps and bounds we have made as a race in spite of the downtrodden stories.
Your documentary has been told by many a news network and sadly, it’s nothing new.
Respectfully Yours
Ginger - Girls Just Wanna Have Funds
About the Author: Girls Just Wanna Have Funds is for the woman that wants to take charge of her personal finances. We value budgeting, investing, frugality and remain mindful of our spending habits. Move over and make way for women who are in control of their financial destinies and not afraid to say it. We're armed with a positive net worth and not afraid to flaunt it while breaking financial ceilings one stiletto at a time!
Carla | Jul 28, 2008 | Reply
AMEN!!! I was wondering when one of you on the PF blogosphere would blog about this. It is off topic but this needed to be said!
Joann | Jul 28, 2008 | Reply
I turned that mess off, same ole isht
Christy | Jul 28, 2008 | Reply
As a white woman I found it such a turn off, why would CNN resort to calling what they produced ground breaking? African Americans are bombarded with the same numbers and who said this only applies to African Americans? White girls have children out of wedlock too!
Jennifer | Jul 28, 2008 | Reply
I’m glad someone said it, I was beginning to think that there was some sort of consensus. CNN can kiss my grits!
Anonymous | Jul 28, 2008 | Reply
As a young African American women, who graduated from college and has plans to obtain a a graduate degree in the near future, I was appalled at the way AA’s were protrayed in the Black in America series. It is the norm for my friends and peers to be college graduates and I have quite a few friends who are in their twenties and are marrying or have plans to marry in the near future. We are gainfully employed, give back to our communities and have plans of homeownership. We aren’t “baby momma’s” having multiple children by multiple men and for those of us that aren’t married, we date college educated black me like ourselves. That series was so one-sided and did not tell of the numerous triumphs and positive stories that exist in the diverse, rich AA cultural landscape. But it jut goes to show that we have to tell our own stories and not expect the mainstream media to do so in an unbiased manner, at least not yet. One day I hope that this will change.
Annie | Jul 28, 2008 | Reply
Well, many middle-class blacks fail to realize that they are in the MINORITY, not the majority of the black population. Once they finish graduate school,”make it,” and have friends with similar accomplishments, they assume their experiences are typical. You are not typical. The numbers don’t lie: black men are not graduating from college at the same rate as black women (or white men for that matter), black women do not get married as often as white women, and blacks (even middle class blacks) often suffer certain injustices that similarly-situated whites do not (e.g., higher mortgage interests).
I’m not sure where you are getting the “55% of black women who are married” statistic from. Most black women are not married, and the statistical difference between black and white women is glaring. Most blacks are not as wealthy or as educated as their white counterparts. There are structual imbalances in this country that have not been addressed that need to be. Pointing to the few blacks who make it(relative to the total population, it is a few) does not address the root cause of the inequities. Some middle-class blacks are more concerned with their image and how whites perceive blacks, then the situation of blacks on a whole.
Instead of being upset with O’Brien for depicting the truth of the matter, you should be upset that the root cause of these problems have not been addressed. Middle-class blacks are too busy pulling themselves by their bootstraps to care about advancing social cause of their civil rights predescessors (who were also middle-class blacks).
Ginger | Jul 28, 2008 | Reply
@ Anon-you summed that up quite nicely! I just dont get what the obsession is with AAs and our plight. As if other races arent going through the same issues. We arent the only ones having children out of wedlock or going to jail yet we seem to be the main topic of discussion.
I am so over CNN..
Ginger | Jul 28, 2008 | Reply
@ Annie- In my world? I am the majority and Im not sure if you understand where i am coming from on that… I am tired of hearing about how WE HAS A NATION of people are downtrodden. Me? I am not. My friends and family? We are not. Do we know people who are? Sure we do. Am I working my ass of in volunteer efforts to make life better for those less fortunate? You are damn right I am.
Frankly, the root causes continue to be addressed but some of us make bad choices in life. Im not going to sit here and give you my story but I know enough about struggle. My family wasnt born anywhere near money but we pulled ourselves up and made changes.
I will continue to be disappointed with the special because it was piss poor in its information and lacked adequate solutions. Blacks are poor and destitute, now what?
Please.
Michelle (6 comments.) | Jul 28, 2008 | Reply
yay, I’m Afro-Caribbean too!
Anyway, I didn’t see the doc. I didn’t want to. I figured I would be pissed if I watched it. My in-laws (who are sweet, radically liberal white folks) saw the whole thing and went on about how educational it was. I think we do have to merit CNN for at least shedding light on some of these issues that are glaring problems in the black community, and for women — a lot of people who would otherwise care less were at least provoked to think about “how the other half lives” for at least a few moments. But from what I know, it was basically more of CNN pointing at people of color sighing sadly into the camera, “those people are so poor and so black.”
There are definitely problems across the board — women as a whole earn an average of 77 cents/dollar a man earns. Black and Latina women earn even less. Being a 23-year-old black woman, I’m more likely to contract HIV than my coworker in the cubicle next to me, who is essentially the same age. Just because many of us, especially those of us who would read this type of blog, have good lives with college degrees and are educated, doesn’t mean that a majority of African-American women are OK, too. I think we have to address these issues of poverty, health, education, economic development, and others as a nation, and not just in “brown communities.” As Christy up top mentioned, these are American issues, not just African-American issues.
Michelle’s last blog post..Dear Olympic Athletes
ProphetJoe (1 comments.) | Jul 29, 2008 | Reply
Ginger,
The answer to your question is simple — Soledad is a part of the problem. Just look at this recent study about racism and the TV news: http://www.news.uiuc.edu/news/08/0717race.html
PJ
Chloe | Jul 29, 2008 | Reply
I did not watch the series because I do not have cable and cannot access CNN (happily living frugally). I can see both sides of the story. However, I don’t believe I’m in the minority because I’m a successful black woman. African Americans need to stop using excuses and crutches as to why we can’t be successful. I lived a happy and wealthy childhood until a 14-year civil war ravaged my beautiful Liberia located in West Africa. I ran out of my home with nothing but the clothes on my back and survive two years of the war, sleeping in swamps, next to dead bodies and living in a refugee camp for almost a year in Sierra Leone. You name it and I’ve lived through it, but I’m still happy, have never done drugs, and I’m nobody’s baby momma. I came to the US penniless, bouncing between family and friends. I’ve worked my way through four college degrees (2 bachelors and 2 masters). I’ve been a salaried employee since the age of 16, working full-time and going to school full-time. I’ve never rented, bought a home straight out of college. Blacks in America can achieve anything we put our minds to. Just because someone steps on you doesn’t mean you have to stay down. You can pick yourself up and keep trying to be another success story. The solution lies within us. If we quit trying to keep up with the Joneses, we’ll be surprised how successful we already are. Education is FREEDOM!
rocketc (2 comments.) | Jul 29, 2008 | Reply
Good, for you Ginger. Great article. In this country, we the people control our own destiny - regardless of our color and socio-economic background.
Michelle, you don’t have to contract HIV if you make the proper choices in life. Don’t resign yourself to being a statistic. Look to yourself for solutions, not the government.
rocketc’s last blog post..Global Warming Update
rocketc (2 comments.) | Jul 29, 2008 | Reply
Good, for you Ginger. Great article. In this country, we the people control our own destiny - regardless of our color and socio-economic background.
Michelle, you don’t have to contract HIV if you make the proper choices in life. Don’t resign yourself to being a statistic. Look to yourself for solutions, not the government.
Chloe, we need more Americans like you.
rocketc’s last blog post..Global Warming Update
Michelle (6 comments.) | Jul 29, 2008 | Reply
@rocketc: No, you don’t have to contract HIV if you make the proper choices in life. But by saying this, you admit that the swath of black women who are between the ages of 18 and 30 with HIV all made horrible choices — it’s simply not necessarily the case. Yes, it’s a preventable disease, but nothing can prevent it 100 percent of the time.
And no, people shouldn’t solely rely on their government. People should be afforded the opportunity to work hard and achieve the amount of success that we put into our own lives. That’s a very American value, which is one of the best things about this country.
It frustrates me beyond belief to see people living on welfare, not pursuing their education, not mobilizing to live in better lives.
But because many of us live good lives doesn’t mean we shouldn’t care about others. I’m far beyond living as a statistic — I have a college degree, working on my MA, and I’m living a decent life in a great job, just as most people who read this blog probably are. But, as I previously mentioned, poverty, health, education, economic development, etc. are not simply black issues. These are things we have to address as a nation. Saying “well, it doesn’t effect me” is the absolute wrong way to look at these problems, because in the long run, this effects all of us.