Showing posts with label Empire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Empire. Show all posts

Sunday, February 17, 2019

Why I wanted to believe Jussie Smollet's story

BY George L. Cook III AfricanAmericanReports.Com.

Jussie Smollet claims to have been beaten, doused with bleach, and having a noose placed around his neck by two individuals shouting, "This is MAGA Country!" because he was both black and gay.

Initially I believed him. As a black man who grew up in the United States, I know that black man have been and are physically assaulted because of racism. As one who has LBGT family members and friends, I know too that others can be beaten or even killed because of their sexual orientation.

In plain English, I had no reason to doubt Smollet's story.

As more and more details emerged about the attack including details that the attack may have been staged that belief changed to a want to believe Smollet.

You see, it would have been horrible if Smollet had indeed been beaten, but it would be far worse if he were lying about the entire incident. If he were lying, it would make it that much harder for the next black or gay person assaulted to be taken seriously. That would endanger just not one person but millions.

Those who are genuinely racist will use Smollet's lies as a smokescreen to cover their violent deeds knowing a seed of doubt has now been planted in America's collective mind. Law enforcement may become more hesitant in believing the victims and start investigations that look more at the victims hat the alleged accusers.

Some conservatives are already using Smollet's alleged lies to attack the left and those who believed him. They will once again claim that racist attacks in the United States are isolated incidents and make it okay to question the victim's validity.

I still want to believe Jussie but in light of everything that's coming out, I no longer can. His story doesn't add up.

I don't know what Jussie Smollet was thinking or what he set out to do by lying about being attacked, but I do know that whatever his intentions he has only made things worse.

George L. Cook III AfricanAmericanReports.Com.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Does Fox's 'Empire' Break Or Bolster Black Stereotypes?

As its freshman season ends Wednesday night, Fox's hip-hop family drama Empire has emerged as that rarest of birds in the broadcast TV industry: a show where the viewership is always going up.

When the series debuted Jan. 7, it drew a respectable 9.8 million viewers, according to the Nielsen company. But then the show about a family-run music empire achieved something few others have ever managed: It increased its audience every week, growing to 14.9 million viewers on March 4.

Anchored by powerful performances from Oscar nominees Taraji P. Henson and Terrence Howard, Empire features unapologetically black characters operating in a mostly black world. So it shouldn't be surprising that, among the show's average 11.6 million viewers per week, Nielsen says 7.5 million of them are African-American.

But that's where the other controversy about Empire emerges. Because some critics say the show has earned its success by trafficking in "badly written dialogue and ham-fisted stereotypes."

Pundit Boyce Watkins denounced the "ghetto-fied hood drama" as "coonery" he refused to support. One commentary on GlobalSocial Media News Service asked, "Do we need to go back to the times when 'pimps, whores, drug dealers and gangsters' were glorified?"

Still, much as I like to call out stereotyping in media, I think these critics are off base. Empire is much more than a collection of horrifying black stereotypes, and it moves further away from such narrow characterizations with every episode.

To understand why this is so, you have to look at how stereotypes are typically deployed in today's TV shows and how Empire plays with them — along with other nonwhite-centered series such as ABC's Fresh Off the Boat and Black-ish.

The biggest backlash centers on Henson's character, Cookie Lyon, an in-your-face matriarch who spent 17 years in prison. She took the rap for a drug deal gone bad so that her husband, Howard's drug dealer-turned-hip-hop mogul named Lucious Lyon, could build his career and their company, Empire Entertainment.

For some, Cookie is the embodiment of all the stereotypes black women face on TV. Dressed flamboyantly with floor-length furs, color-coded nails and eyelashes big as manhole covers, she's quick to anger and ready to throw down at a moment's notice — beating her youngest adult son with a broom when he disrespects her, while lovingly using the three-letter F-word to refer to her gay son.

Read more here: Does Fox's 'Empire' Break Or Bolster Black Stereotypes?