Aight, aight...I know that many of you have seen the "Read a Book" cartoon. I have never received the same e-mail from so many people, soo.........here we go! Is this cartoon offensive or is it a wake up call for many of the ignorant people out there. This topic is rather funny because I recently had a discussion (or argument depending on where you were standing) regarding BET as a "Coon" network due to its lack of neccessary information to African Americans & it's overwhelming attempt to market everything conceivable to Black people. So how right or wrong is the cartoonist for putting this out there. Aight, don't be scarred to speak your mind! If you haven't seen this video go to YouTube and type in "Read A Book" or E-mail me at
The Lil' Harlemite
2 comments:
I am not so sure I would go so far and call it a coon network. Does it
portray all the complexities of the black experience good and bad... I
think that's a better question to ask and argue.
I think we look for BET to be an end all-be all resource and solution
for our community... But at the end of the day it's a cable channel,
it's entertainment, it's a business. We can also ask ourselves is it
art reflecting reality or reality reflecting art... Also debatable....
Have fun with it.
The youtube clip "Read a book" is pretty interesting clip... I don't
know if this is the avenue we need to travel in order to educate, but
then again I was at a block party last weekend and after seeing the
young women get super excited to Akinyele's 1996's "Put it your Mouth"
and witnessing a wild dancing frenzy erupt over the recent song "A bay
bay" by Hurricane Chris... I am not totally opposed to voting this a
top
10 video on 106 and park. I know its a rather unusual call to
action...but a call to action all the same.
Malik
Regarding the Read A Book cartoon, I guess any bit helps....I just think that it is unfortunate that this amateurish approach is what now passes as a challenge to ignorance, not to sound like an "old man" here but since this is an exchange of ideas among MCSM alumni from the early 90's; growing up during our MCSM days the level of consciousness was way deeper and more sophisticated... I guess this is why I think "The Boondocks" is so on the mark when it comes to using satire to challenge ignorance.
While the thoughts behind the Read A Book cartoon message are noble ...I guess, it's not something that is mind blowing; but again any bit helps when you talk about combating the current level of apathy and ignorance.
Peace!
Jose' Ozoria
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