Radio Facts: Over the last few days I have been going to do my usual afternoon run at the gym and they have had Black in America 2 on TV. I have noticed the show has been draining me. I’m not a big TV watcher but there is something about that production that I actually find depressing. There is something about the show that takes me back to my upbringing growing up in the ghetto in Buffalo, New York. Something I would get shock treatment to forget. I absolutely DESPISE the ghetto with a passion and people who say they love it have to be a hair shy of mental illness if you ask me. I have avoided that kind of extreme negativity at all costs since I got out over 20 years ago. I think it’s why I had to leave Atlanta because I saw it there too. I am amazed that members of my family still insist on living around that sh….
Then I was thinking it could be the subject matter itself. From my perspective, I get all kinds of things in my email box to run in the blog. The other day, someone sent me a video of a black girl fighting in her neighborhood ghetto projects and all the black men and women and boys and girls stood there watching and filming the sh…. The girl’s mother tried to come over and break it up and 2 teen-aged girls beat her ass (laugh) while the crowd cheered. When I see that kind of sh…, it makes me wonder what the fook black people are talking about when they say how badly white people treat us. Sure, racism CERTAINLY exist. I just experienced some the other day by someone at a major record label but why doesn’t anybody EVER talk about the horrific way black people treat EACH OTHER????
Maybe I am just getting older and I’m getting burnt out on the woe is me concept for Blacks, when I have seen some of the most HORRIFIC things done to blacks BY black people. Then it could be the panels CNN is using. Mostly wealthy celebrity black people who haven’t taken a stroll in the ghetto since 1973 and who are so removed from TRUE black culture it’s almost comical. Who in the FOOK are they to talk about what it’s like to be Black in America when they have done everything they could to escape the ghetto too.
After I saw the segment with Tom Joyner and Steve Harvey I had to stop watching it. I immediately thought about all the young black radio announcers who will never have an opportunity to pursue their dreams because all the radio slots are taken around the country by them. Is it their fault? I don’t know. Then I had to realize that perhaps I am indeed bitter because I was one of the Radio DJs who paid heavy dues and did what I was told by black owners and never got the shot I deserved. Then I had to ask myself if I really wanted it. The answer… NO. I have NEVER liked working on the air or for black owned radio stations… I did it because I could that’s just about it. I was good but I never LOVED it…especially after working for a white corporate station where I saw how a DJ should REALLY be treated. I can honestly tell you from experience, white announcers are treated WAY better than black announcers. You probably already think that but I KNOW it for sure!!! If I were Tom or Steve I’d be doing the same thing. I had to realize that. It’s one thing to go and ask Radio One for a job, it’s another thing to have Radio One offer you one. When you have to ask, you will NEVER have the power, control and leverage that the person THEY ask will have. Perhaps, I surmised, Black in America 2 is a downer for me because I feel like I am not being all that I myself can be!!!