So many black shows on TV. For the first time in my life, I can watch a different black-focused show every day of the week. Blackish, Queen Sugar, Atlanta, Empire, Insecure. Well, almost. But it’s not the volume that’s so amazing, it’s the diversity of angles, stories and the pleasure of watching black banality.
Atlanta for example. In a very rude way I could say there’s not much going on, and this is exactly what I needed. Nothing that I haven’t seen before except that it comes with that black, southern layer with green trees and Paperboi and all of sudden I have to watch episodes twice or three times in a row because they’re awesomely poignant. I’ve always wanted something like Atlanta on TV and I enjoy it immensely.
The only thing that hurts is that black men in those shows once again, mostly ain’t shit. And that bothers me because well stereotypes and also because seriously, we need some positivity here. It’s exhausting to constantly defuse bombs in people’s minds, in real life. If I walk in too fast in a store, employees freak the fuck out I just had to deal with it again recently. We still get shot dead by police at an alarming rate. I still haven’t worked directly with black people in my game audio field in 16 motherfucking years I mean we black men can’t only be loved on sports field or music stages can we? Can we just be good men in fiction for once? No supermen, no devils, just normal folks? Hopefully.
Anyway, good stuff. So glad to be here to enjoy it.