Lil' C

Another night just watching TV and "So You Think You Can Dance?" comes on and Lil' C is a judge. Now as a part of my mentoring program im in on campus, FAM For Change, we watched a movie with the kids about "crumping" and Lil' C was an original pioneer in the dance style. Well as a judge on the show, he is very articulate and intelligent. However, I feel like it is almost like he was acting. In the film, which was made well before his role on the show, he was still articulate but there was this rawness to him. Now he comes across as the buttoned down exec. I don't know if it's just a natural maturity but I feel he is either being asked to come across a different way or is doing it to appease the "bosses." Interesting to see real people portray themselves.

Cold Case

So I was up into the wee hours of the morning and caught an episode of Cold Case. I like the show, it's pretty solid without being ridiculously over-dramatic. But the episode went back to a case in 1963 where a black boy was found murdered in the street. Eventually they traced it to 4 white men. Zeke, the black boy, played chess at the house of the white lady. The husband assumed he was doing something evil, so he and three "buddies" beat him senseless while his daughter watched. Eventually the husband feels bad and starts crying with his daughter as the other 3 lynched the poor boy. At the end of the day, we have the "I Have A Dream" speech ending the episode. It really sent chills down my spine thinking that only 46 years ago that speech was made.

Judge Mathis

So I must cofess that occasionally I watch shows like Judge Mathis and The People's Court simply for the comedic relief of some of the people that waltz into the "courtrooms." However, there was one observation I made. Every judge has a bailiff of a different race. So after some research I found these judge shows:

Judge Judy - black baliff
Judge Mathis (black) - white bailiff
Judge David Young - black, female bailiff
The People's Court - Judge Maria Lopez- black bailiff

these are just a few. My question for thought is this. Does this bother anyone as a transparent attempt at political correctness or is it an over-analyzation of television?

Jim Brown

I recently heard an interview with NFL Hall-of-Fame running back Jim Brown where he discusses race and black athletes taking prominent roles in their community. One of the more interesting things Brown went on to say was that "he doesn't always want to identify himself as a black man but as simply a man. But how many people will make that distinction for me? that's right. not many." It was very interesting to me as it is connected to our discussion over Obama as a "black leader." Brown, a prominent figure in the black community, doesn't necessarily want to be perceived that way. Was very intersting to me.

Princeton & Diversity

After reading the article on Princeton and diversity it made me think about minorities and television. Often, many people think of minorities and immediately think of blacks or black shows. Sometimes, Hispanics are forgotten. A prime example of a great show that gives a look into Hispanic life is The Goeorge Lopez Show. I was never really a fan of his comedy but the show does deal with a lot of issues from a Hispanic perspective and sometimes it was really eye-opening. It's interesting to see how this article spurs the mind to other connected subjects.

Fresh Prince is Still Fresh

So it's 11:00 on a Saturday night and I'm watching Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. As funny (or sad) as that may be the episode really connected to the paper I wrote. I talked about how great this show was at bringing up social issues and providing a fresh and unique perspective while doing it. this was the episode where Kellogg gives Will "speed" to help him deal with finals and basketball and Carlton accidentally takes them at Prom. The episode brought up drugs and the struggles that go with being a student-athlete. Despite the fact I knew about all this already I was still watching it pretty intently. The show is so relatable to a myriad of audiences even to this day.

NWA & Rodney King

So, I was watching VH-1's documentary on NWA, the rap group consisting of Eazy-E,
Ice Cube, and Dr. Dre. One of the more interesting aspects of the piece was when they discussed their motivation behind the song "F*** the Police." It was a controversial song, even today, that they said needed to be recorded because of the prejudice the police had against blacks. Whether that was or is perception or reality is not important here. What happened subsequently, the Rodney King beating and riots, lended a huge amount of credibility to the group and their song and was one of the instrumental forces behind the emergence of Hip-Hop and black culture. It was really interesting to look deeper into how music can influence the masses.

Race Debate, Part II

Interesting debate today in one of my English classes: When you first walk into class on your first day what do you notice first? There were two answers from everyone: the race of the teacher and the gender. It was interesting to see just how connected classes are and ow race is somehow at the forefront of some many conversations. I went with race as my answer by the way.

Online Class

Well seeing I'm new to this whole blogging thing I guess this is where I will give a little bit of introduction. My name is Tim, as you probably managed to figured out from the title of this esteemed blog. I was born and raised in Brockton and went to school with a grand total of 4,800 students, give or take a few hundred. It was honestly one of the best experiences. I am a huge sports fan and played, baseball, soccer, and ran track in high school and love football and basketball. I play soccer here @ BSC. I have never taken an online class before and am unsure how I feel about the whole no physical interaction thing but I do love the course material and topics. Being from the urban city I am, race has always been a big piece of my life, for better or worse. Look forward to getting to know some of you better through this class.

FSU & Miami

Big college football game tonight. I hate the Seminoles but have to admit that their offensive line is gonna make this one lopsided in their favor. Just kidding haha. 34-13 Miami. As a sidenote, FSU's star free safety Myron Rolle will not play on the team this year. He is pursuing a medical degree and studying @ Oxford this year after being selected as a Rhodes Scholar. He is also gonna be a 1st round draft pick. Impressive. Yet the two announcers have said at least 3 times that he is "black." Hmm....why the need for that?