The comment I posted on WAOD

I posted this comment on What About Our Daughters, one of my favorite blogs.

You know, I read all the comments her before I decided to post mine and all I can say is this:

If you really, truly, expected Soledad and CNN to cover the diverse spectrum of the Black Female Experience in 2 hours, then you have no concept of TIME!

I think the fact that Soledad even attempted is an accomplishment unto itself. She didn't have to try to produce this segment. She didn't have to care, but she's at least put the internal dialogue out there for us to discuss in public.

Moreover, a lot of you are missing the point. The point was to discuss how, as a whole, the black community is not doing as well as any other group in America. Here we are, on the verge of making history with the first Black President, but the bulk of black America has less equity with American society than we had in the 1960s. This is a tragedy and a shame and the burning question is Why? Frankly, considering the time constraints, I think Soledad did a good job. Not a great job. Not a crap job. She backed up her info with facts. She interviewed a diverse number of people (although I got tired of seeing Roland Fryer, as much as I do admire his work) and tried to cover as much as she could. Did she have a chance to interview every luminary in the Black Academic out there? Who knows. Unfortunately, so many comments on this page are complaining about the fact that she didn't cover more about the healthy, successful, and well-educated among us. Well, who wants to listen to a bunch of successful (and semi-successful) people make petty complaints? Who has time to watch a visual history of Howard, Morehouse and Spelman? Who needs a history of Alpha Kappa Alpha and Alpha Phi Alpha? We are out there, doing what we have to, doing what we need to, while 2/3 of our brethren are mired in poverty, thinking they don’t have options, without role models and fathers to help guide them. What has to be done to help them? What do we need to do in order to raise all boats? You know that you have these people in your family just like I do and if you’re anything like me, you don’t understand it either and you don't know what to do or how to help.

Urban Sista said it well: “Whether or not you like it, it’s necessary to show the other side of the coin. There are problems in the Black community – serious problems like poverty (the brother struggling to raise two kids on his own; the sister making ends meet on one income and supporting five children), ignorance (no one showing up for the AIDS awareness class), lack of importance placed on education, the difficulty Black women have meeting Black men who are like-minded, lack of proper healthcare.
The program may not have shown your particular reality, but this is one series on a very diverse group of people. Soledad and CNN would have to give us an entire year or more to truly dissect the diaspora.”

Well said!

PS. I didn’t like the Poetry brother either.