Generally, when I see everyone on my Twitter timeline talking about the same thing, I try my best to ignore it. Not because I want to be ignorant about what’s going on in the world, but because it’s so easy to get caught up in the drama. I have spent way too many hours with my eyes glued to my computer screen, refreshing the page every five minutes only to read more comments. Sometimes Twitter, especially Black Twitter, can be more interesting than any of the Real Housewives drama.
Earlier this week when I pulled up Twitter, I immediately noticed everyone was talking about Stacey Dash. I’m not too familiar with anything that she’s done beyond Clueless, so I just Kanye shrugged and kept scrolling.
After lunch, I did the same thing, got on Twitter and saw more Stacey Dash hate, so I gave in. If you missed what she said, you can check it out here.
Although a lot of people are upset about what she said, I actually want to thank her. Without even realizing it, Stacey Dash is showing us the importance of education and why as a black community need to know where the things that celebrate black people came from.
I mean, she’s kind of right, Black History Month has lost it’s meaning. Brands take advantage of the month by having MLK sales and my younger siblings can’t even even remember the last time they talked about black history (outside of Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks) in class. But that means we need to hold schools (and ourselves) accountable for teaching them about their history, not get rid of the month that celebrates it.
And although I love to indulge in shows such as The Westbrooks, I can’t deny that at times the show continues to perpetuate stereotypes of black people, especially black women. But BET isn’t the only network that does this. Bravo’s Real Housewives of Atlanta and VH1’s Love & Hip Hop perpetuate negative stereotypes of black people as well. But that doesn’t mean we should get rid of these things.
What Ms. Dash failed to mention is that networks such as BET and Centric were created by us and for us because at the time (and still to this day, hence #OscarsSoWhite) black people are not welcomed into spaces that are supposedly for everyone. The black community doesn’t need to get rid of these things, but maybe we do need a reminder of why they exist in the first place. It’s not to segregate us from appearing on predominately white television networks (have we forgotten Shonda Rhimes rules an entire night of TV?) but to highlight and celebrate our work when no one else will.
What people fail to understand when they say things like “What if there was a White Entertainment channel?” is that there is. It’s called MTV and E! and any other network that has maybe one or two shows with an all-black cast, but boasts all-white or predominantly-white casts in the rest of their programming.
What I can’t seem to understand is why things created to celebrate black people are always under attack, but rarely ever is mainstream media calling out predominantly white spaces for their lack of diversity. I know it’s gotten better over the years, but I’m still not impressed.
Stacey did get one thing right when she echoed Viola Davis’ Emmy speech: black people cannot be nominated for roles that simply aren’t available to us. So maybe instead of coming for BET and the entire month of February she should come for the movers and shakers in Hollywood who consistently write, direct and cast for films and TV shows with no black characters.
