My poetry

partially autobiographical, sometimes biographical, hopefully creatively crafted


Saturday, February 20, 2010

LMN

I just posted this on the LMN website:

All month, I have been watching the commercials about the upcoming Black History Month. This morning I turned on the TV and decided to watch Mr & Mrs Loving, a movie about a couple struggling to live as a married couple during the 1960s. As I laid there, I was struck by a sudden insight.

And despite 40 years of civil rights, TV and that includes this channel, we are still viewed as being outside the mainstream. If we are lucky, sometimes we have roles as side-kicks. Or prostitutes. Or recovering drug addicts. The fat mammy. The peppery chica. Or even the sultry Asian sex-pot. Occasionally, we have starring roles as the main character. Occasionally.

Despite the fact that people of color (which includes Asians and Hispanics) out-number whites, there are few movies showing us as just regular people, on TV. It takes a Hispanic month or a Black History month to see movies with us as just regular people, with no damn stereotyping. And LMN, which purports to be a "womens channel" shows few movies with women of color. LMN, predominantly offers movies with white women and their struggles, the rest of the year. That's 365 days of the year. I bet if one could have access to LMN's film library, the stats would show that they have a disproportionate number of diversity films, in relation to actual American demographics. Thus we women of color, get one, two months of the year. With a few movies. That's it folks. *clap clap clap* . I guess after 40 years, I should be grateful. But I'm not. I freaking pissed off.

And this is speculation on my parts, but I bet that LMN and the rest of their executives are applauding themselves and their liberalism. Guess what? I'll applaud you when you show a significant amount of movies that show-case women other than whites more than one month of the year, with 7 or 8 movies.

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