Of course, there are the recent allegations against presidential candidate Herman Cain…

… but even worse are the unfolding events at Penn State, where college football icon, Joe Paterno, was recently fired after 46 years of coaching …

You know, Tom, over the past three years on the Tom Joyner Morning Show, I’ve talked about a wide variety of subjects…and some of them have been very difficult …

But one of the most difficult topics for me to talk about is the sexual abuse of a child… the allegation that an adult would violate the innocence of a child in that way is sick and disgusting…

…and yes, although Coach Paterno apparently didn’t break any laws and did the minimum required in reporting the abuse, he should still be held fully accountable for not doing more to protect and advocate for that particular child, as well as for all of the past and potential young victims of Sandusky…

…and his conscience should haunt him for the remainder of his days for not doing so…

But, that said, I also want us to recognize that, while this particular case is now in the public eye, what about the countless other incidents involving the sexual abuse of minors that occur each and every day in this country and go unreported? Who is speaking up for these children…?

It is commonly known among health professionals that sexual abuse often has long term and devastating effects on the victim, including a loss of trust, poor self esteem, feelings of shame, guilt and depression, substance abuse, suicide, promiscuity, anxiety, and criminality…

A National Institute of Justice study found that childhood abuse increased the odds of future delinquency and criminality by 40%… In addition, victims of child sexual abuse are 27 times more likely to be arrested for prostitution as adults…

So if nothing is done about it, this horrific cycle continues with the very real possibility of those being abused becoming abusers or criminals themselves… To learn more about child sexual abuse and how to prevent it and break this cycle, you can go to stopitnow.org…

Now, I’m sure many of you remember the powerful movie directed by Denzel Washington awhile back named Antwone Fisher, in which the movie’s namesake was victimized by sexual abuse as a young boy…

Well, I’d like to close this week with an excerpt from the poem Fisher wrote that, speaks of the suffering, pain, and stigma of lost innocence, of stolen childhoods, as a result of the sexual abuse of children across the world…

Who will cry for the little boy?
Lost and all alone
Who will cry for the little boy?
Abandoned without his own

Who will cry for the little boy?
He cried himself to sleep
Who will cry for the little boy?
He never had for keeps…

Who will cry for the little boy?
Who knows well hurt and pain
Who will cry for the little boy?
He died again and again.

Who will cry for the little boy?
A good boy he tried to be
Who will cry for the little boy
who cries inside of me.

Until Next Time, this is Stephanie in Love and Hope.

As children, the impact of our relationships with our parents is critical and foundational for our later growth for who we ultimately become…

Our relationships with our family, in general, our siblings and friends are equally important; and our relationships with our significant others are often a reflection of who we are and what we want, and can have a very strong influence on how we fare and what we accomplish in life…

So why am I talking about this? …Well, I was recently online at thebooklook.com looking at a clip of rapper/actor and now author, Common, talking about relationships in light of his recently-released autobiography, One Day it will All Make Sense…

In particular, he spoke about his past relationship with songstress Erykah Badu…

…and though he starts off by complimenting Erykah on the beautiful individual she is, Common goes on to say that, through their relationship, he allowed himself to quote-unquote “dim his light” for her…

He suggests this relationship caused him to forego opportunities he may otherwise have had if he hadn’t been in that relationship…

hmm… I wonder how many of us have experienced the same? How many of us have been in a relationship where we’ve suppressed our ambitions or our dreams for the sake of our mate, friend or family?

Think about it… have you ever been there? Or are you there now…?

Now, to clarify, I am NOT trying to have TJMS listeners coming after me screaming that their wife, husband or mate left them because Stephanie Robinson told them to…

But what I am saying is that within or beyond a relationship, you should always seek to follow your passions, achieve your goals, and strive for your own truth, fulfillment, and success…

…and it may not be that our significant others are hindering or preventing us from doing things; it may just be that we never really took the time to prioritize what is important to us…

This is something you should do… the late technology icon, Steve Jobs, who knew a thing or two about pursuing his dreams, once said, “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”

…very smart words from a very smart man…

For any relationship to be truly fulfilling, both individuals should make the time and effort to acknowledge and pursue their dreams for themselves and for each other…

Coming together in this fashion greatly adds to the health of a friendship or relationship and minimizes the chance for the tension and resentment that can sometimes grow when envy sets in between individuals…

In his recent book talk, Common went on to reconcile his own feelings on his former high profile relationship with these relevant and inspirational words:

Through the relationship and breakup, it taught me that I was willing to dim my light for somebody else… and it is not necessary for you to do that in any relationship, be it family, friends, or whoever. God gave you your light and it is up to you to let that light shine on the world.

Until Next Time, this is Stephanie in Love and Hope.

I ask because there’s been a lot of talk in the media about “baby bumps” and a lot of eyebrows raised over pictures of pregnant celebs like Nia Long, Beyonce, Mariah Carey and others…

And let me clarify, unlike Nia and Mariah, the pregnant Beyonce did NOT pose nude… but that still did not stop a journalist from recently taking the songstress to task for allegedly pimping her bump …

So… while I don’t agree with that criticism because Beyonce has always been clothed in her pregnancy photos, I do think that the charge of pimping the bump could potentially hold more weight when targeted at those who have, in fact, posed with their bumps in the buff… Nia, Mariah and Halle to name a few…

But is it really baby pimpin’ or is it an artistic expression of motherhood by women who already live very public lives…?

Well, on one side, there is certainly a lot of press value in posing nude… and pregnant… Let’s not be naïve about how a bare baby bump can bump up a sagging career…

…especially for a 40-something year-old actress or singer in a Hollywood environment not kind to aging women… and definitely not kind to aging African American women…

But the answer may not be that simple… there are other sides to the issue…these women are already used to living their lives publicly… To a large extent, their careers are built around their relevance to their fan bases and for some, sharing aspects of their private lives is, for better or worse, a big part of what they do… Can you say ‘Twitter?’

Not to mention the fact that these individuals are not just celebrities, but they are women as well… mothers, sisters, wives and daughters… and they too like to celebrate and share their pregnancy with others like many of the billions of women around the world…

That said, how far should this sharing go? In other words, where is the line between pimping the bump and celebrating the precious and divine gift of life…?

To be totally honest, I don’t know the answer to that question… I can’t crawl into Nia’s or Mariah’s minds and see what they were thinking when they decide to pose…

But even with the obvious media boost it provides, I’d like to think these celebrities are tapping in to the wonder of maternity and promoting the beauty of this natural process to the world…

I’d like to think their intentions are honorable and that they are making a statement to women everywhere that, despite their sex symbol images, they are not ashamed of showing the world the beauty of the natural body that come with pregnancy…one of life’s most amazing miracles…

I’ll leave you with the words of a mother, not a celebrity mom, who also posed nude during her pregnancy… they come from The Mocha Manual to a Fabulous Pregnancy in a piece by Mocha Moms’ National President Kuae Mattox:

As I stood on those tracks and removed my coat, I remember a rush of cold air swept over my body. There were those few moments of self-consciousness when I wondered if any early morning commuters were watching. Then…, as the shutter clicked away, a sheer feeling of liberation.

What ultimately became the photo we selected still brings tears to my eyes. It is a portrait of calm, beauty and grace I will never forget… When I look at it, I am that pregnant woman again, full of optimism and hope for my children, feeling whole, at peace with my life and myself. One day, I will show my picture to my children, with the hope that they, too, will feel the beauty that I felt as they grew inside of me…

Until Next Time, this is Stephanie in Love and Hope.

So today, I’m going to take you back some 22 years, to the city of New York, on the now infamous date of April 19, 1989…

It was just after 9 o’clock pm on a spring night in the city and avid runner and investment banker, Trisha Meili, was jogging alone in Central Park…

Suddenly, she was struck on the head with a tree branch, dragged off the path into the woods, and brutally raped while being repeatedly bashed in the face and head with a rock…

Unconscious, with her skull smashed, Meili was tied up with her own shirt and left to die… But, miraculously, she didn’t die.  Passers-by found her and she was rushed to the hospital, barely clinging to life…

Within days, five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem “confessed” to the rape and beating… As you can imagine, the media and public reaction to the vicious rape of a white, Ivy-League educated, professional woman was through the roof…

Sybil, you’ll remember the repeated media use of the term “wilding” and how these 14 and 15 year-old teenagers were repeatedly described in the news as a roving “wolf pack.”

And remember how Jay’s favorite reality show star, Donald Trump, took out full-page ads in four of the city’s newspapers calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty in New York specifically for these young people…?

Well the teenagers were tried as adults and convicted of rape in spite of the fact that they quickly recanted what were inconsistent and inaccurate confessions –which they maintain were coerced– and despite the fact that no DNA tests or eyewitness accounts ever tied them to the victim in any way…

Now fast forward to the spring of 2002, Tom, when an incarcerated serial rapist and murderer, Matias Reyes, confessed to the crime and was connected to it by DNA testing… Not only did Reyes confess, but police brought him to the crime scene where he provided intimate and consistent details of his brutal attack on Meili…

This confession came after the Central Park 5 had completed their time in some of our nation’s more notorious prisons… The convictions were subsequently vacated by the city, but with a fraction of the press coverage given their initial arrests, trials and convictions… 

You know Tom, there’s been so much wrong done in this case that I almost don’t know where to get started…

But let’s start with the costs of racial profiling: while New York authorities and media were consumed with prosecuting and vilifying these minority teenagers, the real rapist, Matias Reyes, kept on attacking area women…

In fact, Reyes went on a vicious spree in the months after the Central Park 5 were picked up, brutally raping four women and murdering 24 year-old, pregnant Lourdes Gonzales after locking her three children in an adjacent room…

Consistent with his bloody M.O., Reyes would always stab or beat his victims about the eyes so, if they lived, they could not identify him in a lineup; He would tie them up afterwards with either clothing or an extension cord; All of Reyes’ known crimes happened within less than a mile of the Central Park rape…

…and one more thing, Tom… He would always, and I repeat, always, act alone… Reyes was finally caught in August of 1989 after raping a woman in her Upper East Side apartment building…

The Central Park Five: A Chronicle of a City Wilding it’s a new book out this week by Sarah Burns, daughter of iconic American documentary filmmaker, Ken Burns… In fact, father and daughter are currently working on a documentary to tell the real story…

…and the Central Park 5 themselves have not kept quiet as they are suing the city for damages, though the city refuses to settle, maintaining that the five were ‘somehow involved…’

This is ridiculous… and I say this as a lawyer… The city never had any solid evidence, and now, even though they know who did it, to avoid liability, all they can offer is that these men ‘probably had something to do with it…

Well there is something we can do with it… We can call on New York City’s Mayor Bloomberg to authorize the prompt settlement of this suit by calling 311 (if you’re in New York City) or call 212-NEW-YORK, that’s 212- 639-9675 (if you are outside the city); Our New York listeners can also support Councilman Charles Barron’s Resolution 81, which calls for compensation for the Central Park 5…

I’ll leave you with this quote from an extraordinary man whose birthday we celebrate today… Malcolm X best sums up how our legal system is supposed to operate:

I am for truth, no matter who tells it… I am for justice, no matter who it’s for or against.

Until Next Time, this is Stephanie in Love and Hope.

Tom, as many of our listeners know by now, controversy erupted a week ago after President Obama’s Easter visit to Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington DC…

Fox’s Sean Hannity seized on the First Family’s holiday visit to launch yet another attempted ‘death-by-association’ attack on the President comparing Shiloh’s Pastor Charles Wallace Smith with Obama’s former pastor Jeremiah Wright and asking why the President would continue to associate himself with “such controversial spiritual leaders?”

Hannity aired a clip of a speech by Pastor Smith at a Pennsylvania college in January 2010 where Smith spoke about modern racism, offering this: 

And I quote: “Jim Crow has become James Crow, Esquire. And he doesn’t have to wear white robes anymore because now he can wear the protective cover of talk radio or can get a regular news program on Fox.”

As a result of Hannity’s airing, Pastor Smith and Shiloh Baptist received numerous racist threats by phone and email… surprise, surprise… Guess free speech comes with a cost, right?

You know, guys, I could jump into the fray and spend my time talking about how Fox News didn’t have to go and pull out an old clip from Pastor Smith in yet another attempt to smear our first African American President and label him as ‘too radical for the mainstream…’

But what’s the point?  This isn’t new.

We, as African Americans, should know this well because we have a lengthy history of being attacked by people with racist agendas…

That said, as you well know, because of the racism visited on our community, pastors like Wallace Smith, or like Jeremiah Wright… or like Adam Clayton Powell, or Reverend Al… have long spoken up for our community…

The black church has a proud tradition of activism, Liberation Theology, ‘speaking truth to power,’ and using the pulpit to advocate for black people while pointing out the country we live in often has not been kind to folks who look like us…

These ministers speak from their experiences, which is part of our collective experience in this country… At the same time, conservatives, given their agenda, are certainly going to try to prevent the President from advancing any “black agenda.”

But here’s the thing folks: No matter what conservatives or their organizations may do, or what mainstream America may think –and, whether an African American is in the White House or not– we, as a community, still have to have our own voice and our own agenda…

Pastor Smith knows this well and has a history of advancing our agenda, especially regarding the troubling issue of race in this country…

And that President Obama chooses to associate himself with the black community, which also happens to be a large segment of his political base, means that he’ll have to deal with the political or media fallout that it brings…

That’s what politicians do…

But the important point here is that our agenda should be just that – our agenda… with no apologies to any media group, politician or any other community…

And that agenda should be developed from the kinds of discussions that go on in our churches, our civic organizations, and our own media platforms like the one you’re listening to right now…

And so now I want to share some powerful words from that same 2010 college speech from Pastor Smith that speak about how we shouldn’t look to mainstream media to speak for us…

Reverend Smith said: “There is not a big city American paper that is going to give you what you really need to see underneath the surface to see the world through the eyes of the oppressed and the downtrodden. Look for yourself and don’t be manipulated by the mass media… Start seeing it for yourself… sense it, see it and then say it…

Then go from seeing it for yourself to doing something about it…

Tom, clear-minded and unapologetic words like these most certainly need to be, and must continue to be, spoken in the churches and streets of our community…

And before I go, I want to wish a Happy Mothers’ Day to all of the mothers, grandmothers, play mothers, and aunties listening and, especially to my friend and colleague Sybil Wilkes and of course to my own mom (Sheila Hendricks) and my mother-in-law, Marsha Sullivan.

Until Next Time, this is Stephanie in Love and Hope.

Well guys, the images from Africa dominating our televisions and captivating us for the past week–namely the developments in Egypt–are at the same time both heart-wrenching and promising…

On one hand, we’re seeing turmoil, violence and instability as the established structure of a nation is literally becoming undone before our very eyes…and with this comes death and suffering…

But, on the other hand, we’re witnessing dramatic examples of hope and change, themes real close to our hearts and minds here in America not so long ago…

Tom, I know that it’s sometimes easy for us as black folks over here to dismiss events happening on the other side of the world as not being relevant to us…

But that would be a BIG mistake… because the country of Egypt is very relevant in a number of compelling ways…

First, before countless foreign invasions of Greeks, Romans, Arabs and others, the land we now call by the Greek name ‘Egypt’ was known by its African name, Kemet, which translates into the “Land of the Blacks” …

And to clarify, when people commonly refer to “Ancient Egypt” and its great and pioneering accomplishments of civilization, they’re speaking of the times when the land was still called Kemet …

We’re talking the Old Kingdom known as the Pyramid-building Age, the Middle Kingdom known as the Literary Age, the New Kingdom known as the Imperial and Temple-building Age, and the Late Period known as the Revival Age…

These four classic ages, which we now refer to as “Ancient Egypt,” all happened well before the Greek invasion and were produced and dominated, of course, by black Africans…

And Sybil, no matter how hard some folks have tried to claim otherwise, there are mountains of evidence ranging from the literal eyewitness accounts of the Greeks themselves, to the anthropological, archaeological, literary, scientific, linguistic and cultural evidence that support this basic and fundamental fact…

The worlds’ greatest scientist and mathematicians, like Imhotep where black Africans from Kemet.  Also, from Kemet or Ancient Egypt, the great Akhenaten first introduced the idea of monotheism– one God and not many gods – to the world. …

So the point is, knowing about the ancient past of the land we now call Egypt is certainly relevant here in Black History month, especially since, as they say, “to know where you are going in life as a people, you have to first know where you have been.”

Indeed, even the late Anwar Sadat, former president of the Egypt often remarked about how proud he was of his AFRICAN ancestors who had built the pyramids.

And, even with all our modern science, we still can’t figure out how those black Africans built those magnificent structures….

Second, Egypt affects all of us as Americans… it has a huge geo-political significance linked with the all-important Suez Canal, a critical highway for world trade…

From a political and strategic standpoint, Egypt is certainly “the prize” as they say since what it does affects the world, and given that… its business there, affects our business here…

But it’s more than just that, Tom…

…because, finally, as humans, we should care about people suffering, sacrificing and speaking out wherever they may happen to live…

We should be inspired by the fact that everyday people of all ages and backgrounds are standing up, overcoming their fears and risking their lives to better their lives, their communities and their nation…

After all, it wasn’t so long ago that we, as a community, were in the streets of this nation demanding the very same…And, as Dr. King reminded us “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

So let’s keep abreast of what’s going on in the world around us because it ultimately affects us… our history, our politics, our struggles…

I’m going to leave you with an Albert Einstein quote that could apply to the situation in Egypt today, to its non-democratic leadership, to the plight of protestors raising their voices in the country’s streets, and ultimately to our own responsibilities as citizens of the world…

“The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.”

Until Next Time, this is Stephanie in Love and Hope.

You know, Tom, generations are seldom on the same page. Young folks and old folks have fundamentally different ways of looking at the world…

They always have and, perhaps always will…

Now older people may be a bit more conservative, established and traditional in their approach to life, young folks are, as one might expect, likely to have less reverence and respect for rules, traditions and standards…

And that’s natural…I get that…

But Tom, what I’m not trying to get is how far MTV has gone with this new show Skins that folks have been talking about, the one featuring the sexual and drug-fueled exploits of misfit teenagers…

You may have seen some of the crazy ads for the show that have these drugged-out looking teens with barely any clothes on layin’ up on top of each other…

The show is causing quite a bit of controversy… H&R Block, Wrigley, General Motors, and Taco Bell all recently pulled their ads from Skins because of its racy content and promotion and the it’s been targeted for possibly running afoul of federal child pornography laws…

Last week, under fire, an MTV spokesperson attempted to justify the show and its content by claiming,“this show addresses real-world issues confronting teens in a frank way…”

Spare me… I’m not so naïve that I don’t understand far too many teens are sexually active or addicted to drugs… these issues are unfortunately all too real in our communities…

But pleeezzzzz… don’t try to sell me some crap about how this show is in some way constructive to teen life when you’re straight up pimpin’ this vehicle for shock value, demographics, money and ratings…

Here’s my analogy, Tom: It’s not that car wrecks don’t happen… They do…

But I have a problem with anyone who glorifies those wrecks and, in the process, sends the message to our teens that crashing cars is not only attractive, but it’s what you teenagers do…

Skins are the wrecks…

This show is so wrong in so many ways, Sybil, its insane… First, its not Reality TV, the show is scripted so, again, spare me the “dealing with real-world issues” routine…

Second–in case you didn’t hear me the first time–Skins recently had to tone down its content since it risked violating federal child pornography laws…

…and that’s because the show, which carries a TV-MA label and is supposedly intended for ages 18 & above –wink, wink–employs a bunch of actors who are, guess what Jay…?

That’s right… the actors are minors themselves… In fact, the youngest in the cast is 15… incredible…

Third, according to the Nielsen Company, in its opening episode, Skins –the show allegedly not intended for minors–drew 1.2 million people –younger than 18…

The Parents Television Council, a watchdog group, called Skins the “most dangerous program that has ever been foisted on your children…”

And while there is little black youth representation on the screen as far as the cast goes, there will be a bunch of black youth watching the screen given the show is on MTV and is being widely promoted by Viacom, the company that owns MTV and BET…

There’s a bunch of data out there telling us that, unfortunately, poor African American children watch more TV than their peers…

So this is problematic on a number of fronts…

And as a parent, an educator and a commentator, I’m not with it… I personally think we need to shed the Skins…

If you’re interested in speaking out against this show, you can go to viacom.com and scroll to the bottom for their contact link…

Or you can link up with the Parents Television Council at parentstv.org to find out about additional steps you can take…

And we need to spend more time with our children getting their perspectives – and sharing our own – on shows like Skins…

I leave you with this quote from the National Commission on Causes and Prevention of Violence concerning the influence of television…

“Children are inclined to learn from television because it is never too busy to talk to them, and it never has to brush them aside…”

Until Next Time, this is Stephanie in Love and Hope.

Tom, we’re already six days into this new year and I would hate for any more time to pass without acknowledging, or resolving to keep certain folks and events in our hearts and minds from the year 2010…

Time can march on coldly, so it’s up to us to keep our attention focused on a number of important things that happened in 2010…

So let’s begin with a resolution to keep the Queen of Soul in our thoughts and prayers…

Most of us know by now that American singing icon, Aretha Franklin, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer late last year…

Even the term, icon, doesn’t do her justice…

In 1968, she became only the second African-American woman to appear on the cover of Time magazine; in 1987, she became the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; in 2005, she was awarded The Presidential Medal of Freedom; in 2008, Aretha Franklin was named by Rolling Stone as the No. 1 all-time best singer by music industry insiders…

She performed at the inauguration ceremonies of both Presidents Clinton and Obama… She has won 18 [count ‘em -18] Grammy Awards and holds the record for most Best Female R&B Vocal Performances with 11…

Aretha Franklin also played an active role in both the civil rights and black power movements of the 60s and 70s… You see, she is truly a queen….

And speaking of incredibly gifted American singers, I’ll offer a resolution to keep the music and the memory of the incomparable Lady T alive in 2011…

I’m sure that all of us were shocked and saddened by the passing of talented songbird, Teena Marie, in the last week of 2010… Also known as the Ivory Queen of Soul, Marie was beloved by our community for her soulful voice and incredible range…

She could simultaneously raise the roof and bring down the house with one of her jazz-inspired ballads or her up-tempo songs… she was a musical phenomenon who will be missed…

Then, there’s another person we shouldn’t forget about in 2011 who ran into a bit of legal troubles last year and is currently spending some time in the Big House… that’s right, Wesley Snipes…

Now I know some of you may not be feeling me on this one, but I want you to consider something… Snipes was sent to jail for three years for a misdemeanor…

Now, forget what you heard, he was not put in jail for tax evasion as some have reported, but for ‘failure to file,’ which is a misdemeanor… His three year sentence is unprecedented because he not only has since paid the government what he owed, but also because most folks don’t go to jail at all for such misdemeanors…

The old phrase comes to mind “justice” or “Just-us.”

Tom, this next one is real quick as he needs little discussion… And since he’s a bit immature, we need to come together as a community and make his 2011 Resolution for him…

Folks listening can repeat after me, if you like…

I, Chris Brown, resolve to not offend anyone for an entire year…

Moving right along…

On a very serious note, in 2011, we really need to keep the family of Frederick Jermaine Carter in our minds and prayers…

Carter was the 26-year-old black man found hanged from an oak tree in Greenwood, Mississippi in December of 2010 in what has been ruled a suicide…

The local NAACP and other civil rights groups have since challenged that ruling and are pushing for further investigation into this tragedy… There are a lot of questions still surrounding the case…

First question: what black person hangs himself from a tree?

Even suicidal black folk are not down with lynching.

Second question: what’s up with Greenwood, Mississippi?

Emmet Till was murdered in that area in 1955 and his mutilated 14-year-old body was found after it was tossed into the nearby Tallahatchie River…

Greenwood is also the town in which Byron De La Beckwith, the convicted murderer of civil rights activist Medgar Evers, was raised…

It doesn’t seem like a place with warm and fuzzy feelings for black folk!

So let’s resolve to keep the family of Frederick Jermaine Carter in our prayers…

And as we embrace this new year—holding 2010 still in mind, I wanna leave you with a few wise words about the passing of time…

“Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.”

Until Next Time, this is Stephanie in Love and Hope.

Well Tom, the recent release of Tyler Perry’s For Colored Girls has, as expected, reopened some longstanding wounds in the black community regarding African American media images…

Just like the Oscar-winning Precious before it, the film, how can we say it, well… it certainly does not represent African American males in the most positive light…

And I’m sure many of you by now have seen all the media debating whether the movie is just another Hollywood-backed “black male-bashing forum…”

Now while I have yet to see the movie (I want to say that I planned to see it last Friday with my girls, but instead I spent the night in the ER, but that’s a whole ‘nother story)–and to clarify, Sybil, I’m not here to talk about the merits of the movie—I’m more intrigued by the discussion around it which is certainly not unique to this movie…

I recently read a provocative piece in the Washington Post entitled, For Black Men Who Have Considered Homicide after Watching another Tyler Perry Movie…

In it, writer Courtland Milloy takes Hollywood and Perry to task for producing yet another film in which black males, in his words, are portrayed as “Satan’s gift to black women…”

And he didn’t stop there, Jay… Referencing a review from blackamericaweb.com stating that Perry’s movie quote-unquote, “will move you,” an unimpressed Milloy responded, “So will ex-lax.”

Needless to say, Milloy, like many brothers and sisters, are tired of the depiction of sociopathic black images on the big screen…

However, others argue that such depictions in Precious and For Colored Girls are examples of ‘creative or artistic expression’ not designed to condemn a whole race of males, but rather are situational depictions of black female protagonists dealing with, working through, and even triumphing over some serious problems…

But you know what, Tom? I actually think there is some fertile middle ground in this… cuz believe it or not, both sides are right…

Given Hollywood’s troubling and ongoing record of presenting negative Black male stereotypes, brothers –and concerned sisters as well– have every right to feel the way they do whenever a movie comes out portraying black people so negatively…

And as black women, we should be especially sensitive to this given Hollywood’s similar treatment of the black female over the years, from mammies to prostitutes to drug addicts to poor, single mothers pissed at the ‘no-good’ black man who left them…

Still, this acknowledged, there always has to be room for creative expression… There are negative people and negative situations that occur in life, and using art to represent such situations in compelling or provocative ways certainly has, and should have its place…

So its not as if such works should not exist… rather, it’s the disturbing lack of balance in the images being produced…

Let me give a quick analogy using Hip Hop… I know enough about Hip Hop to recall that, back in the 80s during its “Glory Days,” for every ‘negative’ artist, you had a bunch of positive or socially conscious counterparts including the likes of Public Enemy, KRS-One, Sista Souljah, Queen Latifah, and the list goes on and on…

Sadly, we no longer have that kind of balance in mainstream rap music… and it is a balance that has never existed in Hollywood…

If it did exist, then we likely wouldn’t even be discussing this issue right now because we’d actually have the luxury of understanding that For Colored Girls is just one work that we could actually judge on its artistic merit alone…

But, unfortunately, we cannot divorce it — or, for that matter, any other comparable work of art — from the industry, the history, or the larger society around it…

In a nutshell … If the movie speaks to you in a compelling way, that’s certainly a good thing… But that doesn’t mean this should close your mind, eyes and sensitivities to the very real lack of media balance impacting the very real society about us…

And this is important to know, Tom, since, as the saying goes, “Our self image, strongly held, essentially determines what we become.”

Until Next Time, this is Stephanie in Love and Hope.

Tom, you’ve heard me talk about issues of media and race before… Very important, given that in our society, unfortunately, image is everything…

And given this visual approach to politics, news and society, it is critical that we have individuals in positions of visibility and power who look like us and come from experiences similar to ours to help us navigate these images.

Let me explain: All of us, at one time or another, have experienced being ‘the only African American in the room…’

…could have been at a new job, at a conference, or in a new neighborhood or school…

And in those unfamiliar and sometimes uncomfortable situations, many of us have been relieved to spot another black face –be it an employee or neighbor—who sees us, gives us a knowing wink, and then kindly “shows us the ropes…”

Well I bring this up today, Sybil, because you may have seen the CNN interview a few days back with pioneering and now-retired anchor woman, Carole Simpson, on the current lack of black anchors on mainstream news networks…

Simpson did not hold her tongue… She came out firing at the mainstream news organizations – including CNN — about their lack of diversity and the racism she faced years ago and the racism African Americans continue to face in a media industry that continues to be white male-dominated…

Simpson pointed out that, in this day and age, it is absurd that the numbers of black mainstream anchors is declining…

And she had every right to … for no one would know better how broadcast media works than Simpson … When it comes to media, she was that beautiful African American face in a white-dominated society that showed us the ropes each day…

One of the most successful and prominent journalists who ever lived, Simpson was a staple on ABC News for nearly two decades winning three Emmys, covering the most significant world issues, and becoming the first woman and first minority to moderate a presidential debate…

Whether it was the first Persian Gulf War, the Tiananmen Square massacre, the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearings or other major stories, Simpson was always there…

And if you want a brutal example of what she went through to bring us this crucial African American perspective, I got one for ya…

You may recall, Tom, that Simpson was in South Africa in 1990, broadcasting live, the release of Nelson Mandela…

But what many may not remember was that Simpson was beaten across the back by a white South African policeman while covering a demonstration led by Archbishop Desmond TuTu the day before Mandela’s release…

Talk about news from a black perspective… or better yet, black and blue perspective…

But you get the point… Simpson, like other black journalists and anchors, can offer a unique perspective …
Without such voices and representation, our American story lacks both relevance and context…

Now, of course, there are things we can do to try and change this… We can certainly reach out to all the major networks and push them to hear our voices and show our faces…

We can go online to the Federal Communications Commission site at fcc.gov and file a complaint with their Consumer & Governmental Affairs division…

But we can also start our own media outlets which, given the internet and changing technologies, is a realistic step that many in our community are already taking…

And, of course, we can continue to support our own existing black-owned media vehicles, like the excellent platform you provide for us, Tom, thank you very much…

So whatever we do, let’s push to ensure our perspectives, our context and our stories get heard in the vehicles we support and that get their advertising dollars from our viewership…

We shouldn’t support or empower vehicles that don’t support or empower us…

I’ll close with this. A prominent 20th century media executive once said: “All of us who professionally use the mass media are the shapers of society. We can vulgarize that society. We can brutalize it… Or we can help lift it to a higher level.”

Until Next Time, this is Stephanie in Love and Hope.