Tuesday, November 2, 2010

The Black Relationship Series

Okay, where have I been the past two or three weeks?

Obviously, there's been several cartoon-like videos on Black relationships that have gone viral. I found out about them while checking out my friend Tanya's blog I Wanna Sing Like Sarah "Sassy" Vaughn.

The first video I viewed was a man's perspective on what he believes are the unrealistic expectations of a professional single Black woman. In the video, the lady is rattling off a list of things she wants punctuated with a list of things she won't do. It has had more than 500,000 views on YouTube. Check it out here:


The second video was a woman's view of what she believes are the unrealistic expectations of the Black man. The man in the cartoon says he expects his wife to have a degree, but not from a historically black college or university. He wants her to have a career, but she is not allowed to make more than he does. He also wants her to cook every night and care for their Six kids. Oh yeah, she must stay sexy. Check out the video here:


A number of Black media outlets have complained that the videos reinforce stereotypes of African American men and women. A blog on Essence.com emphasizes that, "While there are plenty of women out there with unrealistic expectations, the aim of this anonymous filmmaker seems to be to make this a problem unique to Black women." And author Ronda Racha Penrice writes on thegrio.com that, "While many of us may question the accuracy of the content of these videos, we can't deny that something is terribly amiss in the black male-female relationship dynamic."

The author of the original video (at the top), Darroll Lawson, is a 40-year-old married father of three. He has been featured on the Tom Joyner Morning Show as well as in mainstream media outlets including the Associated Press. In his interview with theroot.com, Lawson says the inspiration for the video came from the things he heard when he was single and dating. "If you turn on popular media, there is a consistent message [of materialism]," he said. Please read the entire interview here.

So, tell me what are your thoughts on these videos?

1 comment:

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