The Final Call

The revolution will not be televised—but foolishness will

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Just when I thought I have seen it all with the drama, ghetto-’hood fights, Black people doing silly things for Vine, and ratchet YouTube videos (the list goes on and on) someone sent me a video of the “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” brawling. I saw the footage, sat staring at the computer screen in awe, mouth wide open and speechless.

How could the so-called hood rich, Black elite, degrade themselves on public television for the world to see?

Rated Number 4 among viewers just after the current NBA Playoffs, Real Housewives of Atlanta is seen by over 4 million people, according to tvbythenumbers. Yahoo reports the show has seen “double digit increases in viewership” since the brawl. At 8 p.m. Sunday April 20, the numbers say 4.1 million viewers ages two-years- and over tuned into the season finale show. Just over 2 million viewers were between 18- and 49-years-old.

Seriously, I thought I was watching a bunch of teenage girls looking at these bickering grown women. I’m a seamstress and the custom-made dresses they wore were absolutely astonishing. The fabric was exquisite and the clothing design was on the level of Vera Wang or Vogue magazine. Yet their expensive clothing, imported weaves, possibly Jacob the Jeweler supplied high-end trinkets—or some other exclusive, manufactured jewelry—did nothing for their image.

“The Real Housewives of Atlanta” cast members, from left, Kenya Moore, Cynthia Bailey, NeNe Leakes and Porsha Stewart Photo: AP World Wide photos The “Black America” they won’t televise is quite different from this buffoonery being seen on our big screen HD televisions.

One Housewife pulled another Housewife cast member by the hair and dragged her to the floor, with host Andy Cohen pulling the women apart as cameras zoomed in for a tighter shot. The video went viral instantly. Twitter was on fire and Facebookers readily offered their two cents.

The money in Real Housewives’ stars bank accounts, their famous ex-husbands, and their hit reality show only set our people back 100 years. 

But the Devil is always in the details, what happened behind the scenes, what provoked the fight and who egged it on? Was the show’s host to blame? The producers? The sponsors? Black America’s craving for this kind of drama? Perhaps the guilt belonged to White America for airing this kind of foolishness for ratings and money? Perhaps there is a grander scheme to have the world look at Black folks as wild savage beasts?

Watching these women alone would leave the world thinking Black people deserve to be treated as inferior beings. And White America would say, “We have given them opportunities to become rich, to move into our neighborhoods, buy our clothes, send their children to the same private institutions as ours, and at the end of the day they still act like a bunch of wild animals.”

Sadly we aren’t taking a stand against the foolishness with which White America is trying to tar and feather us.

Are any of these so-called Real Housewives even married?

Wasn’t this show created to offer a behind-the-scenes glimpse into wealthy Southern Black housewives?

The show has gone from presenting seemingly successful Black women to the dimwitted, the beautiful, their broken relationships and the over the top dramatic antics of women with too much time on their hands. America—Black and White—loves it.

RHOA says Atlanta’s social elite is just a bunch of superficial chicks whose everyday lives are surrounded by controversy.

The “Black America” they won’t televise is quite different from this buffoonery being seen on our big screen HD televisions.

Television shows and wicked enemies would have you think all Black women are bad mothers, Black men don’t marry us and don’t take care of their children, and Black youth are lazy, gang-affiliated bums who drop out of school and have no future. They would have you think we will always work for someone else, don’t own successful businesses and all are liars and thieves.

Some facts from blackdemographics.com and the U.S. Census Bureau offer a fuller and different picture: 

Only 8.5 percent of married Black men had White spouses in 2010.

Less than 25 percent of Blacks receive public assistance.

Eighty percent of Blacks over age 25 have high school diplomas.

Some 1.6 million Blacks age 25 and older held an advanced degree, a Master’s, Ph.D. or J.D., in 2011. Fifteen years earlier—in 1995—only 677,000 Blacks had this level of education. 

Nearly 4 million Blacks were college students in 2011, an increase of roughly 2 million people versus 18 years earlier.

Nearly 19 percent of Blacks age 25 and older held a Bachelor’s degree or higher in 2011. In many states, the rate was even higher.

Black-owned businesses in the United States increased 60.5 percent between 2002 and 2007 totaling 1.9 million Black firms. More than 94 percent of these businesses were made up of sole proprietorships or partnerships.

Of the 1.9 million Black-owned businesses in 2007, about 106,824 had paid employees, an increase of 13.0 percent from 2002. These businesses employed 921,032 people, an increase of 22.2 percent. Their payrolls totaled $23.9 billion, an increase of 36.3 percent.

Receipts from Black-owned employer businesses totaled $98.9 billion, an increase of 50.2 percent from 2002.

According to the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, conducted in 2007 by the Pew Research Center, Black Americans were “markedly more religious on a variety of measures than the U.S. population as a whole.” It found 87 percent of Blacks (versus 83 percent of all Americans) were affiliated with a religion. It also found that 79 percent of Blacks (versus 56 percent overall) said religion was “very important in their life.”

I implore, urge, and encourage you not to believe the hype that Blacks are inferior. We have to tune into more positive programming or just turn the television off once in a while. We may think this is only entertainment, but how is the world viewing us? And more importantly, how do our children view us and what are we allowing their minds to soak up? The revolution that’s going on in the minds, hearts and homes of Blacks WILL NOT BE TELEVISED … so run to your nearest organization that is doing things to build-up the Black man, woman and child and join the revolution!

May Allah (God) bless us to be the writers of our own history, to be examples of the highest level of civilization for the world, and to be better representatives of Allah (God) and His Christ.

(Chicago-based writer and videographer Laila Muhammad is a Final Call production assistant.)