Why I DIDN'T Like Black in America 2

Top 15 Reasons I think CNN needs their ass kicked for the display of ridiculousness that was Black in America 2 (Note: I never saw BIA 1, but others have told me this was the better of the series... REALLY?)

15. CNN is overly ambitious and obviously very arrogant. To think that this program could encompass even a grain of being Black in America is beyond me. I also have a strong feeling that the editors were so confident in this production that I doubt they bothered to run it past a couple of black editors first.
14. Those damn McDonald's commercials they kept showing in between the segment. I personally don't know 2 little black kids (or any other kids) who dream of owning a McDonald's. And if one of the problems facing black Americans is obesity, pimping McDonald's for two nights in a row does not help with "Solutions"
13. I'm Black in America and I could relate to about maybe 10 minutes of a 4 hour program
12. Taking kids to Africa for 2 weeks will not improve their grades
11. Taking kids from low income projects to a remote place in one of the most developed countries in Africa to show the what it's like to really have nothing exploits the kids, the African village, the nation of South Africa, and the people watching said show. (I mean really, I was in South Africa for a month and I never had t live in a hut with no electricity or eat worms. Exploiting the Diaspora from two continents is NOT cool.
10. If probably would have been more helpful to find tutors for the kids that couldn't read than taking them to another continent
9. Marriages that are really broken need more than a good freak'em play list to be a solution. While I myself have jammed to H-Town's Knockin' the Boots, I really don't think it will decrease the number of divorces amongst black or others.
8. Nothing about black in America made me want to be black in America. in fact, the portrayal didn't even make it seem livable. If I were of another race and saw this, I could see myself shaking my head at every black person I met after watching it.
7.There was no need for the constant references to the almost addiction to fried chicken. We get that there's an obesity epidemic in the black community. Throwing in stereotypes makes this serious problem a joke.
6. Speaking of stereotypes, I think CNN found every black stereotype there was and re-enforced it with steel beams in this program. (see
5. They lied in the title. This part was called Solutions and I saw little of that (I'll give them the segment with the principal, although he had to be superman to achieve success).
4. Soledad needs sensitivity training or something. Her questions didn't go to the heart of these problems, rather they focused on duress (ex. do you think she (3rd time cancer patient) will be alive in 5 years? 2 years? next year? Are you (recently release ex-con with difficulty finding enough work) going to start selling drugs again? Do you (depressed older man on 12 medications) think it would be better to die?) What the WHAT Soledad?
3. I really don't know what the goal was for this program
2. The working class black people (you know the ones who have some education, some experience, not privileged but not living on government assistance) were not in this program. We DO exist.
1. A lot of being Black in America is about how I relate to whites (and others) in America. We can't and don't live in a vacuum. Why then would CNN pretend that we are some separate endangered species living amongst, but not necessarily with others. There is no way you can talk about Black in America without showing this interaction... and yet they managed to do it.

Starting Over

I have clearly not been on my Ps and Qs (with this blog or with life). It's the middle of 2009 and I am not in the same place that I was last year, but I definitely am striving for better. I'll try to update regularly if only to clear my head. Right now, I'm thinking of something a classmate said about bad kids: "I see bad kids and I just want to tell them, ' just go to college! It's so much better than anything possibly going on in your life right now. Just stick these two or three years out in high school, and apply. I'm sure someone will feel sorry for you and give you a diversity scholarship. I guess they just don't know."

I was offended on so many levels. Now, my first mind wanted to go angry black woman on her and then educate the ignorance out that behind, what with this Henry Louis Gates thing still going, but I don't think that would have helped changed her mind. I think sometimes I hit a point where I'm just tired. Tired of fighting stereotypes, tired of defending the race, tired of having to live above expectations, just plain TIRED!I don't have that kind of energy to waste, so she is on my associate at a distance list. I really can' bother with the foolishness.