VH1 recently announced a premiere date for Bye Felicia, an atrocious new reality show in which white women get a serious confidence boost and a little dose of reality from two Black women life coaches, who use motherly tough love to teach them to better their lives and say goodbye to Felicia! Yikes. Weve seen this before; the magical negro trope -- in which Black folks exist solely to aide white protagonists with their innate, almost supernatural Blackness -- has been alive and well in popular culture for decades. And its far from harmless. Studies show the more whites associate Black people with the supernatural and superhuman, the less likely they are to believe Black people have the capacity to feel pain. Think of the danger such perceptions can bring; less attention from doctors, harsher sentences from judges, and brutal treatment by the police, to name a few. We must continue to demand better of a media landscape that relentlessly dehumanizes and degrades Black people. Join us: act.colorofchange.org/signup/RepresentSignup
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 16:53:45 +0000