By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Saturday, June 27, 2015
Bravo shows are often reviled for their pettiness, their shallowness, their pretentiousness.
But in Time magazine of all places, NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar comes to celebrate - not denigrate- the network's shows for providing an outlet to show blacks in a way that is normal and "America's best hope for the elimination of racism." These include Atlanta shows "Married to Medicine" and "Real Housewives of Atlanta," plus a commentary show "Fashion Queens" featuring two Atlanta gay men.
Abdul-Jabbar even calls "Housewives" creator Andy Cohen the "Andy Warhol of the new millennium" thanks to his willingness to show blacks and those in the LGBT community.
Here's the crux of his argument:
Through these shows, the country sees black Americans as neither icons nor victims. Neither paragons nor charity cases. They're just a bunch of warts-and-all people chasing the American Dream as hard and fast, and often as clueless, as most everyone else. So far-reaching and influential is media, that the next generation of white children raised with the cultural wallpaper of racism lining their homes will grow up seeing a broad spectrum of black lives. And those lives will now matter more.
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TLC members Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas and Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins are dabbling in comedy by bemoaning men the way men mock their ladies in a sketch released in advance of the next season of Comedy Central's "Key & Peele."
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