Did NBC Play Sistahs?
Just as I settled in with my notepad and pen and blinked twice, tonight's segment by NBC Nightly News on African American women was over. Just like that. What the ....?
Now, before I am accused of complaining, I actually thought the segment that aired was good. However, two words do come to mind:
Equal Time.
Any person - whether or not he or she is a Black - knows that Black women took one hell of an image beating this year. Actually, we've taken an image beating for years. I just think that this year there's been a new level of awareness.
Then Bill Cosby and Dr. Alvin Pouissant are on Meet the Press talking about the plight of Black America for a whole hour.
My point is while I am very proud of the idea to look at the issues pertaining to African American women by NBC and can most certainly appreciate the hard work in the hours of editing it must have taken to get that 3-5 minutes for tonight's segment; in light of the rough year for Black women image-wise, we need more time for our story to be told in a broader more historical context.
More time to provide context to the issues that impact African American women most is needed. While tonight's segment sought to highlight the positive aspects of Black women and while noting the apparent achievement gap and its economic impact on the Black community at large, because the segment was so short, I almost felt like in some ways - well - guilty. I felt like we were portrayed as leaving Black men behind and they were being left to fend for themselves.
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