Real Housewives of Atlanta Visit South Africa

I would be the world's biggest liar if I said I didn't enjoy watching Bravo's highest rated reality TV show "Real Housewives of Atlanta." Seriously, this show never fails at having me laugh either at the silly women (which half of them are not married so I don't know what qualified them as housewives) or the downward spiral of the production value per season.

Anyway, I'm not really going to go into a full fledged analysis of the show (plenty of fan blogs do that rather well already and with Nene Leakes's celebrity status growing, the analyses will not cease anytime soon), but I would like to delve into the most recent episode when the women minus Kim Zolciak plus Marlo Hampton began their ten day excursion in South Africa (or Africa, as they incessantly address as if South Africa represents the ENTIRE continent of 53 countries and 3,000 languages). This excursion is good for African-Americans who have never been outside of the United States before and more so because it's a visit to an African nation. It shows that despite the stories of poverty and disease that seem to almost always come out of Africa (despite this being only one sided) there's also a lot of wealth and prosperity. I stated a while back the value of going abroad, no matter where it is, and the best part is one of the best ways to be educated about the world around you and to better understand your own culture. But this trip for the housewives was not for education - this was for laughs and "good TV."

What's vexes me more than the fact that some of these women are ignorant (Nene) or pretentious (Phaedra) is who REALLY arranged this - and I am sure that Phaedra only brought up the idea, even if she did. All this modern day buffoonery falls into the hands of their executive producer, Vice President of Bravo, Andy Cohen. He probably didn't say "Let's put these animals in their natural habitat" but, like they say, actions speak louder than words.

All the fans know that these women have had a lot of tension since the middle of the previous season and more tension was piled on with the arrival of the guest housewife (who'll probably replace Kim), Marlo. There was bound to be a fight somewhere (and as many are learning about reality TV, producers tend to orchestrate how things will progress) and the animalistic mudslinging between Marlo and Sheree, heightened with strange and eerily exotic noises, is probably just a small glimpse of what is bound to happen next.

We're entering Black History Month and what we have to show for black people again perpetuate black caricatures. This time, they are that of the 21st century. But like in the past, a white man has capitalized on exploiting black caricatures and all Americans have accepted it as okay. And I do not care that Andy Cohen is gay and Jewish. Being a minority in the US and capitalizing on the caricature of another minority does not make it excusable. This episode clearly was an example modern day blackface.

Am I going to keep watching this show. Of course. Should I? Yes. Any medium is worth reading, watching or hearing because it's someone else's viewpoint, even if you disagree with it. In fact, if you do disagree with it, then you have more information to back up your own opinion. Being well informed is the key to success in an ever-shrinking global world. Plus, there's something oddly refreshing about mindless TV after a thought provoking work week.

Blackface Mishap in Korea AGAIN?

It's one thing when you make a mistake once, but when you make the same mistake TWICE, that's a problem.

Like a growing but unknown number of black people across the world, I am fan of K-Pop. I don't know what it is that got me hooked, but when a song by Big Bang comes on or one of those cute Girls' Generation hits start making the speakers boom, it puts a smile on my heart and makes my booty do a little dance. But of course, it seems when there is anything good, there has to be something bad. In the case of the K-Pop world, that evil zombie created in antebellum America seems to show it's face (its blackface, which should have died in the 1950s).

For those of you that are not familiar with blackface, here is a classic example from a movie starring one of America's sweethearts, Judy Garland.



Blackface, as defined by Webster's dictionary as "makeup applied to a performer to play a black person, usually in a minstrel show." However, one thing that Webster's does not tell us is that most of the time this was done by someone who was usually a non-black to push a stereotype of a black person, and almost always it was negative and had racist overtones, further marginalizing blacks from mainstream society. Blackface minstrelsy was prominent for over 100 years in the United States and has critically damaged the image of black people globally and can even be blamed for the black self-hate theory. Black people across the world are still recovering from its legacy.

The first time I heard of this blackface mishap going in Korea was back in 2009 when BEAST member Lee KiKwang was in classic blackface makeup on a variety show and there were complaints on blogs (English language blogs as far as I know) from mainly black fans. Yes, I was one of the pissed, but also I was curious why this was thought to be funny. At this point, I had met several Koreans (many of them are my good friends today) and I had never gotten a racist vibe from them, so assumed maybe Koreans thought that was cute. Then I went to Korea, worked on a documentary (coming soon) and learned that the views of black people vary, but there is general consensus pushed by the media images they get from the United States and other Western countries, which is not a very good image. I also considered the homogeneity of Korea, and, in general, when you seldom see any other race or ethnic group, you are ignorant of that group. Then, only a few days ago, a similar incident arises with Super Junior.

Despite the ignorance to to the lack of diversity in Korea and blackface is arguably a thing of America's past, why is it in Korea's present? South Korea is a highly developed nation with probably one of the world's most rigorous educational systems. So, how can a group of educated people be so ignorant, especially with the Internet being right at their finger tips? Well, there are two types of education that I feel a person needs to be successful on this planet: a formal academic education and a world education. The latter is a the type of education that no school can teach. An academic education is paramount to help one understand the world, but a world education helps you apply what you have learned in a formal educational setting. Both go hand and hand, especially considering how our world is "shrinking" and the economy is becoming more global, it's more important than ever to have both.

Sadly, from my interviews while I was in Korea, I noticed time and time again the most ignorant were the ones that had not left Korea and most of them were 40 or older. Many of people in their 20s and 30s, however, either have been outside of Korea or were planning on traveling to another country. Now, don't get me wrong, Koreans are extremely welcoming to foreigners, especially to me. I felt like a celebrity the whole time I was there because I was treated as such, but there was definitely a lot of ignorance about black people and if I was an extremely aggressive and easily offended person, things would have been different. Luckily, like I try to do any time I'm not in the United States, I arrived in Korea with an open mind.

Back to this recent blackface incident in Korea, most likely most of the blame does not go to Shindong, just like the incident with Kikwang; fingers can be pointed at their managers and producers, who are usually in their 40s. As in a lot of popular music today, the performer is pretty much does what their managers and producers tell them to do, or they could lose their job (and we all know that a paycheck is important). However, the performer and the producers have the responsibility to be ethical, especially in media. Whatever the reasoning was, even if it was an homage to black folks (because there are Koreans that I met that are obsessed with black people), it is still a caricature of a black person by someone who is not black and when something like that is done in a homogeneous society, it perpetuates a generalized image of an entire group of people that is far from true for every individual in that group. It legitimizes and preconceived distinctions between Koreans and blacks people and hinders successful intercultural communication.

So, should it have happened TWICE? NO! Koreans are not stupid people (well, I met a few that were, but there are dumb people in every society). If one K-Pop celeb does something that causes an uproar with your international fans, you should know not to do. And if you don't know why, RESEARCH why. As a producer, that is what you are supposed to do - keep the wrong type of press from your product. And if you are not doing that, you are failing at your job. Since Korea's government is pushing multicultural education, this is one thing that needs to be considered.