‘MAKING FRIENDS WITH BLACK PEOPLE’?

Obama means change for NBC TV Network makes ‘Friends With Black People’ By MICHAEL SCHNEIDER Brock Akil President-elect Barack Obama is already bringing about change — to the world of network TV development, at least. NBC is developing a comedy based on the book “Making Friends With Black People,” a buddy comedy that will focus on the state of race relations in the U.S. Show isn’t specifically about Obama’s rise as the nation’s first African-American president — but “Making Friends” hopes to capitalize on how Obama’s success has changed the nation’s dialogue on race. “From time to time, race bubbles up in the consciousness of the country and then dissipates,” said “Making Friends” author Nick Adams. “Now, with Obama, people are talking about race a lot more. We hope to capitalize on that and not let the dialogue die down. … It seemed like a good opportunity to strike while the iron is hot.” “The Game” exec producers Mara Brock Akil (who also created “Girlfriends“) and Salim Akil will write the script and serve as exec producers on the project. “Making Friends” will center on two guys — one African-American and one white — who become close friends, but who don’t necessarily see things the same way. Universal Media Studios is behind the project, along with Industry Entertainment. The “Making Friends” book was penned in 2006 by Adams, a standup comic who took a humorous look at how people dance around issues of race. Adams will serve as a co-producer on the project, while Industry’s Dianne Fraser and Eryn Brown will be co-exec producers. “Making Friends” could rep the latest in a long line of laffers conceived to reflect, in part, a societal shift in the U.S. In 1982, for example, “Family Ties” bowed in the midst of the country’s move toward a more conservative era under Ronald Reagan. Before that, 1970s sitcoms like “All in the Family” highlighted the nation’s generational culture clash, while “Maude” embraced the women’s movement.

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Making friends?

 

As if Black Americans are freakish, anomolies that are not human? As if Black people are not humans and citizens with feelings? As if everyone else in this damned cesspool of a country are humans with rights and feelings to be respected and validated? As if Black Americans are some devolved species of subhuman?

 

Oh, silly me, I forgot. . . .Black Americans are not humans. Black Americans are not neighbors; they are the anti-neighbors. Black Americans are not patriotic, so have so many non-Blacks stated, from so-called native-born Whites, to so-called immigrant Whites, to so-called ethnic groups who are held over Black Americans, as part of the “Model Minority Myth/Lie”.

 

Let me see NBC make a program entitlted, “Making Friends With Asians”. “Making Friends With Arabs”. “Making Friends With Latinos”. “Making Friends With Native Americans“.

 

Then again, such programs would never occur because everyone who lives in this country knows better than to create any program that hates on and disparages non-Blacks.

 

The racial heirarchy of America speaks volumes, and only Black people are singled out to be looked at as . . . . .aliens. As aberrant non-human entities to be approached with caution and made-up minds.

 

 

 

“Show isn’t specifically about Obama’s rise as the nation’s first African-American president — but “Making Friends” hopes to capitalize on how Obama’s success has changed the nation’s dialogue on race.”

 

 

Oh, really?

 

From what I have seen in real life, and in many blogs, there has been practically no dialogue on race in this country. At least dialogue that confronts head-on the legacies of slavery and segregation. Obama’s election has not changed a damn thing. Obama’s election alone will not change race (un)relations in America. That is up to all individual Americans to take up that load and carry it and deal with it.

 

“Making friends”.

 

 

Why not entitle it correctly:

 

 

“Singling Out Black Americans: Because They Have Done More To Right This Country Than Anyone Else”.

 

 

Programs like this make enemies with Black people, not friends.

 

Programs such as these are more slaps and spits into the faces and hearts of Black Americans.

 

Black people are just as much American as any other group in this country and should not be constantly, always, singled out as perpetually different, as perpetually Other.

 

 

Black people are Americans citizens. Always have been.

Get used to it.

 

 

Deal with it.