MAKING LEMONADE OUT OF LEMONS: HOW WE CAN LEARN FROM NBC NEWS LESS THAN STELLAR COVERAGE ON BLACK WOMEN

I watched the first part of the NBC News Special Feature on Black Females and I was less than impressed. I admit I was a bit biased towards it because I read Ms. Gina's critique of it on What About Our Daughters but watched it anyway with a critical eye. I have always tried to view things from the perspective of always having "the glass half full as opposed to half empty". With this in mind I watched and was filled with pride on seeing how successful many of my Black sisters have become. However, I was pretty dismayed when they brought in the comparisons to Black men who drop out of school and other negatives. They even brought out the old "rap is responsible for all that is wrong" jazz. This was supposed to be about Black women, not Black men.

Now I am told that there is more footage than the paltry four minutes alloted last night on the MSNBC website and of course What About Our Daughters has a link to it as well. However, I want to put forth the "lemonade" part of my argument. I believe that we should all tape and download these segments and go over them with a fine tooth comb. We will find things that are pretty obvious: the number of Black women in college, who have their own businesses, who date interacially, the breast cancer problem and more. This to me is common knowledge but it still good to see.

However, we need to learn and teach each other how to filter out the propoganda and to see the positive that lies within. Think of an oyster, within this slimy creature can lie something that is beautiful, a pearl. We need to constantly seek out the pearls in our Black women, for many are there in plain view. Black females are the mothers of all civilization, brothers think about that! There is nothing that we as men cannot do when our women are by our side, nothing!

This is not to say that I don't find anything wrong with these segments because as I mentioned earlier I do. I just prefer to accentuate the positve on this one. So let us sharpen our sensors and find the pearls within our Black women and ourselves.

Mr. Shadow signing off.