Great afternoon, folks. Pleasure to see you're riding with me still. Don't worry, the heat will get turned up this week with a very interesting subject. However, before I start, I must quickly address the chaos in Ferguson, MO this week. This has been a week of peaceful protests turned into virtual guerrilla warfare. From accusations and even video of bottles and intimidation practices by the police, it's becoming more and more obvious just how sad and frustrating the whole situation is. Last week, I played the ever controversial anti-police anthem "F*** The Police" by seminal hip-hop group N.W.A. Was I out of line? After this week's events, with their intimidating actions, threats, and even coming up with all these different stories making Michael Brown as this troublesome young man, and the officer that shot him a pillar of the Ferguson community, that song really comes in handy right about now. According to USA Today, last night was the first calm evening in Ferguson since the entire tragedy occurred. Will it be the last? Likely not. it may even get worse than it is already. Right now all we can do is pray for justice for this poor family that was subjected to a clearly racially-inspired murder of their son. BTW, a Rest In Peace shout to Kajieme Powell, thanks again to the police.
Now, on to this week's subject at hand. It's been two weeks since the much-anticipated debut of Black Jesus, the highly controversial live action comedy created by Boondocks founder, Aaron McGruder. Unless you've been somewhat under a rock, you've seen the trailer that was floating around prior to the premier. The backlash has been met with all kinds of outrageous responses, and most from the Christian community. First, let me present to you the trailer and you can see what the fuss is all about.
Now with that being shown, naturally a lot of people have been up in arms, giving the show terms like "sacrilegious", "blasphemous", disrespectful", and every other negative term under the sun. There have protests and people claiming they would boycott the show's sponsors if they air the show. There are some points that now need to get brought up.
First of all, people, last I checked, this is still America. This country may be very screwed up and have people like the police shoot unarmed civilians at will, but this is still America. What that means is we all live by freedoms of speech, religion, press, assembly, equal rights, and...the freedom of expression. If you don't like the show or what it stands for, turn it off. Simple isn't it.
Secondly, if you conservative Christians will get your heads out of Heaven (or your asses) for a second, you might see a point to what he's presenting. In the first two episodes, this guy (shouts to Gerald "Slink" Johnson, who portrays Black Jesus) walks around Compton to spread love and encouragement. The people around him, who presumably would be his "disciples", all are asking him for some of the dumbest things imaginable. Whether it's money for weed, money for a lottery ticket, or other bits of foolishness, he's actually saddened by them asking him for such petty things. Of course there are people like Lloyd (a homeless guy played by veteran actor/comedian John Witherspoon) and Vic (a property manager for an apartment complex) that don't believe he's really "Jesus" unless he shows them "miracles". Tell me that doesn't sound like stuff we (no matter the race, but because this is Black Jesus, I'll say us Blacks) do quite regular, including the holier-than-thou ones (you cats aren't exempted either). I'm a Christian myself and I know I've done or asked for some of the same stuff on quite a regular basis. At least this show displays some heart if you can look past the vulgarities. Maybe these same critics can look at the method to the madness instead of just the face value of it.
Third, while you're doing all of these protests and boycotts, I don't hear a whole lot about a lot of these other "reality" shows getting protested and boycotted. I'm not saying there aren't the occasional protest, but none have had the backlash of Black Jesus. There was a time where the show Preachers Of L.A. was getting protested because how the show made these preachers look like celebs by them having extravagant and flashy lifestyles (it's always seemingly these conservative ones that do the most complaining and hating). Because this is my blog and I can soapbox if I want to, I will say this. As long as they're not putting these earthly possessions above God and helping to spread love, they're doing nothing wrong. Yes there are some those preachers and ministers who won't speak anywhere unless you can afford them multi-thousand dollars and they'll get dealt with in God's time. Otherwise, please shut your mouths and worry about your own front door. Now I will get back to my point. The abundance of shows like Love & Hip-Hop, Basketball Wives, and Real Houswives of...any of those cities present the worst aspect of a community's race, gender, and culture all the time and quite frequently, however people still watch them and they have tremendous followings. There was also a protest of an upcoming "reality" show detailing Black Greek sororities. Amazingly, some of these same people that like to protest and complain will NOT miss an episode of these shows that I just mentioned, but will protest a show that's actually a satire. That's real brilliant.
Whatever your taste, it's just that, YOURS. If there are things and shows that don't agree with you and your philosophy on things, just don't watch them. Simple isn't it? Nobody, I repeat NOBODY, will ever tell me what to watch or what not to watch as a grown man and it's insulting to those that actually just want to laugh a little in the midst of all the turmoil and pain going on. Your humor isn't the same as Dick, Mary, and Will, and vice versa. That's what makes us different, and that should be okay in theory at least. Black Jesus is a humorous, albeit quite crass in language, comedy that is aimed to make us look at how Jesus (the actual one) would be if He were to go through a lot of these ghettos and poor communities. Aaron McGruder has had a way of making us Blacks in particular look at ourselves in the mirror, only in humorous ways. This is no exception. Furthermore, if you're worried about the impact it would have on your children, this airs after prime time hours, plus it's rated Mature Audiences, so the network is covered. The rest is up to you as a parent. Don't blame Aaron, Cartoon Network, Viacom or anyone else for that matter.
I told you guys and gals this would be somewhat hot and highly discussed, but that's the beauty of conversation. If you feel differently, please by all means, get at me. However, if you want to "unfriend" me because of my own personal views, you better do so now because it may only get hotter as the week's go along (plus you're showing me how idiotic you really are if you're willing to "unfriend" me because my viewpoint is different than yours). In any case, take care until next week. Be sure to check for my hip-hop blog and my wrestling blog as well. Peace and love!
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