I Do See Color

I Do See Color

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I Do See Color
I Do See Color
Don’t weigh in on positive black shows if you only support ratchet TV
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Don’t weigh in on positive black shows if you only support ratchet TV

How “The Photograph” supporters made me reevaluate my take on African-American entertainment

Shamontiel L. Vaughn's avatar
Shamontiel L. Vaughn
Feb 24, 2020
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I Do See Color
I Do See Color
Don’t weigh in on positive black shows if you only support ratchet TV
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Photo credit: Julian Myles/Unsplash

#OscarsSoWhite gets too much attention. While I understand the validity to the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite, I just don’t care enough about the Academy Awards to really get outraged about it. Part of the reason is because most of the movies that win these awards are not of interest to me. The other part is I’ve often found that the African-American films and actors that do get the golden man revolve around slavery, violence and/or the white savior complex.

I go out of my way to support African-American films on other platforms that slide under the radar but turn out to be really good. They’re often drama-free, flesh out the characters, avoid tokenism and show black folks in a light that doesn’t look like a mainstream rap video with dialogue.


ADVERTISEMENT ~ Amazon

As an Amazon affiliate, I earn a percentage from purchases with my referral links. I know some consumers are choosing to boycott Amazon for its DEI removal. However, after thinking about this thoroughly, I want to continue promoting cool products from small businesses, women-owned businesses and (specifically) Black-owned businesses who still feature their items on Amazon. As of the first date of Black History Month 2025, each new post will ALWAYS include a MINIMUM of one product sold by a Black-owned business. (I have visited the seller’s official site to verify that Amazon Black-owned logo.) I am (slowly) doing this with older, popular posts too. If you still choose to boycott, I 100% respect that decision.
Kulture Games Playing Cards: Black Legends
Kulture Games Playing Cards: Black Legends

So when I see tweets like, “I’ve never watched black-ish but apparently I’m missing out because Tracy and Anthony have won this award 29 years in a row….#NAACPImageAward” and responses like, “That’s because they keep just giving them awards for no reason… there [sic] performances are not ground breaking,” I’m annoyed. Entirely too many of us still do not respect shows that pay homage to innovative projects that go outside of the box.

Photo credit: Napturalista Moji

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