“The problem - and danger of television - is that it lulls the mind into a hypnotic state and then presents ideas and concepts as though it goes without saying that they’re valid. That causes the public to accept the most ridiculous and dysfunctional propositions as valid without the scrutiny of critical evaluation.”
—Eric L Wattree, Journalist
This is what I have seen within my experience:
Slavery in some form still exists today. Not only is there true trafficking of slaves and prostitution in your sphere, but look on the TV and see if there are good examples representing the natural you. I’m not talking about afros or locs, because that is another conversation. If you do not have the Africa Channel, or other uplifting channels you may not even see much of any good Black people at all. Sometimes what is being represented on the news and other programs is not us. Visions of news reports projecting us, particularly Western African people, in an unsavory light often seeps into our own subconscious mind-television and induces a negative behavior and mindset. Try turning off the news when you see your African family projected in this way. Reality TV is escapism, but it is NOT your life. We watch them, knowing that they are not us. We watch them for the entertainment, but slowly sometimes the behavior of these folks seep into our psyche. We must wean ourselves off of the thinking that they reflect on us, because they covertly damage unconscious thoughts we are presently healing. It is a difficult thing though. I watch these shows too! I was watching a wedding of a person on cable TV and saw the amount of money spent on one wedding. This is not your reality on TV. Do not aspire to it. Watch it if you must, but don’t aspire to it. When we see the waste, we must realize that this is not what our inheritance was meant for. This is not what our ancestors made for you. Make your own reality! But you know this already.
That is not to say that many of our ancestors have not wasted. However, to have not learned the lesson is harmful.
If you are privileged enough to own a television, do you ever, when you hear a horrific thing that someone has done, pray and say aloud, “Oh please don’t let that be a Black person” or “Please don’t let that be a Latino”? And when it comes over the TV that the person who killed all those children in the school was not of African descent, you breathe a sigh of relief. But, there should not be so few Black and beautiful Africans on TV that we have to pray for a horrific crime not to have been committed by us. We should have many positive representations to offset the negative in TV, Internet, newspapers, books, video games, apps, and even cartoons. Have you ever noticed in a dominant cartoon that when there is a mix of colors, very very rarely is the main character of African descent?
Slavery in some form still exists today. Not only is there true trafficking of slaves and prostitution in your sphere, but look on the TV and see if there are good examples representing the natural you. I’m not talking about afros or locs, because that is another conversation. If you do not have the Africa Channel, or other uplifting channels you may not even see much of any good Black people at all. Sometimes what is being represented on the news and other programs is not us. Visions of news reports projecting us, particularly Western African people, in an unsavory light often seeps into our own subconscious mind-television and induces a negative behavior and mindset. Try turning off the news when you see your African family projected in this way. Reality TV is escapism, but it is NOT your life. We watch them, knowing that they are not us. We watch them for the entertainment, but slowly sometimes the behavior of these folks seep into our psyche. We must wean ourselves off of the thinking that they reflect on us, because they covertly damage unconscious thoughts we are presently healing. It is a difficult thing though. I watch these shows too! I was watching a wedding of a person on cable TV and saw the amount of money spent on one wedding. This is not your reality on TV. Do not aspire to it. Watch it if you must, but don’t aspire to it. When we see the waste, we must realize that this is not what our inheritance was meant for. This is not what our ancestors made for you. Make your own reality! But you know this already.
That is not to say that many of our ancestors have not wasted. However, to have not learned the lesson is harmful.
If you are privileged enough to own a television, do you ever, when you hear a horrific thing that someone has done, pray and say aloud, “Oh please don’t let that be a Black person” or “Please don’t let that be a Latino”? And when it comes over the TV that the person who killed all those children in the school was not of African descent, you breathe a sigh of relief. But, there should not be so few Black and beautiful Africans on TV that we have to pray for a horrific crime not to have been committed by us. We should have many positive representations to offset the negative in TV, Internet, newspapers, books, video games, apps, and even cartoons. Have you ever noticed in a dominant cartoon that when there is a mix of colors, very very rarely is the main character of African descent?
“When many of us should have been hard at work laying down our own foundation to become competent individuals, we were so busy trying to be popular, and living vicariously through the exploits of our favorite celebrities and sports heroes, that we never learned to think. Instead of learning HOW to think, we were taught WHAT to think. As a result, we’ve become so thoroughly programmed in group-think that we’re now mired in a cesspool of intellectual dysfunction.”
—Eric L Wattree
Use television, if you do, to soothe; not to create anxiety and browbeat yourself. There are television programs and newspapers, not always in the mainstream programming, that show our children doing well, particularly on the public channels, so try to seek them out.
Just think, if you were born in the 1600s what your journey would be like. It is through our foremothers’ and fathers’ patience, endurance, and survival that you now ride. What if you were born in the 1600s, not yet taken from the shores of the motherland; imagine the day that you were kidnapped and placed in a boat with no room to move, shackled, and chained if you made it, if your bones were not thrown off the boat to the Atlantic Ocean bottom, you survived! And today, we all have our own personal demons or wounds within our present lives; we have survived. You are a survivor! That child has survived and you made it through. It is the strength, the determination, the persistence, the practice; it is the ancestral survival that today you ride on. Count your blessings, because you are blessed. You are already blessed. So act with confidence that you are.
There will be many things I will ask you to forget, as you read, in order to gain your inheritance and true blessings. But just take one moment to know that your ancestors were wealthy, imagine it. See it as clear as the picture on a television screen —the riches. But not only that, also the wealth of all good things on this planet. You have descended from a rich wisdom of culture and knowledge. This is the knowledge you must take away from reading here. YOU have a duty to re-claim your fortune.
Celebrate! You are Victorious, you came through it.
Some of us are lucky to be in a place where you see many Black people in power. In some areas there are Blacks in government all of your lives. They may not be all good and they may be puppets, but you see a reflection of yourself in power. However, you may say, “Even with Blacks in all places, as police and government, all of my life there is still not anything happening for me.” This could be true, but your esteem and thinking of what you can be is greater than those who grew up with mostly non-African images and non-Black people in power. Yet, in the Western sphere, one Black person in power does not erase the low percentage of Black people in power, and consequentially doesn’t absolutely help to diminish our lack of self-esteem.
What To Do About Television, Video Games and the Like
Just think, if you were born in the 1600s what your journey would be like. It is through our foremothers’ and fathers’ patience, endurance, and survival that you now ride. What if you were born in the 1600s, not yet taken from the shores of the motherland; imagine the day that you were kidnapped and placed in a boat with no room to move, shackled, and chained if you made it, if your bones were not thrown off the boat to the Atlantic Ocean bottom, you survived! And today, we all have our own personal demons or wounds within our present lives; we have survived. You are a survivor! That child has survived and you made it through. It is the strength, the determination, the persistence, the practice; it is the ancestral survival that today you ride on. Count your blessings, because you are blessed. You are already blessed. So act with confidence that you are.
There will be many things I will ask you to forget, as you read, in order to gain your inheritance and true blessings. But just take one moment to know that your ancestors were wealthy, imagine it. See it as clear as the picture on a television screen —the riches. But not only that, also the wealth of all good things on this planet. You have descended from a rich wisdom of culture and knowledge. This is the knowledge you must take away from reading here. YOU have a duty to re-claim your fortune.
Celebrate! You are Victorious, you came through it.
Some of us are lucky to be in a place where you see many Black people in power. In some areas there are Blacks in government all of your lives. They may not be all good and they may be puppets, but you see a reflection of yourself in power. However, you may say, “Even with Blacks in all places, as police and government, all of my life there is still not anything happening for me.” This could be true, but your esteem and thinking of what you can be is greater than those who grew up with mostly non-African images and non-Black people in power. Yet, in the Western sphere, one Black person in power does not erase the low percentage of Black people in power, and consequentially doesn’t absolutely help to diminish our lack of self-esteem.
What To Do About Television, Video Games and the Like
You shouldn’t watch the shows or read books that are degrading you. But if you must, also watch African programs. There are many lovely movies and award programs that are uplifting and funny and high-quality for us. Pick up a book written by your cousins. Subscribe if you are able. Yes, watch funny shows and escapism, but do not let it confuse your mind and make you think that you are a fool. Help others to laugh, but don’t aspire to be a buffoon in life at the mean expense of others and certainly not your brothers and sisters. Your ancestors left you wondrous gifts. What will you leave?