African American Reality TV

Reality Television (TV) has taken the world by storm. Reality TV is used to document and explore certain parts of an individual’s everyday life. America has open its doors to television since the 1950’s. Television programs have shifted from family based shows like the Cosby show to that of catfights between women and m.m.a brawls among men. The use of alcohol abuse is heavy, casual sex scenes and bad language always seems to make it on these shows. Reality TV is depicted both in a negative and positive light, but only the negative is consumed by audiences. The most commonly talk about shows today are: Atlanta housewives, Love and Hip-Hop, Basketball wives and more. The majority of the individuals staring in these shows are African American

“This is another form of the devil’s work. Blogs and websites, press and media, they have a job to do. They do. But unfortunately, a lot of married couples don’t end up on the covers of some of our favorite magazines until they file for divorce, which makes getting a divorce more popular than the marriages that actually work.” Reality TV pried into the romantic aspect of African American families, throwing their marriages in the dirt, exemplifying cheating, men having side chicks, and committing adultery. These behaviors are eventually mirrored and these actions partake in today’s society. Soon viewers at home catch on to these tactics and the reality of the television show soon become

Reality has created a division between black males and fatherhood. The television father is one of Americas caricatures imagination. An example would be Cliff Huxtable, of the Cosby Show and all around African American father. Not very common to the African American community; however, the show gave us hope. But Reality TV has shot down all hope of this African American father icon. Shows such as Love and Hip-Hop depict the absent father image, or if the father is present he is either not with the mother or if he is with the mother, the relationship is built on disrespect. “Fellow cast member Kirk Frost, of Love and Hip-Hop, who after cheating on his pregnant wife Rasheeda, secretly had his newborn son DNA tested.” An episode of love and hip-hop reveals Kirk the husband of Rasheed was in fact cheating on her, then she found out that she was pregnant. Kirk had doubts of her pregnancy through his guilt of thinking that she was cheating. In return Kirk took a DNA test to see if the child was his. These actions can be a major influence among the African American males to make them second guess their child, and create tension to not stay around to raise their