by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action
Turner Network Television took the interesting step of apologizing for lewd remarks on the network made by comedian/actor Tracy Morgan. During an interesting back and forth with Charles Barkley in which they were debating the “hotness” of Sarah Palin, Morgan said the following:
"Now let me tell you something about Sarah Palin man, she's good masturbation material. The glasses and all that? Great masturbation material."
Of course my own jaw dropped when I heard what Morgan said, and you could see the white guy on the scene, Ernie Johnson, rushing to get Morgan off-camera. Everyone was clearly nervous after Morgan’s remarks, for good reason. A lot of jobs were on the line as the words leaked out of his mouth.
In spite of my serious disdain for Sarah Palin, I found the comments to be sad and pathetic. Palin is a married mother of five children, so to force her kids to hear of their mother being referenced in this way was nothing short of despicable. I would be outraged if he’d said that about my mother.
I also thought about the nature of media in general. As Charles and Tracy were yucking it up on camera with another “Yea man, let me tell you!” I thought about how mainstream media is always interested in accommodating black men in media who are most willing to fulfill silly stereotypes.
If Morgan or Barkley were intelligent, conscientious and serious black men, there’d be no place for them on the airwaves. Turner Network Television is the same company that owns CNN, the place where no black person as of yet has been allowed to host a prime time news show. But they were, however, very quick to give comedian DL Hughley a show in which he fed an endless supply of embarrassing racial stereotypes to a predominantly white audience right before President Obama was elected as the first black president. Perhaps black men are far more interesting when we portray ourselves as irresponsible sexual deviants who make people laugh, but being educated is simply “not black enough.” That's why men like Flava Flav will always get more network opportunities than Dr. Cornel West.
You can’t blame Tracy Morgan for being ignorant, that’s just who he is. But you must confront mainstream corporate media for always giving ignorance a platform.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition. For more information, please visit www.BoyceWatkins.com.
