Television View of Young Blacks
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While Taylor is certainly doing her job as a free-lance publicist by getting her essay printed, her rosy point of view ignores another reality of the media world.
Taylor avers that “ . . . young gangsters . . . grotesquely characterized by braided or excessively curled hair, menacing stares and sing-song tones of mispronounced English words and ghetto slang . . . are force-fed onto our television screens in the guise of giving the other side of the story.”
Be real, Ms. Taylor. Do you mean to tell me as a publicist that Michael Jackson’s “excessively curled hair,” L.L. Cool J’s “sing-song tones” and “ghetto slang,” and Mike Tyson’s “menacing stares” are force-fed on anybody?
Perhaps you feel the heavy metal head-bangers on MTV are an accurate depiction of most white teen-agers, while most young blacks wear suits and ties and go to church every Sunday when they’re not raising funds for the homeless.
Bless his heart, but the world would be a pretty dull place if everyone dressed and behaved like Bill Cosby.
FREDERICK CLEVELAND
Hollywood
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