When I was on vacation last week everyone was talking about “Black in America.”

When you work for a black company, broadcast to a mostly black audience and have mostly black friends, you get the same or similar perspectives on many topics. But we have a lot a different opinions about “Black in America,” and that’s a good thing.

A co-worker of mine has a family member, Kevin, who rides to work with a group of black women in a van pool.  Kevin, a 41-year-old black man, married with children rides with Sharon,  a 34-year female Jehovah Witness who doesn’t vote, Tina, a 36 year-old woman married to a white truck driver, and  Kevin’s wife, Corinthia, a 36-year-old working mom.

Tina watched Black in America with her husband and thought that overall it was more hype than substance.  She also was bothered that Soledad didn’t mention that she was bi-racial when she reported that Barack Obama, Mariah Carey and Halley Berry were all products of a white and black union.

Corinthia agreed with Tina and a lot of other black people I’ve talked to who felt that the documentary told us a lot of things we already knew.

Kevin wanted to see more about how whites view black people.  He says the program should have given them a new understanding of our struggles.
 I agree. Most of us believe that we are being watched extra carefully in stores. Most of us prepare our children for the time they will be discriminated against. Most of us don’t think we get the same breaks as white people do in similar situations.  Soledad could have even had a little fun by letting white people know that black women get tired of explaining how long it takes to get their hair braided or that all men flying in first class are not athletes or entertainers.  

Most of us would much rather have seen a documentary celebrating how a race of people brought to a foreign country against our will has not only survived in American but in many cases, thrived.  

One interesting comment came from a young black woman who said many of the “conditions” Black in America identified (single parenthood), poverty, disease and joblessness) can be found among other races too. She would have liked to have seen more suggestions for overcoming these problems.
In an e-mail, she asked her co-workers and friends what they thought the purpose of the documentary was: to help us find our own solutions, reaffirm to other races that blacks are inferior or to console those who worried that a black president will give us too much power? Putting our weaknesses on blast might ease their fears a bit.

If you’re white and or know some whites who tuned in I’d love to hear your take on “Black in America.” Write me or better yet, call the show.