Not My Momma or "Yo Momma": Addressing the Cult of Black Female Ridicule

A friend recently sent me an email about MTV's Yo Momma reality show and it gave me the opportunity to offer my own reflections.

So here goes:
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Hey Girl:

Greetings from Nicole.

Oh, no this show is no joke(no pun intended).

I watched a few episodes last time I was visiting family and by the 2nd episode the novelty had worn off and the academic in me just began to struggle with this thing.

I didn't share all my beef with my partner cuz he found it relaxing and humerous at times, but it was just troubling to me to watch predominantly AfricanAmerican men attack each others fictional "mamas". Then, by show's end, their real mommas are there in some instances to act as prompts for each other's abusive jokes as the ambiguous Latin host howls with laughter along with his two brutha-man sidekicks.

It was like something out of Spike's Bamboozled, but ferociously worse---SINCE IT IS AN ACTUAL TV SHOW!!! It was an emotional blood sport as Black men battled one another over whose "mommas" were blacker, more impoverished, more immoral, more sexually explicit,etc.,.

As I overheard some of the jokes from another room, the show just gnawed at me. In a culture where Black mothers have been much maligned over the last 40years (and back as far as slavery is we push back muchfurther) CAN SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMEEEEEBODY MAKE THEANNOUNCEMENT THAT IS IS NOT ALRIGHT FOR BLACK MEN TO CONTINUE TO MOCK AND DEMEAN BLACK WOMEN---YOUNG AND OLD---FOR SPORT, LEISURE, COMEDY OR PROFIT????

When will we move to a space where Black women could possibly be celebrated, valued, affirmed---hell, atleast by our own men??? Why does African American entertainment always have a destructive, divisive quality? Our genius is often born out of pain and struggle, but we always seem to turn that genius against each other---while white folks stroll to the bank with the proceeds.

Can't wait to read the article below and glad to knowthat someone else ain't laughin'!

It's time to get well sis, WE GOTTA GET WELL!---Nicole

(P.S. It makes Oprah's Legends tribute all the more timely...and poignant!!!)