Episode 2 | Did Black TV’s Decline Cause Cultural Decay?

Man, is this thing on? Is this thing on? Hey? Man? What's up with a family? What's the damn deal? Man? This is Junior the Truth. Thank you so much, man for taking time to tune in to episode two, Man of the Culture, Collective Thought cast Man powered by the Simple Truth Network, hosted by yours truly, Junior the Truth. Thank you guys so much for taking the time to tune in, really truly genuinely appreciate it. If I had a million tons, I couldn't tell it all. I am in DJ host Junior the Truth. You can follow me everywhere via social media. I could be found with the handle Junior the Truth. That's jay U n I O R t H E t r U t H. And that's over all the social media platforms man, each and every one. But if you're really looking for me, you can catch me over on the Simple Truth Network www. Dot do, Simpletruth Network dot com. It is our very own superinformation exchange Man. So, man, I. Gotta start today episode kind of on. A somber note, if you will, Man, But I'm a I'm a little different these days. Man. It's it's kind of somber, kind of reflective, kind of nostalgic man, kind of thankful slash slash slash slash slash. But as many of you know, we did lose. In my eyes, legendary actor, poet, musician, all around talented individual man, Malcolm Jamal Warner, one of the good guys. Man, in my opinion, we did lose him on I believe it was Sunday, the twentieth of July twenty twenty five, and so I just kind of wanted to take a few minutes, man, to kind of just really truly just reflect man. And you know, you know they, you know, you know how we do. Man. We we give moments of silence, and you know some of us take time to pour our livations and just reflect man. And and I would like to really truly usher in the spirit of nostalgia, man, and and gratefulness. So uh, let's just take a moment a man say, man, A man that felt good, Man that felt good, really truly did well. I'll just I'll just offer my personal reflection over the work and legacy of Malcolm Jamal Warner. And it's a little bit different for me, man, it's a little bit different from me. I'm not gonna lie to you. You know, I like to think outside of the box. I like to put paint where it ain't and uh not everybody, excuse me, not everybody holds the same truths, you know what I'm saying. Malcolm Jamar Warner was affectionately known as Theodore Huxtable from The Cosby Show, which ran from nineteen eighty four to nineteen ninety Was it ninety two? Was it eighty four to ninety two? I think it was nineteen eighty four to nineteen ninety two. Theo Huxtable was was was? He played Heathcliff Huxtable and Claire Huxtable son. He was, you know, the only son. And I think there was what was it three daughters ford or it's four daughters, one son, and. He was a He was a. Representation of the young black male in the mid eighties through you know, early nineties. I always liked the character, of course, and I always liked the ability to capture our experience via the show. And I think that Malcolm Jamal Warner did a remarkable, masterful job of encapsulating that in the role. In his role is still Huxtable now. I love him for that, and I love that and it just it just reminds me so much of what a time we had in that space of the you know, eighties and nineties and whatnot. But the thing that I loved most about Malcolm Jamal Warner was and is his willingness to be an example of the the maturation process of the culture. Meaning we were actually able to see Malcolm Jamal Warner mature and transition and uh to you know, different roles and you know, once again an actor, a poet, a musician, a thought leader in my opinion, philanthropists like we've seen him wear so many hats, a director, writer, just so much, and all while really being an example of a mature, responsible, masculine Black man that is very much culturally and socially aware. And so I honor him for that, man, and I honor his legacy. Man. And you know, I wish strength on his family at this time. Man, And I'm really truly praying for and pulling for a peaceful transition for that soul brother man. And I really truly genuinely appreciate him. But Man, I just I cannot express enough how major Malcolm Jamal Warner was for us and for the culture. So with that being said, man salute to him. Man, yes, yes, yes, yes, so I guess we can just transition and start to set the set the stage, if you will, for this show. I know a lot of y'all are looking at the title, and you're looking at the thumbnails and the images, and you're like, man, what in the world. You know what I mean? Some of you all just clicked on the podcast, didn't look at anything. You just want to hear what it is that I have to say. Some of you might not even have read the title, but the title and the overall theme of this conversation is the decay has been televised. The decay has been televised. Now I want to kind of dial back. If you didn't catch episode one from last week, Man, it was an incredible conversation. Salute once again in a major shout out to my brother Andre Clark from Drake Clark Comedy Invasion. He came and blessed the Thought cast and we had some tremendous conversations. Doing that conversation, I introduced and I spoke on the concept of cultural decay as it related to us here the culture. You know what I mean. And once again, if you've been listening, you know exactly who I'm referring to when I say the culture. So we're not gonna have to revisit that. We're not gonna slow walk that. But excuse me, I spoke about cultural decay, and so I've kind of got some not real pushback, but I've been nudged to kind of go deeper with what I mean by cultural decay and to kind of give some just a little bit more meat, put a little bit more meat on the bone as it relates to what I meant by cultural decay. And so that's kind of the that's kind of the premise and the motivation for this episode. On top of the drastic or tragic loss of Malcolm Jamal Warner and at this time and me really feeling nostalgic and really looking at it, and I just started having a very very very strong internal dialogue with myself. It's actually an argument, you know what I mean, that I'm having with myself. I know y'all think I'm nuts, But if you don't a argue with yourself, that's on you, you know what I mean. But I feel like I'm very much qualified to have a strong debates with myself. And so I was having one about this, and I want to pose the question, you know, for those of you all listening, I want to pose the question, has the declining quality of Black American television contributed to cultural decay? Has the declining quality of Black American television contributed to our cultural decay? That's the question I came up with in my head, man, and I have my argument on it, you know what I mean. And I've kind of looked at, you know, the other side of you know, both sides of the argument. I believe it. You know, television has been a mirror and a motor of the black identity for. Decades, you know what I mean. And I'm not and I'm just speaking specifically about television, but it's way more than television. You have television, you have music, You have so much more that with regard to entertainment, music and entertainment, but specifically, television has been a mirror and a motor of black identity. And when that. Mirror got cracked, so did the culture. In my opinion, now I can go back once again, keeping in line with you know, the Cosby Show, But the nineteen eighties and the nineteen nineties was like a golden error for television with regard to the culture. You know what I'm saying, man, Black American television was that was a golden error. We had shows like, of course, The Cosby Show, A Different World, Family Matters two to seven, The Fresh Prince of bear Lair. Amen. There was just so many great shows that there was a man, there was representation, there was aspiration, there was family structure, there was a moral compass. They addressed several social issues, very current, very relative and relevant excuse me, social issues of the time. Like it was just a very strong, strong error for television with regard to representation of the culture as well as once again, it was deeply rooted and deeply representative, deeply representative of the contemporary family structure. All of those shows that I mentioned, the core theme of the show was family. You understand what I'm saying. The Cosby Show, A Different World, Family Matters, The Fresh Prince of bel Air two two seven, Amen, all of these shows, the core theme of the show was family. It was all about your family. And if you think about it, if we keep it a brick and we keep it a cold brick in nineteen in the nineteen eighties, you're talking about from nineteen eighty to you know, the mid nineteen nineties, what was the core theme of your life. The core theme of your life was family. It was all about your family. Family, family, family, family, family, It was all about your family. And somewhere along the line, things started to shift. Yeah, Somewhere along the line, things started to shift. Yeah. So after the. Year two thousand, man, like, there was just a huge decline in black lead television. There wasn't a lot of television shows and sitcoms and series that were directly related and accurately depicting the experience of the culture. Right, what we saw was we saw a rise of reality TV. We saw shows like Love and Hip Hop and The Real World, etc. A, Big Brother, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And excuse me, Also, we begin to see fewer multi dimensional characters in these television shows, Like, there wasn't a lot of characters with a lot of depth or multi dimensional. Yeah. Then once again, we begin to see stereotypes becoming normalized again. Meanwhile, in the nineteen eighties and nineties, you saw man stereotypes challenged, stereotypes shmacked out of the sky. When you're talking about those shows, and now we're starting to see in two thousand, we're starting to see stereotypes become normalized again via television and the television shows. And then also we started to see networks begin to make decisions with regard to their economics over cultural value. So it was economics over cultural value. And then what did you see with this shift? Things started to change. Man had to change youth aspirations. We can start there. We're talking about the nineteen eighties and nineties. We're talking about a different world. You know what happened with a different world. All of us wanted to go to college. We all wanted to go to college, and we wanted to be like Dwayne Wade, Dwayne Wayne, excuse me, and Whitley Gilbert and Walter Oaks, and Ron Johnson and Kimberly Reese and Freddie I can't remember Freddy's last name in Freddie. We wanted to go to college. And we wanted to experience college life. You feel me. We wanted to join fraternities and sororities, right. We wanted to literally experience what it was to go to an institution of higher learning. And I know for myself, speak for myself. I'm not gonna project I'm gonna speak for myself. I largely attribute that to a Different World and the Cosby Show and the work that you know, Bill Cosby did with regard to promoting the college experience, and not just the college experience, but also promoting historically black colleges and universities, which I didn't attend one, but it was very That work was very instrumental in adding to the aspirations of not just me, but several people in my generation and a lot of you all are listening to this, and you can attest to this. You can smash the like button, you can hit the comments section, and you can attest to the fact that, yes, a Different world did want you to It caused you to aspire to go to college. Also, we saw a shifting the family dynamics right now. You're starting to see more shows that feature broken homes with regard to the culture, the absence of a father. You understand what I'm saying. You're starting to see a lot of different dynamics play out that were not, excuse me, indicative of the core family structure. Also, you're starting to see varying gender representation. You feel me it's that's starting to vary. You're starting to see a lot more by way of you know, homosexuality versus heterosexuality. You're starting to see more gender neutrality. Stuff starting to be a lot more riskue you feel me. And then of course it was you know, respectability and ambition. That stuff just shifted. It just really truly shifted. And not just that. Also you started to see a thing that I would be remiss if I didn't say, you're starting to see the over sexualization of are women within the culture? Yeah? Yeah, then it's a cold game. Now, this is I'm talking about two thousands and so one of the things I did. One of the things I did was I went and I said, in the midst of me having this conversation, I said, man, let me go take a look. Let me go take a look. And I went and. Got two samples based on with regard to the ratings, what were the most popular shows Black American led shows in nineteen eighty eight versus twenty twenty four? In nineteen eighty eight, you had The Cosby Show A Different World two to seven. Amen. What's happening now? Once again the Cosby Show A Different World two two seven Amen? And what's happening now. In two thousand and twenty four, you got a show called Harlem, which I have no idea what that is, The Shy, The Vince Staples Show, Belair. Sisters and Raising Canaan. Harlem, The Shy Vince Staples Show, Belair, Raising Canaan Sisters. It's incredible, man. I was. I was floored when I was literally floored when I looked and I compiled these lists, and I looked at them and I compared and contrasted. I literally was floored, man, when I compare it in contrast to those, I was literally floored. But anyway, let's keep going. Let's keep going. Let's keep going. Actually, maybe I should take a pause there and to shout out to our sponsors over at the Black Gentlemen Grooming Company. Salute to the family. Over the Black Gentlemen Grooming Company. We do have a line of all natural, handcrafted grooming products specifically with you in mind, so be sure to come check us out www dot the Black Gin dot com. That's www dot the Black gent dot com. We off of the best grooming buddies for you, for you that sung that youural and you handcraft. We want to help the swag swag us dot class and luxury luxury. Man, you got product self made for you, the top quality jas. Let's get a start with the black little. Black gay company compy you swag up bag and stop class and luxury and luxury. Yeah, Black gentlemen, I'm black company you swag us slag up style. Clay located at www dot the Black gent dot com. Yes indeed, man, yes, indeed, once again, salute to the family over the black gentleman groom and company. Man all right, man, I I don't even, I don't even. It's almost like. If you look at nineteen eighty because I really tried to look at nineteen eighty, because I understood that the eighties and nineties was a golden age for Black American television, you know what I'm saying, or at least black lead TV shows. And so if you look at the. Decrease in the quality of the shows since nineteen eighty, and it's right, I can step with the. Level of cultural decay that's taking place. In my opinion, you look at economic gains versus persistent systematic barriers. You also look at the role of media and uplifting and misleading communities, which is something that's really becoming more and more and more revealed in modern times, you know what I mean, with the whole onslide of social media, as well as the comparing and contrasting of you know, different networks and storylines, and with regard to the news media and so on and so forth. But we are just in a very very very peculiar place, you know what I mean. And in my opinion, you know, and my take on it is that the tea the TV decline did contribute to cultural stagnation, even if it's not the soul cause I'm not saying that it's the only reason for the cultural decay. But there's no way that you can tell me that the different the declining of quality television shows that positively depict the Black American experience and positively depict the core UH culture and I mean the core family and core family values. You can't tell me, excuse me, that the lack of such television shows and the availability of those shows in modern times has not negatively impacted the culture and has not added to the what I've what I've coined cultural decay. It's impossible if you look at it, and you look at television man, do you realize that you see more black men kissing one another in twenty twenty five, you see more black men on television kissing other black men than actually married to black women. Y'all never noticed that. And I'm talking about television shows, I'm talking about ads, commercials. You see more black men in a homosexual capacity and engaging in homosexual activities more than you actually see successful black men married to black women. And you can't tell me that that has not added to our cultural decay, just the lack of representation of the core family. Can't tell me that that has not had an effect on our cultural stagnation. The just the normalization. Of our cultural traumas period and in the past, we've always realized that representation informs identity. It's set to a standard once again. I just told you a different world, had me wanting to go to college, had me wanting to get good grades, watching Theo Huxtable work his way through high school, not necessarily being a good student at a point in his life, and then transition into being an honor student and him making an honor roll. And I'll never forget the episode where he made the honor roll and his father put out his fist and hit his rock. You know what I mean? For him getting actually working and getting good grades like that gave me something to expire to do, Like it made it cool to be It made it cool to actually be smart. Right. And then also they had an episode where and they unveiled that THEO actually was dyslexic. He suffered from dyslexia. You understand what I'm saying. So now we're dealing with with with with students who have learning disabilities. And now there's a message for you and a message for them and hope for them, something that they can connect to and identify with. Like representation informs identity and it sets a standard. And what standard is modern television setting? You feel me? Like? What standard is? Model is modern television setting? And what we're dealing with in modern television with modern black television. And I ain't gonna pull in movies in theater and so on and so forth, but the majority of myttern black leg television, what we are dealing with is cultural displacement by entertainment. That's what we're dealing with, Cultural displacement by entertainment. Yea ahead, man, Yeah. So we're talking about like I said in twenty twenty four, you got shows like bel Air and Harlem, all American, all of Tyler Perry's work, but Beauty and Black like, do they hit the same way as the television from the eighties, like you asked her that, do they hit the same way as the Cosby show Family Matters two two seven? You feel me? Amen? Do they hit this What's Happening Now? Which What's Happening Now was it was a reboot of What's Happening, but it showed them in an older age. It showed Rag married, and it showed them in an older age, but it was even still there was the core family and marriage and you saw a family. Man. It's crazy, But does that? Does this modern TV hit the same way? Do they do cultural lifting? Are they speaking on social issues? Are they speaking on things that are are relevant in modern times as it relates to raising the social economic status of the culture. Nah? So it makes me the way I think, I say to myself and myself say, huh. I got to question the authenticity and agenda behind many of these shows, especially when you talk to like, how many drug dealing shows we gotta have? How many dope do you you got what's the dude's name? You got ghosts? What with the power? You got? Now? Power has all these different spin offs. You got Raising Cainan, you got Beyond Meth And this is all just from one entity. How many dope dealing shows we gotta have? You feel Me? They just I see today releasing the show Magic City about the strip Club. Are we being serious? Are we being serious? They're about to have a show about Magic City, about the strip club. I hear people talking about and we ain't even talked about the reality TV to love and hip hop and so on and so forth. What kind of culture lifting is that stuff doing? I have to question the authenticity and agenda behind many other shows. No, we have to have as far as the culture, we have to have more creative control. We have to have some integrity. There has to be some social responsibility. We have to really accurately tell our stories you feel me, and not just allow people to come in and shine a light on some of the social issues that we have. You feel me, and that's what's broadcasting the most, and that's what's really taking it and emphasized through the modern media. Meanwhile, other demographics of people, you still see husbands, and wives, you see children, you see professionals, you see people interacting together, you see them sitting down eating, so on and so forth. Like. But as far as the culture, no, no, no, there is a need for us to really truly step this thing up. Man. Yeah. And I'm trying to tell you man like, we can't expect the mirror to lie to us and expect to find clarity. And I know these is hard conversations. I know nobody really wants to have these conversations. People aren't really thinking about this. We're just going with the flow, you know what I mean. I'm gonna tell you as far as personally, I'm gonna tell you the things that I do. I'm very intentional about curating what I watch, you know what I mean. I think I told you all about that. I have a real true belief that what I consume is what manifest itself in my life. So I'm really intentional with what I watch, what I listen to, what I allow to take up space in my mind and ultimately begin manifesting in my life. So for me, I curate what it is that I watch and I think as a collective. That was a play on words as a collective. That's one of the things that we can do. We can begin curating what it is that we watch and what we support, and then man. Can we create We can create new narratives. We can support independent creators the ends if you will, we can support independent creators. We can read more, we can write more, you know what I mean, And we can start creating new narratives like how about I want to hear about a family you know, persevering, you know what I'm saying. How about which is something you never see anymore? Why can't we have more shows where the father is in the house, where the father does stay. Can we have some more black male doctors married to black female lawyers and they have children that go to college and so on and so forth, Like, man, we can we have more of that, you know what I mean? And then also another thing for me, which is something I'm big on, is I'm intentional with teaching my children media literacy. I'm teaching them media literacy. I'm teaching them how to gauge and how to read media and figure out them there instantly. Is it something that they need to be consuming? I tell my oldest, My oldest is twenty two. Should be twenty three in November. So I'm always on her about what she consumes. And I have my theory about you know, portions and what you should consume and shouldn't consume, and what you need to do and how you need to balance your consumption and so on and so forth. But that's all a part of my training for my children as it relates to media literacy. And also I think we need we need to empower the audience. We gotta be the culture, man, don't just consume it, like be the culture, define it. When you see stuff that's not representative of who you are and who we are, then you gotta, man, we gotta call that out. Man, get that shit out of here. That's not us, That's not this, This ain't that, this, ain't that. Like we got us really truly begin if we because it's too much of it that's controlled people that are outside of the culture. I'm gonna just say it that way too much of it is controlled by people who are outside of the culture. And at some point we gotta say, damn, can we get my can I get my face back? And that what we used to say when somebody used to stare at you, when we was young. Damn. Can I get my face back? Like, can we get our culture back? Can we get our shit back? Can we take it back? Can we bring? Can we bring Daddy home? You feel me? Can Mama? Can? Can we bring? Can we can we bring Big Mama back? You know Big Mama gone? Like Big Mama's a figment of everybody imagination. Bring Big Mama back home? You understand what I'm talking about? Like, Nah, it's okay, It's cool to be at Grandmama, like for real, for real a grandma. Like we said it used to be the most pinnacle piece on the board. That's what we said in episode two, or excuse me, episode one, Big Mama used to be the most pinnacle piece on the board. Can we bring Big Mama back? Apologies at the wet Ma had the wet my whistle? Can we bring Big Mama back? Can we take control? Don't just consume it, don't just look for stuff to consume, Like, nah, you really got to be the culture? Like, can we get back to being a culture. In the eighties and the nineties, we were the culture like it was ours. Can we get back to being it and defining it for ourselves? Not allowing it to be defined for us. Nah, man, Like, my final message on it is the decay. It may have been televised, but the restoration is in our hands, like on some real shit, Like it's our it's our responsibility. It's our responsibility, and we have to get it and we have to restore it so that we can pass it to the babies in a better condition. You know what I'm saying. I won't say a better condition, but closer to what we inherited. You feel me because I'm so far we're so far away from the culture I inherited. Like I said, I came up in the eighties. I was born in the late seventies, came up in the eighties, nineties. You understand, I've seen the decay of the family. I've seen the decay of the culture. I've seen it, I've witnessed it. I've been a part of it, participated, You feel me, And so like we here, we here, and we got to do something, like we have to do something. Ain't that worth fighting for? It? Like ain't that worth? Ain't it worth doing something for? And and and you know my and I'm not saying you got to be this way, but my cultural and generational responsibility supersedes my need to be entertained. You feel me like my cultural and generational responsibility, it supersedes my need to be entertained. You feel me like I like asking and breast just like the next man. But my, my, my, my cultural and generational responsibility, like my obligation, supersedes my need to be entertained. It supersedes my name, my need to watch Magic City and see what's going on. Tell the DJ I need a hunting ones. Like nah, my, my, my cultural and generational responsibility supersedes my need to be entertained. Man, shout out once again to Malcolm, Jamal Warner, Man and man the great Bill Cosby and and uh doctor Bill Cosby in all of the the pioneer is that understood the assignment as it related to the appropriate representation and messaging and being able to slip the medicine in to the culture, be able to slip the medicine in. I seen what y'all did. And now that I'm of age, man, and I'm of this level of wisdom, and I'm of this level of scholastic aptitude, I've seen what you did. I seen what you did, man. I want to invite y'all to continue the conversation in the comments and contribute to this conversation. And I want you all to literally answer the question of the episode, which is has the declining quality of Black American television contributed to our cultural decay? Yeah? Yeah, I want you to answer that, man. Man, salute to y'all. Man, Thank you all so much. Man, I really truly genuinely appreciate it. Man. Hit the like button. Man, be sure to see this content. Man, don't keep it all to yourself, you know, that's what y'all like to do. I damn never want to stay on here and talk and talk a little bit of noise to y'all. Man, But I guess I better go, man, And thank you all so much, really truly genuinely appreciate you all. If I had a million tons, I couldn't tell it all. Be sure to come join the Simple Truth Network Man, our very own super information exchange www dot do Simpletruth dot Network. Once again, super shout out to our sponsors over at the Black Gentleman Grooming Company. Be sure to go check them out www dot the Blackgen dot com. That's www dot the Blackgen dot com. And I'm really gonna hold y'all to it. Man, when we know better, we gotta do better. Like when we know better, we gotta do better, and we gotta pay attention. And once again, man, this is on us. You understand what I'm saying. This is on us, nah Man, When they stop showing us the truth on the screen, we started believe in the lies in our own lives. Man, it's time to flip the channel. This is Junior, the truth standing off man, giving you your daily reminder to view your life like a pair of dice until your life becomes a pairadise. Man, I'm a high born player made if you don't know anything else about me. At the end of the day, I gotta keep pushing baby. One till. I'm hustled harder than the most feasts on these streets. Got a revolver I told for these niggas trying to take me off the block where I points up Jailie's sit, Bailey's out, the bottom of smoke.