I never realized that.

From the episode of TV One on One featuring Debbie Allen:

Cathy Hughes: I want to talk about all these various hats that you have worn and wear and do so well. A Different World, the TV series, did so much to glorify and showcase our young people in college life. I also read that when you took over producing and directing that you had a rule that there would be no hair weaves, no colored contact lenses, and no false eyelashes.

Debbie Allen: Or long nails, right. I stripped those girls down.

Cathy Hughes: You wanted them in their natural beauty.

Debbie Allen: Yeah, I wanted them to be natural. You know, I went to Howard University, honey. I was there when Angela Davis was walking with that beautiful, frizzy, beautiful mane of nappy beautiful hair. And I wanted this show to reflect the beauty of African-American women. And we had so many different kinds of women that were beautiful in many different ways. And they should allow that. Everybody shouldn't try to look the same. So I went in there and stripped them down, and the show became more real.

Cathy Hughes: And so popular. And it's also written that it helped increase black college enrollment, that black children saw the show and wanted to go to college for the first time.

Their conversation reminds of why I have never liked The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, or the skanky Bachelor Pad, a show that makes For the Love of Ray J look tasteful. Every woman (and most of the men) look like carbon copies of each other. It's not just that they are almost all white and between the ages of 21 and 35. Every woman on those shows look like they stepped off of the beauty pageant stage and on to Chris Harrison's television set. They seem less like human beings and more like characters from two of my favorite episodes of The Twilight Zone, original recipe: "Eye of the Beholder" and "Number 12 Looks Just Like You". Creepy.

If only black children, and other children, had Dwayne and Whitley and Ron and Kim and Freddie and Jaleesa to look up to today. Now they have Snooki, JWoww, and The Situation. It's a different world indeed.

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What I'm Watching This Presidents' Day.

This morning I'm watching the Black Men Revealed marathon on TV One. "Why He Won't Go to Church" is on right now. Next up is "Head to Toe: Turn Ons and Turn Offs." Earlier I watched part of "Black Male Mythology" featuring Martin from The Cosby Show, who believes his straight marriage should be valued more than any gay or lesbian marriage. Hmph. Then, as I was rotating my laundry, I watched most of "When White is Right," with this fool named Ocean, who prefers dating white women because they're easy, and doesn't like dating black women because they won't put up with his crap. However he doesn't like when black women date white men because he doesn't like the image he has in his head of them having sex.

I'm liking the show, and I'm wondering why this type of conversation isn't being shown most other networks. Not just a show displaying coherent black men, but coherent people having rich discussions about cultural topics. I don't hear about anything like this on CNN or, god forbid, Fox News.

Also, I've been watching LOGO, now that it's part of my cable package. I revisited Can't Get A Date this weekend. Of course, LOGO only shows the gay and lesbian episodes, so I may never get to see the lost straight episodes since VH1 isn't showing it anymore. Harumph.

As I was perusing the LOGO website, I came across Laughing Matters More, "a reality-based romp with four of the hottest lesbian comics working today." Why Kathleen Madigan isn't involved, I don't know. But anyway. Why can't Comedy Central have more women comedians featured like this? Or even, different comedians in general? I do enjoy some Comedy Central, but much as I love reruns of Chappelle's Show, I don't need anymore regurgitated incarnations of Dane Cook or Carlos Mencia. They really need to change it up and diversify their product to keep up with the demographics of our American society. If Comedy Central is leaving me behind, (or is it the other way around?) then I know other people like me are looking for other entertainment outlets as well. And demanding that YouTube take down clips of Crank Yankers and The Daily Show is not going to take care of the problem.

Musings from an Adorable American: "It's Valentine's Day?" Edition

Things of various importance that have been on my mind this week:

• The State of the Black Union 2007
  

On Saturday morning, I stumbled upon this day long event on C-SPAN, while I was wading through the jungle that is the new TimeWarner Cable program guide. Ugh. This whole channel grouping thing is not helpful to me at all. I'm just confused and frustrated, and my networks aren't where they are supposed to be!

Back to the black people. I watched this program before and after the Barack Obama Presidential Campaign announcement--which C-SPAN cut to, then came back--and before and after I went to Step class at my gym.

Lots of pertinent issues were discussed by the usual suspects, like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, as well as other distinguished panelists. Even though Sharpton and Jackson are both ministers, I still can't tell you what their actual jobs are. They just seem to be on call whenever people like Michael Richards or Joe Biden need to apologize to the black community.

The most striking part of the State of the Black Union was not the gospel dance party afterwards that moderator Tavis Smiley didn't expect C-SPAN to stick around for. (What were they going to cut to, an empty Senate chamber? It was Saturday. That follow-up musical performance was the most exciting spectacle C-SPAN has covered in a long time.) The most striking part was that the majority of issues discussed were important to every American: health care, the growing prison population, education, employment, financial matters, the illegal occupation of Iraq. The event could have been called, "The State of the Union, and we just happen to be Black." This conversation was way more informative and engaging than either George W. Bush's State of the Union address this year, or the Democratic Party's response delivered by Senator Jim Webb. Just like Nickelodeon and Linda Ellerbee used to say when I was growing up, Black History is Everyone's History. And possibly more now than ever, when bankruptcies abound, home mortgage foreclosures are increasing, the gap between the very rich and the very poor is widening exponentially, and No Child Left Behind is leaving behind most of its school districts, the State of the Black Union is the State of Everyone's Union.

• Tina Fey's spot-on assesment of Aaron Sorkin

"...Sunday night at the Writers Guild Awards...Fey told the crowd, 'I hear Aaron Sorkin is in Los Angeles wearing the same dress - but longer, and not funny.' "

Hee!

• The State of the Black Union 2006

I watched the beginning of it this morning on TV One. Compared to the day-long coverage on the 2007 version on C-SPAN, I didn't like the commercials TV One has to show for revenue, but I did appreciate the editing. Listing the name and accomplishments under each speakers face is much more effective and time-efficient than Tavis Smiley taking two minutes to vocalize the same thing. I know Mr. Smiley is being reverrent and polite to these great American leaders, but I've got things to do. Let's keep it moving. You know these people can be longwinded. And when I say, "these people," I mean the mature members of our American community who love a captive audience and a TV camera pointed at their face.

• Gilmore Girls

This show has gone down the pooper. I was so bored during last night's episode, "Farewell, My Pet." The only saving graces were Michel and Paris, both of whom I have always loved.

• Debra Dickerson on The Colbert Report

I cannot believe this fool. Watch the clip that had me yelling at my TV screen. Like that's an unusual occurence for me. It's at the bottom of the Comedy Central page, so hurry before it's gone.

To summarize for the time- and/or technologically-impaired, Ms. Dickerson informs Mr. Colbert that Barack Obama is not really black, since, according to her, "'Black,' in our political and social reality, means those descended from West African slaves." Calling him black would supposedly disrespect his father's Kenyan heritage. Despite the fact that Senator Obama was born in Hawaii, and his mother, white though she may be, was born in Kansas. Mr. Colbert suggested calling Senator Obama, "nouveau black," to which Ms. Dickerson replied that they could call him "African African-American." Mr. Colbert also had a solution to Senator Obama's non-owned heritage: he could be someone's slave for a short while for the black experience and to gain some street cred; to avoid the racist overtones, he could be Jesse Jackson's slave. Ms. Dickerson had no response for that.

I'd love for Ms. Dickerson to come up to my face and tell me I'm not black because I can't trace my ancestry to a particular West African slave in my family tree. What an idiot. I am so not buying her book.

I'm sure I'll have more stuff to think about later this week.