This week, after witnessing a television tragedy called “Basketball Wives LA,” Sherri Shepherd weighed in to tweet about how much she hates the show.
Ironically, while Shepherd admits that the show is “disgraceful,” she just keeps on watching. The first night of this “pristine media extravaganza” featured a nasty, weave-pulling fight between Laura Govan and Malaysia Pargo. Govan’s claim to fame is being former fiance and four-time baby-mama of NBA star Gilbert Arenas. In case you aren’t aware, most basketball wives have never actually been married to anyone – sort of like saying you graduated from college when you just took a few classes.
“I got physically ill watching Gloria Govan and Malaysia fighting like animals. Resolution via fighting?” Shepherd tweeted. She had apparently mistaken Laura for her sister Gloria.
“How do Uteach young girl 2 have respect & self-esteem, by showing her thru UR actions that you’ll pop someone in the mouth?” she continued.
Even comedian Ricky Smiley noted that the show doesn’t set a good example in the national conversation on bullying.
“Did yall know that bullying is a serious problem in our schools??? And teens love that show!!,” he said on Twitter. “And you wonder why our young ladies in middle and high school think this is how to resolve issues, yea I made jokes as a comic. But notfunny.”
Smiley makes a very good point. It’s tough for us to say a damn thing to our kids about bullying, when we are the ones turning our televisions to Vh-1. Shows like this feed into the human fixation on sex and violence, both of which sell better than almost anything. We love this show for the same reasons that we all break our necks to see the wreckage from a fatal car crash. The bloodier the crash, the more we need to see it. This is why Shepherd, like millions of other Americans, can’t change the channel.
But perhaps there is a point when we choose to rise above the poison. It’s not easy, and life is much simpler when we follow the crowd. I admitted, when I wrote about why I was ditching Lil Wayne and BET, that I love Lil Wayne’s music. In fact, I don’t hate all of Lil Wayne, just the five-percent of him that talks about murdering women, old ladies, other black men and little babies. The same can be true of Basketball Wives; its OK to admit that we love the drama. But we must also consider whether or not shows like this are good for our souls or for the souls of our children. So, like chain smokers who give up cigarettes to protect their kids from side stream smoke, perhaps black America should consider divorcing the Basketball Wives.
But that’s just my two cents.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Professor at Syracuse University and founder of the Your Black World Coalition. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.
