True Life/Made On MTV

[Steeltrap]

Originally posted by cleopatrajones
I use the term White Black people basically to mean Black people that "act" like White people. This term basically applies to middle class Black people who's lifestyles mimic the White upper and middle class. Or like lovelyivy84 says "upwardly mobile" Black people who basically emulate White structure (two parent family, house in the subabrbs...)(I grew up in this environment, suburbs and all so I'm not really attacking that lifestyle but I do criticize it). I know the media tends to show only one kind of Black person and does not reflect the diversity that is found among Black people. That is changing though. However, we as a people must value Black people who sing in the kitchen with a plate of food, want to say "hi mom" into the camera or whatever have you. If we don't value it who will, certainly not White people who deem this to be pathological. I hope that answers the question about the White Black people.

Disclaimer: This is strictly Steeltrap's opinion.

How dare you equate the "two-parent family," suburban homes, and middle-class values (e.g. personal responsibility, including no indiscriminate, unprotected sexual activity and emphasis on education and hard work) as being a bad thing. What the (expletive) is wrong with striving for this ideal?

On your other point, I can value people who sing in the kitchen with a plate of food and say "hi mom" into the camera, or what have you. That doesn't mean that I have to behave the same way.

[Salience]

Originally posted by cleopatrajones
I use the term White Black people basically to mean Black people that "act" like White people. This term basically applies to middle class Black people who's lifestyles mimic the White upper and middle class. Or like lovelyivy84 says "upwardly mobile" Black people who basically emulate White structure (two parent family, house in the subabrbs...)(I grew up in this environment, suburbs and all so I'm not really attacking that lifestyle but I do criticize it). I know the media tends to show only one kind of Black person and does not reflect the diversity that is found among Black people. That is changing though. However, we as a people must value Black people who sing in the kitchen with a plate of food, want to say "hi mom" into the camera or whatever have you. If we don't value it who will, certainly not White people who deem this to be pathological. I hope that answers the question about the White Black people.

This is why group self-hatred will continue, because we love to feed into stereotypes. All sides of a stereotype.

Cleo: I don't know why you would criticize being BLESSED enough to have two parents living with you, clothing you, making sure you had what you NEEDED to SUCCEED in life, recognizing that they were ELEVATING YOU, as perhaps they had to do for themselves. So, you criticize them (and other upwardly mobile parents and families) by calling them White Blacks. But, Cleo, I'm not attacking you. I just really want to know why middle class life is so negative.

This is for Everyone to Comment Upon: I just get irritated by the "keepin it real" syndrome. Fine, you are happy to see "ghetto fabulous" people on t.v., that is your prerogative. Okay, WTH is fabulous abut living in poverty,as the comedian said? But, just as fine, watching the Huxtables, or the family from "Family Matters," or whomever. No one will love any show about Black folks, because no one show can EVER keep it real! It's television: fiction, people! even the reality shows are dramatized to some extent. We are too diverse for one group to show us keepin it real. Heck, people state that "sadiddy" fraternity and sorority members aren't keepin it real, or else they're glorified gang members, acting a little too real.

Question: Why is it "White Black" to live in the burbs, and possibly send your child to private secular school, but it's not "White Black" to get blond weave down to your booty, blue contacts, send your kids to church schools (still private) and/or still rock the Prada/Armani and roll in the Navigators? Um, didn't white people have all that before we did? We weren't allowed to shop at Sax Fifth etc. until a hot minute ago. Is it me?

I used to joke with my friends that I would get a "Proud Bourgeois Diva" shirt, because folks act like calling someone "Boozhy" (howeva you spell it) is an insult.

It's my world, it's what I know, it's keeping it real.

[cleopatrajones]

I think people are misreading what I'm saying about "White Black" people. (That is my fault, I should not have used the word act in my second post) I can understand why. I study anthropology in school and a lot of what I learn is basically about valuing all cultures and finding the order and "logic" of some aspects of peoples lives that can be seen as deinquent or disfunctional. In American society White people and the way they live has become the norm. So when White people deem the two parent family as the norm, that's how everyone should be and you're damned if you're not from a two parent household. I have a huge problem with that. I become irrate when the single parent household becomes pathological and disfunctional, which is how it is seen by the dominant group. There is nothing wrong with being from a two parent household. But when this becomes the standard (which it is), and anything else is disfunctional then I have a problem. I guess "White Black" people would come in when other Black people side with the structure and condemn the single parent family as well. I use the single parent family as an example. There are plenty of other aspects that go along with the middle class existence.
I think it's good to be critical of many of the aspects i our society. Nothing is really wrong or right. I'm not trying to say everyone should dance with a plate of food in their hand in the kitchen, I myself find the value in it (I don't dance with a plat of food eithr). I'm sorry if the term White Black people offended people, but I'm glad it stirred a little controvercy and people were critical of it. I should probably stick to my academic circles at school when using it though.
I think that the Black middle class also have a responseability to the Black "lower class, working class" (I don't know what's PC). Again, that does not involve condemning them for their "pathological" life style, but rather aiding them through programs, monetary donations, etc. They're our people too.
One last thing. I don't like the term "Black way of living" or "ghetto" and any of those other terms that seem to define and quantify the way one segment of the population live. However, there are general traits that can be found in the Black middle class, upper class, and lower class. So there is no Black way of life but you have to look at class and region when assessing such things. Like Salience, I don't like the "keepin it real" idea either. That implies one way to "be Black" and there is no one way.

[sasharala]

I know that I am new here, but I just happened to browse through this discussion....then a thought hit me concerning cleo's statement about "two parent households" being "norm" because white people started the trend and the rest of us just love to follow.

I type this not to down-grade but just as a separate thought. If your beliefs stem from the Bible, then wouldn't two parent households originate from Africa, with Eve and Adam being the first two parent household? And even if that isn't your belief, cavemen were said to reside in nomadic tribes so they pretty much had the group/community raising the child bit. And if evolution is your thing, then apes were more into the alpha male of the group leads the pack with the females to take care of the young, so I can't tell if that's a polygamy situation or what.

Basically, my point is that the white culture didn't "come up with" the two parent family. It was around long before them. If anything, the "single parent" mentality is fairly recent.

Just my thoughts....sorry to intrude.

[Phasad1913]

Originally posted by sasharala
I know that I am new here, but I just happened to browse through this discussion....then a thought hit me concerning cleo's statement about "two parent households" being "norm" because white people started the trend and the rest of us just love to follow.

I type this not to down-grade but just as a separate thought. If your beliefs stem from the Bible, then wouldn't two parent households originate from Africa, with Eve and Adam being the first two parent household? And even if that isn't your belief, cavemen were said to reside in nomadic tribes so they pretty much had the group/community raising the child bit. And if evolution is your thing, then apes were more into the alpha male of the group leads the pack with the females to take care of the young, so I can't tell if that's a polygamy situation or what.

Basically, my point is that the white culture didn't "come up with" the two parent family. It was around long before them. If anything, the "single parent" mentality is fairly recent.

Just my thoughts....sorry to intrude.

Go head sasharala! I just had to commend you on this.

[Ms. Jay]

I love True Life on Mtv!!!! I would have like to have seen the urban cheerleaders in more of a "cheerleading setting" instead of at school and home. My favorite would have to be True Life I'm Having Plastic Surgery. That was really good and gross!

[DELTAQTE]

I saw True Life on MTV "I'm an urban cheerleader again and I have to stand by that I didn't like how they didn't focus on the girl's schooling or anything like that. I just wished they had digged deeper than they did.

And I'm sorry but the lighting did NOT flatter some of my sistahs on the show!


I saw the plastic surgery one, I was like "this is so damn gross"


QTE

[Blackwatch]

I saw the Urban Cheerleader thing as well and I can say that I had mixed feelings about it. On one hand you see that there are black girls who are trying to compete in an arena dominated by whites and are doing well dispite the disadvantages that they have. Yet on the other end we do see the stereotypical things that may be present in our community as well. One telling point is when KaRhonda talks about how they can compete with the white squads. She says that the white squads can tumble better than them, but that they can dance better by being more "vulgar" with the dance steps. She actually uses the term vulgar when describing their own dance style and then equates the vulgarity with having more soul or being "black". "Vulgar" may not be the word that she meant (she is only 16 I believe) but that is the word that she used. I think this is where the debate between Cleo, honeykiss, and lovelyivy and others is stemming from- that negativity and "authentic" blackness are equated in mainstream culture.
The debate about suburban living and two parent households being 'white' shows us what happens in a white supremacist society. Even the blacks begin to believe in white supremacy. This means that some even think that to be "pathological" is to be black. So we see how Cleopatra starts criticizing her suburban lifestyle as being "white" because success, in white supremacy means white. We also see how KaRhonda describes "vulgar" dancing as being black. One critical question we as blacks have to ask is what is success? Is it economic prosperity (read suburban lifestyle) or is it love of self (a true self, not a culturally manufactured one)? Because if it is about economics, then we must get ours at all costs, even our own souls, but if it is love of self, we have to do a lot of deconstructing of images to find the true self and love it.
Am I offended by negative/stereotypical images in mainstream media, yes, not because they aren't true representations of SOME black people, but because the serve in the on going project of white supremacy by essentializing "authentic blackness" and equating it with pathology.
Blackwatch!!!

[CrimsonTide4]

I finally watched the chit tonight and as a teacher, I was PISSED.

BRITTANY worked my nether regions something serious.

1. HER GOAL IS TO BE A CHEERLEADER?!?!!?

2. OLD GIRL GETS TO PRACTICE and she is on ACADEMIC PROBATION!! Naw cuz that isht don't work with me as a parent or a teacher. As a parent, old girl would have been at home until ALL GRADES were raised. As expensive as it is, I am not going to be working all of these jobs for EXTRAS and you cannot do the BASIC -- get decent grades.

3. Her damn crying -- granted I was never a cheerleader but old girl was more upset about FALLING than FAILING!!

4. Her family DANCING -- NOOO
Brittany and her FAMILY get the WACK AWARD!! She also gets a sub award in YOU SHO IS UGLY for not hitting the books more regularly and STAYING after school for help rather than cheering.

KARHONDA gets a UGLY AZZ MAKEUP award for that RED LIPSTICK, LIGHT BLUE EYE SHADOW, and all that glitter.

I do believe that cheerleading is a sport and like any athlete, you need to work hard and STUDY HARDER.

[NOWorNEVER]

Originally posted by CrimsonTide4

BRITTANY worked my nether regions something serious.

1. HER GOAL IS TO BE A CHEERLEADER?!?!!?
2. OLD GIRL GETS TO PRACTICE and she is on ACADEMIC PROBATION!!
3. Her damn crying
4. Her family DANCING -- NOOO

My brother and I watched it again tonight. And I know this is wrong, but every time Brittany fell or landed, my brother was like "BOOM!!!" We wrong...

Seriously though, as a former high school cheerleader (& a good one ), I think their squad was good but needed to work on attitudes and getting FOCUSED before performances rather than doing the lil' booty shake dance as a warm-up If anyone has seen MTV True Life: I'm a cheerleader (not I'm an urban cheerleader), you'll note how much more focused and serious those girls were about competition. I doubt it had anything to do with them being white.

[CrimsonTide4]

Originally posted by NOWorNEVER


I think their squad was good but needed to work on attitudes and getting FOCUSED before performances rather than doing the lil' booty shake dance as a warm-up

Yeah there was a lot of divisiveness from within the team and the coach only seemed to care about routines and accuracy and not what was going on ON THE TEAM.

BOOOOOOM!!

[DELTAQTE]

Like I said, SOME OF THE LIGHTING DID NOT COMPLIMENT MY SISTAS! Kashonda was one of them. She is a dark skinned sista and they should of taken that into account.

I agree, the other "I'm a cheerleader" did have drama, but damn it seemed so more focused than this one.

I applaud them for being the only black squad to go to nationals, but I just wish it had been more positive.

I mean damn was anyone saying this about the football games in the other true life?

"We are going to the biggest game of the year, I expect some fighting, maybe some shooting".

Damn Damn Damn!!

I like the cheer captain(Nikki I think?) she was always smiling. And the little freshman girl that said "It's all about me" I thought she was cool also.

BOOM!lollol




QTE

[DELTAQTE]

I also thought the one "True Life: I'm a Porn Star" was really sad, but informative.

There was a very pretty asian girl that revealed at the end of the show that she was HIV positive because of an anal sex scene and she began to cry. It's cause of her that they started using protection on screen.




QTE

[12dn94dst]

We can only hope that our girl KaRhonda and her contemporaries will be watching and use this as a point of motivation.

Kel

++++++++++++++++++

Here is another example that shows SUccess begins with SU. All work and play... ... Make the SU Cheerleaders some of the best around.

For years when one tuned in to the National Cheerleading Association's (NCA) national championship competition, the only faces seen were those of petite, blond-haired, blue-haired girls.

Throughout the entire competition you may spot one or two ... maybe at most five brown faces. But those days are over. Everyone who tunes in the last weekend in April will be treated to a performance by the Southern University Cheerleading Squad, the number two-ranked squad in the nation.

The group of 17 individuals competed in the NCA national competition April 4-6, in Daytona Beach, Fla.

"I could not believe the entire weekend! It was like I was dreaming," said James Smith, who has been coaching the SU cheerleaders for the past eight years.

When Smith took over the squad eight years ago, it had been all-female for 20 years. In his eight years here, he has transformed the team into a coed cheerleading powerhouse not only amongst other historically black colleges and universities, (although they do have three Black National Championship titles under their belt), but is also a force to be reckoned with in any capacity.

"We are now a premiere, top rated cheerleading program ... I am proud to coach such a wonderfully talented, hard-working set of young people," said Smith.

The SU Cheerleaders are now the highest-rankingall-black cheerleading squad in nation, surpassing their own record last year, when they were ranked tenth in the nation. Grambling State University, who was also present at last week's competition, is currently ranked 11th in the nation.

The Southern cheerleaders are indeed a special group of athletes; many of them can be found up before daylight running to stay in shape or hitting the weight room between classes. They endure hours of practice to perfect dance routines, coming up with new and innovative cheers and chants for every situation.

For instance, when a player on the opposite team misses the goal by mere inches, the next thing heard is: "You missed the whole goal, you ain't mad is you, huh what!"

They can also be found in the Women's Gym nightly pushing the envelope trying more difficult stunts and tumbling passes designed to wow crowds from all over.

"The squad is so dedicated to being the best," Smith stated " ... I am forever grateful that God has allowed me to be in their lives."

The team is so dedicated to becoming, being and staying the best that they often seek out the help of others in order to make themselves better at what they do.

"A couple of the guys and I traveled to Mississippi about a month ago to work with a gymnastics instructors in order to improve our tumbling abilities," said Roy Youngblood, a native Baton Rouge, who transferred from Northwestern State University.

But in the end all of their hard work and dedication paid off. Their reward: Being named one of the best in the country.

"I am so proud of them, I think this award is outstanding," said Terral Jackson, director of student programs. "They have worked very hard and they are now seeing the fruits of their labor. And be reminded that this was not a black competition; this was a national competition."

"The only thing that could make this moment better is if we would have won first," Jackson said laughingly.

"I felt like I was on top of the world when they called our name," said Tremayne Baker of Atlanta. "It gave me joy to see people actually wanting to see us perform. It shocked a lot of people to see us do as well as we did, us being an all-black squad from an HBCU."

The squad credits their coach with being a large factor in their journey to the top.

"James is incredible, he comes up with routines in his sleep," Jonine Moch, of Shreveport once said.

Smith just brushes the compliment off saying he couldn't do it without such a wonderful group of young people.

[Honeykiss1974]

Originally posted by 12dn94dst
We can only hope that our girl KaRhonda and her contemporaries will be watching and use this as a point of motivation.

Kel

++++++++++++++++++

Here is another example that shows SUccess begins with SU. All work and play... ... Make the SU Cheerleaders some of the best around.

For years when one tuned in to the National Cheerleading Association's (NCA) national championship competition, the only faces seen were those of petite, blond-haired, blue-haired girls.

Throughout the entire competition you may spot one or two ... maybe at most five brown faces. But those days are over. Everyone who tunes in the last weekend in April will be treated to a performance by the Southern University Cheerleading Squad, the number two-ranked squad in the nation.

The group of 17 individuals competed in the NCA national competition April 4-6, in Daytona Beach, Fla.

"I could not believe the entire weekend! It was like I was dreaming," said James Smith, who has been coaching the SU cheerleaders for the past eight years.

When Smith took over the squad eight years ago, it had been all-female for 20 years. In his eight years here, he has transformed the team into a coed cheerleading powerhouse not only amongst other historically black colleges and universities, (although they do have three Black National Championship titles under their belt), but is also a force to be reckoned with in any capacity.

"We are now a premiere, top rated cheerleading program ... I am proud to coach such a wonderfully talented, hard-working set of young people," said Smith.

The SU Cheerleaders are now the highest-rankingall-black cheerleading squad in nation, surpassing their own record last year, when they were ranked tenth in the nation. Grambling State University, who was also present at last week's competition, is currently ranked 11th in the nation.

The Southern cheerleaders are indeed a special group of athletes; many of them can be found up before daylight running to stay in shape or hitting the weight room between classes. They endure hours of practice to perfect dance routines, coming up with new and innovative cheers and chants for every situation.

For instance, when a player on the opposite team misses the goal by mere inches, the next thing heard is: "You missed the whole goal, you ain't mad is you, huh what!"

They can also be found in the Women's Gym nightly pushing the envelope trying more difficult stunts and tumbling passes designed to wow crowds from all over.

"The squad is so dedicated to being the best," Smith stated " ... I am forever grateful that God has allowed me to be in their lives."

The team is so dedicated to becoming, being and staying the best that they often seek out the help of others in order to make themselves better at what they do.

"A couple of the guys and I traveled to Mississippi about a month ago to work with a gymnastics instructors in order to improve our tumbling abilities," said Roy Youngblood, a native Baton Rouge, who transferred from Northwestern State University.

But in the end all of their hard work and dedication paid off. Their reward: Being named one of the best in the country.

"I am so proud of them, I think this award is outstanding," said Terral Jackson, director of student programs. "They have worked very hard and they are now seeing the fruits of their labor. And be reminded that this was not a black competition; this was a national competition."

"The only thing that could make this moment better is if we would have won first," Jackson said laughingly.

"I felt like I was on top of the world when they called our name," said Tremayne Baker of Atlanta. "It gave me joy to see people actually wanting to see us perform. It shocked a lot of people to see us do as well as we did, us being an all-black squad from an HBCU."

The squad credits their coach with being a large factor in their journey to the top.

"James is incredible, he comes up with routines in his sleep," Jonine Moch, of Shreveport once said.

Smith just brushes the compliment off saying he couldn't do it without such a wonderful group of young people.

WOW..I can't wait to watch it on ESPN to see my SISTA'S workin' it out! I think I'll forward this article to MTV and let them know what's up.

Kel, can you post the link or let me know where you got this article? Thanks!!