This episode was recorded as part of the University Housing and Dining Black History Month series of programs. In it, Etinosa and Dr. Jones speak with Assistant Professor of Radio, Television, and Film , Dr. Adrien Sebro about Black sitcoms, the importance of Black content creators, Insecure (tv show), and so much more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This episode was recorded as part of the University Housing and Dining Black History Month series of programs. In it, Etinosa and Dr. Jones speak with Assistant Professor of Radio, Television, and Film , Dr. Adrien Sebro about Black sitcoms, the importance of Black content creators, Insecure (tv show), and so much more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","episode_type":"audio","audio_file":"http:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2022\/02\/2022-02-22_LIVE-Podcast_2.mp3","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"79.83M","filesize_raw":"83709542","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":""},"tags":[7,22,20,19,590,24,12,6],"series":[2],"class_list":{"0":"post-349","1":"podcast","2":"type-podcast","3":"status-publish","5":"tag-austin","6":"tag-entrepreneurship","7":"tag-innovation","8":"tag-leadership","9":"tag-student-affairs","10":"tag-student-leadership","11":"tag-students","12":"tag-ut","13":"series-live","14":"entry"},"acf":{"related_episodes":"","hosts":[{"ID":68,"post_author":"39","post_date":"2020-07-20 20:29:28","post_date_gmt":"2020-07-20 20:29:28","post_content":"","post_title":"Dr. Brandon Jones","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"dr-brandon-jones","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2020-07-20 20:33:17","post_modified_gmt":"2020-07-20 20:33:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/live\/?post_type=speaker&p=68","menu_order":0,"post_type":"speaker","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":287,"post_author":"52","post_date":"2021-04-29 17:49:47","post_date_gmt":"2021-04-29 17:49:47","post_content":"\n
Etinosa is a charismatic innovative idealist. Her passion and personal mission statement are to help people rise to the next level in all aspects of their lives. Currently, she is a graduate student at the University of Missouri in Kansas City working towards her Masters in Education Administration in Higher Education. Higher education is a field that electrifies her soul. Watching and walking alongside students as they reach their education goals pushes Etinosa to want to provide the best experience possible within residential life.
Etinosa kick-started her career within education by serving as a college adviser to high school students. Then transitioning into residential life at the University of Missouri in Kansas City. She is making more transitions by accepting a position as a community coordinator at The University of Texas at Austin in Housing and Dining. She believes that creativity and innovation will bring the needed change to higher education to provide our students with the best educational experience. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Etinosa Ogbevoen","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"etinosa-ogbevoen","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2021-04-29 20:11:11","post_modified_gmt":"2021-04-29 20:11:11","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/live\/?post_type=speaker&p=287","menu_order":0,"post_type":"speaker","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"guests":[{"ID":348,"post_author":"57","post_date":"2022-02-23 16:47:20","post_date_gmt":"2022-02-23 16:47:20","post_content":"\n
Adrien Sebro scholarship specializes in critical media studies at the intersections of television, film, comedy, gender, and African Diaspora studies. Dr. Sebro writes and teaches on U.S. Black television sitcoms, television history, filmmakers of the African Diaspora, and the media's role in initiating social change and activism. In the classroom, he aims to instruct his students on the roles, responsibilities, and powers (social and political) of media over time as a reflection of its temporal moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He is currently writing his first book manuscript, To Scratch and Survive: Hustle Economics, Gender Politics, and Creative Dissent at Tandem Productions<\/em>, which explores a production history and the representation of racial identity formation in the all-Black cast sitcoms of Tandem Productions: Sanford and Son<\/em> (1972-1977), Good Times <\/em>(1974-1979), and The Jeffersons<\/em> (1975-1985).<\/p>\n","post_title":"Adrien Sebro","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"adrien-sebro","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2022-02-23 16:47:20","post_modified_gmt":"2022-02-23 16:47:20","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/live\/?post_type=speaker&p=348","menu_order":0,"post_type":"speaker","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"Transcript":" Hey, y’all welcome to the leadership innovation ventures and entrepreneurship podcast. Also known as live. I’m your co-host Etinosa. Beveling a community coordinator with the university housing and dining. I’m Brandon Jones. And I’m your cohost. I’m the associate director for student learning and development.<\/p>\n Thank you for tuning into today’s episode. We hope you enjoy it.<\/p>\n Welcome everybody to the leadership, innovation ventures and entrepreneurship podcast. Also known as live. And guess what? This is the very first time we’re doing it live so to everybody in the audience and everybody tuning in online. Thank you so much. I’m one of your co-hosts Dr. Brandon Jones. I’m the associate director for student learning and development and housing and dining.<\/p>\n And I’m going to kick it over to Michael. I had to know, say, Hey, y’all, it’s that? Tinosa here. I’m the cohost of the live podcast. I’m a community coordinator with the university of housing and dining, and we are so excited to be here. It is another black history month episode. Super excited. This is the second or third, I guess a second written.<\/p>\n Yeah. So we’re excited. Uh, because again, when we’re doing this in person, uh, shout out to the liberal arts instructional technology studio for allowing us the opportunity to use this space, but more importantly to be before you all on today. Uh, we have a very special guest with us who was actually on episode 14 of our audio, part of the audio version of the podcast this time, last year, Dr.<\/p>\n Adrian C bro. And so we decided to bring him back because one, his work is just incredible and to lots of things that have happened, uh, over the past year, in the world of black sitcoms and streaming services and a bunch of different things. Who better than Dr. C bro to come and talk to our audience and really help us to just really unpack this really cool conversation.<\/p>\n So first off, Dr. Seabrook, how are you doing today? I’m doing good. Thank you for having me. I’m really happy to be here. Uh, come back from episode 14. I was wondering like, when can I come back? I didn’t want to know if you want me back or not, but I’m glad y’all wanted me back there. There’s always a spot on the microphone for you before we dive into, uh, all of our questions and everything that we’ve got to our online audience.<\/p>\n If you. Questions or comments or feedback for, uh, us on the panel, but specifically Dr. C bro, please don’t hesitate to drop those questions or comments in the chat and we’ll make sure that we, uh, look, take a look at those. And if it’s a question, we’ll definitely try to get that answered during our time together today.<\/p>\n Uh, but at this time, what I want is to give Dr CBO a chance to just kind of introduce himself and let him let you all know a little bit about his background, his research, and his areas of interest in all the things that make this brother. Cool brother. So Dr. Seabrook. So it was the background, uh, as said, my name is Adrian Seabra.<\/p>\n I’m an assistant professor of media studies at a university of Texas at Austin, the moody school of radio, television, and film department. And, um, I teach a history of like black media in general. Um, so film, television, digital media, uh, everything black, uh, I teach that and really it’s about, you know, um, where we find ourselves as black people in the media and visually find ourselves.<\/p>\n I always try to make my students reflect on that, how we see ourself, uh, why we see ourselves this way and like how, how you can work to see yourself in another way. Um, so coming from my background, I’m, um, uh, went to undergraduate USC, UCLA, and my master’s at Columbia and African-American studies. And, um, I’m a PhD back at UCLA in cinema media studies.<\/p>\n And I’ve always been interested at the intersection of media, gender, race, and class, um, and really how much media is informed by who’s creating it, um, by the political moment that it’s in. Um, Television aligns a lot with what’s happening politically at the time. So, um, with that, with those political thoughts, you know, where do we, as black people see ourselves in the media, right?<\/p>\n May be networks may be streaming. All these things change the way was blackness is, um, consumed and produce. So I’m always interested in talking about that in any way. And, um, I study all things, black sitcoms and comedy as well too, and that’s kind of where everything I’m working on and really, um, the basis of everything I do is kind of tracking.<\/p>\n Ontological status of blackness, how it changes over time, why and who were the major players? Fantastic. So before we dive into a lot of those questions, you also, uh, you remember of alpha Phi alpha fraternity incorporated. Yes. Correct. That’s awesome. Awesome. So shout out to the, all the black Greek letter organizations out there, especially, I got to shout that out during this three month, for sure.<\/p>\n But I want to start with, you know, you, you started unpacking a couple of different things there about media and representation and more importantly things from the black experience. I think that the first question I want to start with, um, I hope it’s an easy one for you is what is blackness to you? I could see bro.<\/p>\n Wow. Uh, that is the question we try to figure out every all semester, all the time. Uh, so blackness to me, you know, it’s, uh, it’s sometimes hard to explain, cause it’s a feeling right to. Talk to my students or I there’s, um, there’s cultural theorist, Stuart hall talks about black popular culture in general or black culture as kind of three tenants of black culture, like the body music and language.<\/p>\n Right. And I kind of see, I see that. And so we’re watching films, uh, watching TV shows. I taught all my students to look at that, like, you know, what is the black body doing in this particular space? You know, uh, what’s the music playing, you know, how they talking because you realized you kind of placed the time period was to show is, you know, um, you can place artists like who’s in control of their movements.<\/p>\n And really you can kind of trace where people are coming from class wise as well, or like the neighborhoods because of how they talk. Right? So I’m in the body being such an important thing because, you know, at one point our bodies were owned and like the, how freedom, when, when we got to freedom, our bodies were the only things that we kind of.<\/p>\n Owned ourselves. Right? So the body and the stylization of the black body, the fetishization of the black body is such an important thing. Looking at the way we talk about dance histories, the histories of movements. So looking at all these things, when I think of blackness, I think, uh, you know, uh, the diaspora, um, movement, how, how we look here in America, how we look in the Caribbean, how we look in Africa, we’re looking at Europe, right?<\/p>\n Uh, blackness, you know, um, transcend space and time. And, um, how us as black people, we are constantly. Reevaluate blackness means. So there’s no fixed meaning to it, but particularly it’s a matter of, uh, there are some essential, as in like, we feel like, you know, blackness is a feeling, you know, um, certain phrases and traits that we, I can say that we all understand you can correspond back to call and response, but largely it’s a, you know, a, a cultural connection to the diaspora starting in Africa and through the migrations and, you know, um, us being taken through chattel, slavery as well and how blackness it moves everywhere.<\/p>\n So as like blacks move everywhere, black people is. Are, you know, extended across continents and that’s kind of a S as short as I can be on one line, a little blackness means no. And I appreciate you defining that. And I know that when you appeared last year on episode 14 of the audio version of the show, you had talked about your father, uh, immigrating here from Trinidad.<\/p>\n Correct. And so do you feel like that had anything to do in the shaping of how you’re defining blackness? Because my father had no selfie when he came to Trinidad, he was like, I think 14, right? Uh, excuse me. And he actually came to Trinidad, lived in, uh, lived in the Bronx and went to high school in the Bronx.<\/p>\n And he was at a point he was 17. So he was like a senior in Trinidad, but they came here, he came to America, they said his education. Wasn’t like, you know, um, up to par with American education. So they made him start as a freshman in high school. I didn’t notice like two years ago actually. So he didn’t graduate high school until he’s 21 because they felt that his, uh, education in Trinidad wasn’t up to it.<\/p>\n So, and part of his, like, you know, coming into America, what he did, and it was kind of why I studied TV so much, what he did was, uh, wash a lot of sitcoms to figure out kind of how it is to act or be like black in America. Cause that’s, that was the only, um, space we could find with black and look like. So sitcoms in general or television in general was sick.<\/p>\n And specifically we’re always this space of like determining what black looks like, especially in the early sixties and seventies that I studied mostly. Um, and how people are able to understand blackness, especially, especially in a time where. American blackness, you know, um, you’re not living amongst different communities.<\/p>\n Segregation is very much, you know, um, may not be by law, but it’s by rule. Right. So, uh, how do people understand black, black folks, they looked at TV or other media. So my father did the same thing as like, you know, to not be like, it was kind of a Caribbean outcast. How can I talk act and like be American black.<\/p>\n Right. So I definitely see blackness as this idea, this transfer of, although, you know, he’s blackness by his identity, there’s specifically an American black that people kind of are at times forced to be like, right. It could can become the Caribbean could be coming from west African part of Africa as well to another, uh, Europe, et cetera, but, uh, or Latin X countries as well.<\/p>\n But there’s this idea of an American blackness. Um, you have the. Sometimes through the threat of violence have to succumb to, in order to survive here safely. So that’s largely a part of like how I define blackness too, his idea that it changes where you’re at, you know, and if I was American going to move somewhere, become an expatriate, I’d have to, you know, um, blend to that.<\/p>\n What blackness looks like there as well, too early, like you talking about black in America being a Nigerian immigrant, there’s a lot of cultural differences or just nuances. Right. And I’m curious to see, like, based off your research, like the sixties and seventies to now, are there some qualifications or characteristics that are different or that have just stayed the same in how people are identifying in their blackness?<\/p>\n Yeah. Yeah. Uh, I would say now people are. More comfortable to claim other ethnicities on television. Right. They like, if someone is like, you know, Nigerian American or Nigerian, like it’s, it’s like, you know, it’s part of their character, that’s written into the show, right? It’s part of the fabric of who they are, which rather than early television, it was like, you know, um, and I used the word, the term black so much rather than African-American because, you know, um, a lot of folks, I don’t know what their, their nationality or ethnic background is.<\/p>\n So black is kind of this universal term that they can like kind of, um, um, be involved under. But there are many like, you know, like, you know, Sydney Portsea, you know, uh, you know, um, Caribbean actor from The Bahamas, you know, um, and you know, you think that people like, you know, Harry Belafonte, all these folks who kind of.<\/p>\n Who are assumed, like the idea of like, and he was held up as that American American blackness looks like, right. But you know what? I wasn’t raised, he wasn’t born here, how to accent, how to fight through that accent so he can get jobs. Right. So his idea that you had to be simply kind of fall into like an idea of Americanized black first to be able to be even considered like, you know, um, something, but now I would say in shows that are doing a lot better of like talking about diaspora and I’m in a lot of important ways and you see like a lot of black, black, British actors using their bridge accidents now with well, to, uh, black, Nigerian actors, you know, um, expressing their nigerianeness, right?<\/p>\n Like at times often, as you probably know, is like, it’s used as a joke, right? The accent, you know, you have the, uh, the parents were from the country, then you’re the first generation. So it’s like, it’s like all like this idea of pulling Nigerian knits and Americanness, where are you at? Who are you? Like, you know, so.<\/p>\n A lot of shows kind of filter around that now, but that’s a story largely that couldn’t be told earlier on because, you know, um, if you were anything other than American and your identity, then you’re seen as like a threat. And the kind of same thing was actually with whiteness, there was like early shows that had Jewish, Italian, Irish, Norwegian folks.<\/p>\n And then until the point that it became dangerous for them. So they had to kind of, um, claim American whiteness, right. Which is why we see kind of a distant from shows like that, like shows in the fifties and sixties that talked about, um, European immigrants, um, through the violence and through realizing that they’re treated better, if they just say they’re American white, um, they stopped kind of claiming and stop having to show that focus largely on these immigrant experiences.<\/p>\n So it can be a matter of safety and trying to distance America distancing itself from Europe and also distancing itself from other countries America. If you’re in America, this is how you be American, right. So I’m wondering, just in terms of how you describe blackness, what would you say, um, is the current conversation around media from the standpoint of blackness?<\/p>\n Yeah, I, I think, uh, it’s in a good place. I mean, obviously you could always be doing better, but it’s in a good place that, uh, it’s fluid now. It’s more, much more fluid than it has been in recent past. Like there’s a, we see blackness, like it used to be relegated just like sitcoms. Right. But we see much more of it, a good amount of it in drama.<\/p>\n We see a lot of it in like scifi, supernatural things. Right. Uh, we see a lot of, you know, documentary work in it, like a, you know, non-narrative film as well. So I think media wise, uh, we’re seeing blackness kind of, um, get away from this monolith and we’re seeing a get away from these very fixed categories that it was in.<\/p>\n Um, but, and then we think about, actually I asked a question in class today, we’re talking about, you know, um, Black male actors in like the sixties and how like Sidney Portier was the ideal black man. There was only one black man at a time, one blush or a one man show at a time. Right. And so now there’s like six black men right now, you know, but the fact that the fact that someone was asking if that product, I said, yeah, that’s progress.<\/p>\n But the fact that I can name these people name all seven or six, that’s still a problem. Right. If I was asked about some white actors, we can kind of go on and on and on. Right. And I think that, you know, there’s a space now that looks at, you know, right now diversity is a big selling point, right? Every school, every business, every everything like D D eyes is huge point.<\/p>\n And they’re trying to make it clear through, um, through Hollywood as well. But I think when it comes to streaming services, I think, uh, that the rise of streaming has made, um, diversity, a more real thing where the image is seeming kind of just like. Plastic and the, in a sense that like, you know, they’re just a black person, that’s being check a box.<\/p>\n Okay. We have diversity. Right. What does that black person doing? Right. Uh, is there a character culturally specific in any way or is he just simply a character that’s there? Right. And, um, I think that a lot of the being more intentional now, um, but you’ll see a lot of like these ensemble cast, a big cast shows where at times it is very tokenized still, or just to have a black person there to count as diversity.<\/p>\n But diversity truly means to me, um, a cultural experience that’s expressed through the show, um, what does them being black? Like, how do we know they are black and image, right. But what are their, um, what are their actions on their show? How are they practicing their blackness? How do they show difference in that way?<\/p>\n Um, so I think, yeah, as far as blackness is showing that it’s can be fluid, right? It’s only they can use this in different genres. Um, but alas, a lot of more work to do, but I think we’re going on a right path. So you mentioned, um, some of the earlier sitcoms, you mentioned a lot of the, and I know a lot of your work, um, focuses on sitcoms early, like, especially within the seventies and the eighties.<\/p>\n I was reading something earlier today. It’s an older article from about three or four years ago. And it talked about all in the family. Yes. And talked about Archie bunker and he talked about his character and how, um, despite certain things there is a, there is a redemptive nature to him. If you really look at the complexity, uh, of, uh, who Carroll O’Connor played, do you feel like Archie bunker or a character like that in 2022 with a show, like all in the family make it because nostalgia is ruling the day right now with a show, like all in the family, make it in 20, 22.<\/p>\n Absolutely not. Uh, because all the time we did what it was, uh, you know, it did what it did and all my family, honestly, it, it, it changed culture, like all in the family, you know? Um, That was the first show to ever have like a viewer discretion advice type of show type of description before it came on.<\/p>\n Right. And it’s, uh, is important though, because it started the era, it was called the era of relevance, pretty much television in the seventies that talked about, uh, what’s really happening in America from perspective of a working class, white man, right. This very waspy white Anglo-Saxon Protestant. Like, you know, he’s supposed to, um, be the image of the conservative white working class male, which is like most of America.<\/p>\n Right. So that’s, he’s supposed to be that image. Right. And he has his younger, uh son-in-law and daughter, those are the kind of the new liberal class coming in. So it’s really looking at what America is looking at at this time period of 1971. Um, what America is like right now. So, but from a perspective of bringing those conversations actually to television, right television beforehand was ignoring those conversations, right.<\/p>\n As Archie, Bunker’s his character, you know, extreme, like, you know, prejudice. What it was, was a reality, you know, um, that, that, like, you know, I think, um, Norman Lear, they created the show. He said, that’s like my dad and me, because, you know, that’s, that’s their culture. That’s who they are. That’s their, that’s their history.<\/p>\n I’m not saying any of us. Okay. But as they’re talking about the reality of the fact that majority of America looks like Archie bunker, but no one wants to actually admit it. Right. But with this new guard of young liberals coming, coming into the play, especially the, you know, during the war time, uh, student protests, um, violent uprising, civil rights movement, kind of post of rest movement era, you’re seeing, um, you know, even with the Jefferson family, move next door to them, you’re seeing this way in which neighborhoods are changing.<\/p>\n Black people are getting money. Now they’re, they’re working, they’re having owning homes. They’re coming to neighborhoods that were always white. Right. So what it did was really make clear, um, the reality of where, what might, what America looks like and how white America now has to contend with the fact that, you know, people of color are.<\/p>\n And, uh, you can’t, you can no longer block their progress. And I think you’ll Carroll O’Connor himself. He hated playing the role about your bunker, you know, uh, and you see him later on and it shows like I’m in the heat of the night or he’s that one, he’s the white chief that accepts the black cop. Right.<\/p>\n It’s crazy. Seeing these two people act the same infusing as a kid to see different roles. Right. But what he did was, um, in this show and I think rocking it now, especially as a black person, it’s like hard to watch that show. Cause he used all types of, you know, jungle bunny, all types of all types of terms and think about, wow, seventies, television, like really went there.<\/p>\n But largely there were a lot of laws that weren’t in place yet because it hasn’t happened yet. So those creators, they took advantage of the fact that, oh, nothing’s written, none says we can’t say this yet. So let’s say it. So the way in which he talked and, um, kind of ruminated about the good old days, um, wouldn’t be.<\/p>\n Accepted now I wouldn’t even really get past, uh, past, uh, you know, um, the writing desk, but what it did was made clear that television can and needs to be the space to talk about what’s happening in America publicly, because it’s probably owned, you know, like the federal communications commission owns television a B, or excuse me, runs television on the government side because television is, you know, publicly owned.<\/p>\n Um, and it’s all for, it’s why there’s like law and you can’t say certain things on television, on network television. You can’t say certain things you can’t, you know, uh, be certain like level of prejudice. If you’re talking about certain things, you have to kind of bring the story back around of like, it has a teaching moment.<\/p>\n There’s these things in place because network television is protected, right. Versus like streaming platforms or pay for cable television. Right? So CBS, NBC, ABC Fox, those types of shows and like PBS are, you know, government has to have regulations on them. So with that comes the fact that how. This television show going to serve the public.<\/p>\n And I think at that time period, its shock value was why go so popular. But when folks kind of sit down and sit with the show, we realized it’s serving the public because they’re having talks that weren’t talking about before. And it’s so shocking because everyone knows this exists, but like you can’t pop up with it on television.<\/p>\n You know, no one will say actually hear this about themselves. And no one wanted to see themselves in that negative light. And I think that that’s what that show did in a very efficient. Thank you for sharing that, because I noticed for me that was, that was something I was thinking about. I’m like, you know, to see Carroll O’Connor is Archie bunker and then go stay at my grandma’s house.<\/p>\n And, you know, when you, on the sick day, back at the day, late laying on grandma’s couch in the, in the heat of the night and getting ready for school. Oh yes, sir. That nighttime. And so, yeah, and the thing is without a show like that, we wouldn’t have had these important lash of the seventies because that show is shock and awe value, but more so its grasp over American viewers because even in date, TV only cares about how much viewers are going to get and how much advertising they can run through these shows.<\/p>\n So like, yeah. So it’s probably terrible. Like it’s probably saying a lot of bad things, but look, we got, we’re the number one show for five years straight. So what they did with that show, they let the creators normally are in bud Yorkin. They said kind of do whatever y’all want to do. Y’all have they had like this kind of monopoly over television.<\/p>\n So they had at one point of the 17. I have five of their shows, like we’re all top four, at least in, in Nielsen ratings. Right. So because of the success of that show, they’re able to have your San Francisco in good time. Jefferson’s right. So really the show kind of was a platform talking about real stuff and how we able to get more, um, black actors and writers and producers in the system.<\/p>\n I liked that you were talking about how these shows were game changers, right. They had set a precedent, they are changing the narrative. I’d love to bring it to some of the shows that we’re watching now, like Cornish, for example, like, I think that is, it just it’s ending now, but it was a game-changer show, right?<\/p>\n Like in, what do you think it was about that show specifically? That it was on for a decent long time. And it was talking about a lot of things that people were shocked that they were talking about. Um, I love black X. Right. And I think now it’s, um, as soon as ending season, I think it’s Indiana point that I like, you know?<\/p>\n Yeah. It’s time. It’s time, you know, and, you know, shows we start time. And I think largely because of the. Creative power. Like, you know, the creator can embarrass not really, even there anymore. So it changed the flow of the show and the feel of it. But while also important is because, you know, it’s, it was that black succumb of the time.<\/p>\n You know what I mean? Um, where there are no other black cinema on TV at the moment. Um, but so much is happening in America. And, um, we’re seeing the perspective on the news sites on other SICOM common television shows, but what about this black family perspective? Right. And a lot of folks, you know, when it first came out, so many posts were like, oh, it’s going to be the, uh, 21st century.<\/p>\n Cause we all SF, which I hated that narrative around him, uh, because this is his own thing. And I think that it extends the work because, you know, um, as important as that show was that show being Cosby show. And we’re talking about the show, not the person on camera. It was important. It was that show was, and it can’t be denied.<\/p>\n There are many things that they so did that that show has so much more potential to talk about and address that it didn’t right. But, um, black is really as an ABC, sit-com, you know, national viewership, big network, they really, um, and I think in an era that black has had to be like now, you know, um, it couldn’t have been 20 years ago, had to be now where, um, more of a kind of liberal America, more of a liberal space where you have like actual producers and people in the studios that kind of like care more about issues.<\/p>\n I would say a little bit more. This is about their bottom line and the bottom dollar, of course, but. We were in a political space. That was, it was a calamity, right. And like a lot it’s so thing going on along with black lives matter movement, along with schools, everything changing so much. So we needed a way to make it all palatable riots.<\/p>\n What kind of were comedy comes in and set common space and I think was able to happen with black years. We were able to talk about these very tough issues in a lighthearted way, but, but real right, bringing in folks like, you know, Laurence Fishburne and Jennifer Lewis, they probably weren’t supposed to be longterm act characters in the show, but one, you know, they’re black, like legends, intelligent icons.<\/p>\n So having them on the show alone was like, alright, that’s gonna bring some folks to the show, but really, um, having this, you know, black family, you know, successful, um, to be able talk about, you know, all the shows, that thing that’s called, we didn’t talk about colorism. We write, um, colorism a difference of opinion as far as like class status.<\/p>\n So how they grew up one growing up more, you know, wealthy or more, you know, with a mixed family, one growing up from the. All of these interracial discussions that happen. I think that’s why it’s important because, so let’s talk a lot about, but just to be black and white fam black and white communities, but what about within the black community?<\/p>\n Right. Um, you had this very successful, like, you know, businessman advertising. He comes to the head of like the, I think it’s like urban development or urban advertising. Right. Obviously. Right. But you think about the Cami and then obviously, but he, how he uses that to like, If it was a white person in that role, that would be a problem.<\/p>\n Right? So you think about these things that are real, and it reflects to a lot of folks that are kind of in these positions. And it had like now those type of spaces exist in advertising companies, right? So it reflected the way America is now, um, and brought that full front and to a point that’s like, there are a lot of, you know, uh, naysayers about the show still.<\/p>\n I folks still don’t like it, you know, um, you know, why am black? But I think what’s important about this show is that they really, uh, brought forth a lot of issues that were important to be talked about in a palpable way. But didn’t skirt away from the issue. Like make it seem like they were kind of like, you know, shying away from it.<\/p>\n The comedy toned it down, which the point is to comp in general, like, you know, to kind of, oh, comedy in general, calm down some of the seriousness, but the show, you know, tackle things that we weren’t gonna talk about. And cause like the sitcom Moe in itself is, is largely played out. When you think about sitcoms largely.<\/p>\n Uh, family picket fence, you know, and, uh, there’s an episode where the kid doesn’t know how to dance because the school dance coming up. And then, you know, you’ve seen that time and time again, Shirley and like lights, a common exactly so many times. And I think what’s important about these shows. These are contracts, your blaster comes that you have to, their, their culture is a large, a huge part of it.<\/p>\n So that story comes along with that. And you can’t ignore like the, you know, the struggle that comes along with being black, especially with these folks they’re black middle-class folks living in Los Angeles. I don’t care your class dash, you’re going as a black person living in a metropolitan city, you’re going to face issues.<\/p>\n Um, you may not be the same as someone living in poverty and those issues and issues. Right. But they’re gonna be she’s at, if not in your neighborhood, at your job place of business, you know, they’re going to be there. So what does it really tap into like a, um, also kind of a middle-class status of individuals and folks who were working at the corporate level, like the things that they go through at work, you know, that, that one white employee that tries to be cool with you or down, you know?<\/p>\n Right. And all these little things that come about. And I think that it really tapped into a generation of folks who are, you know, a huge buying power in media. Um, but what about their working class lifestyle? Oh, see me there, but they’re, uh, they’re, upper-class kind of, um, middle upper-class lifestyle at work, you know, it’s not simply they are working.<\/p>\n Everyone’s happy go lucky. Oh, it the black guy, you know, like, no, there are a C small microaggressions that exists kind of in all these spaces, especially the hierarchy. Right. And I think that this show made those things clear and that’s why it’s so popular and has great moment now. And I think that it was that show that, you know, had that had the ramps to be that one black sitcom show.<\/p>\n So that’s another thing too. Like the show was also important because, or, or, uh, widely watched because there was no other black city. At the, at the time, you know what I mean? So, uh, that’s going to make a lot of people will be attracted to this as well, because look, we got it all, especially black folks.<\/p>\n Hey, we got to watch tonight, you get the numbers up, you know, so it was very important that a show like this existed, how it did. Um, and they got a great note, but you know, there that goes into a larger problem. There needs to not be just a one show that represents the race. And, um, that show did it for so long.<\/p>\n And I think that, uh, to a point that it’s ending on a great note now needs to end, but we should never be in that space, especially on network television. It’s still the most watched form volume television. If you think of folks in like the rural areas, we think of the streaming now as mostly watched, but net networks are still mostly watched because that’s what everyone has access to.<\/p>\n Right? You don’t have to have. Premium cable and streaming company. That’s yet a mind for that. You have to have, I know I got your, I got my cousin account to have to have money for most of this stuff. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And Nielsen ran. You have had money for these, uh, for these things. So when it comes to networks, those are still the most important.<\/p>\n Those are the backbone of what television started as television supposed to be kind of this great equalizer. It was called the citizen machine. So television was all about making what American citizen, um, should here should look like, should communicate about. So the networks and what they play, especially about black, certain communities.<\/p>\n That’s what everyone can see. So if only one show represents that that’s, uh, that’s the best not good. So when you have multiple shows representing what blackness looks like in many. So, do you feel like streaming services are going to help with that? Because you think about, you know, you got Bel air on peacock.<\/p>\n Um, you’ve got, uh Tubi and then you get, you know, uh, Grown-ish went out there and then now you got avid elementary on ABC coming in, insecure on HBO, which we got to talk about why we got you here. Um, uh, you got a bunch of other shows that are happening. Do you feel like streaming services are helping.<\/p>\n You know, broaden the number of black television shows that are out there or because we’re so stratified, we’re in so many different places it’s helping, it’s helping broaden them. But I think it’s still an issue. Cause I think as far as like sitcoms on network television, you have Abbott elementary, which is fantastic.<\/p>\n And you have, uh, Keenan, I believe Lockean everyone’s keen every Wayne, excuse me, Kenan Thompson, totally different people. Uh, can you Thompson show, right? Uh, definitely like, you know, uh, icon in black popular culture in comedy, but uh, that’s it right? Two very different shows. And again, it’s always like, you know, we can always count on our finger, how many there are, but how.<\/p>\n Y sitcoms are there, how many to come to the races are there. Right. But I love that what streaming is doing, because yeah, it is broadening it in an important way. You know, we have, um, what’s a Harlem on Amazon prime love Harlem run the world on stars. Right. Especially seeing black, black women are, are really killing it right now in an amazing way, getting that access to do so much.<\/p>\n Right. Um, and so many other shows and other, and other like premium cable networks, you know, and Atlanta’s coming back finally, you know, they all been too damn busy, but now they’re back. Right. So really everything’s coming back and full force. And I love that about it. Like. The fact that there is a black show kind of on every streaming service is a beautiful thing right at the end.<\/p>\n And I think it needs to be spread because none of that, everyone has all the services, you know, cause now as a paramount and plus there’s a peacock, there’s a, and like I’m losing track and you know, my bank account is showing it’s, but, but, and I have like that black show, even the dramas, I have my powers, the whole universe, you know, I’m not going off of do not to sit calm, just dramas to, you know, seeing all of this important.<\/p>\n And I think that it needs to be everywhere. So I think it also shows the fluidity of what blackness looks like, because all these shows are different, you know, all tackle on different types of blackness too. But again, It’s harmful to the networks where obviously it is a, to have a network show is very difficult and it’s successful when it’s very difficult, right?<\/p>\n These streaming companies specifically on like a Netflix or a prime Amazon, they have nothing to lose with their streaming because they have such a big, you know, their services is mainly, you know, um, uh, items that shipped and stuff like, you know, they they’re shopping through Amazon is what their main service is.<\/p>\n They make billions off of that. So if a show fails for them, then they don’t really lose much because it comes with your subscription. Exactly. It comes with your prime, right. When you buy that book on Amazon anyway. Right. So, and, um, but I think of Netflix too, they already have your money. Right. So they can create a show and, um, if it fails, it fails.<\/p>\n Right. But when you think of network television, it’s all about the advertisers. Right? What, what shows are the advertisers going to back and how can, um, Sephora with those shows be? So really when it comes to. Streaming services, all that is great, but the networks that are still the most watched channels on television America wide, what is this saying about what black blackness looks like?<\/p>\n Right. Uh, why don’t, why is blackness of an array? Buck is only accessible to folks who have money or, you know, to the access of, of wealth and class makes a difference to how we see blackness. So I think that, um, the, the detriment in that space where, you know, the needs to be kind of a more open forums of how we can experience race in these ways, but largely with streaming services, you know, um, it comes from a matter of being able to afford them.<\/p>\n And, um, that’s where we get our array of, you know, I think I said at a, you know, at a university, you know, access to certain materials we get is like, there’s, there’s some privilege there, of course. Right. But other folks who, you know, may not be here in this space, They don’t have access to that. You know, they may not even know what a Harlem is.<\/p>\n Right. Because that’s, it’s still a very much is kind of like if you know, you know, thing, you know, um, so things like, yeah, exactly amazing show, but it’s still like, you know, if you have prime and if you have this, if you have this, you’re gonna watch this and you know, apple TV plus from then I will stop.<\/p>\n You know, there’s all these things coming out, these different streaming companies. And we’re just like, it’s going to come to a point that this kind of array of creativity and streaming might become a deficit because, you know, um, is there ever a true, like freedom of creativity, right? Cause there’s still a person that controls all this stuff.<\/p>\n It gives us all of the say. So, and I think net networks are definitely much more rigid because of the, you know, the government control around them, but they need to be taken more seriously and we need to do more work to get things on networks because we need to be able to utilize. Uh, the public forum to see blackness in the night to reverse way.<\/p>\n So speaking of the deficit of creativity, you, we talked, touched on insecure, Harlem girls on the run. They’re all for me personally, they all have the same basis. Therefore for black women, best friends, one’s Uber rich. One might be of a minority, marginalized grew. The other one has dating issue. So single girlfriends, you know, all that stuff.<\/p>\n So in my head, I’m like one, like I’m going to watch Harlem while I watch insecure in Harlem, because that’s what I got. I got, I got, I mean, the storylines the same is that, is that kind of what you’re seeing with the deficit of creativity and that it’s placed everywhere. So is it going to be new, like as a story line?<\/p>\n Yeah. And I think that’s an important thing you mentioned. Um, I think in that aspect, I would say like, uh, It’s funny. You said like the insecurity like insecure, like, is this for friends as well too? I think it goes, it goes farther. It goes further than the other show is my opinion, for sure. But you’re right.<\/p>\n This is makeup of, and I’m sure there’s a, there’s a production study or audience study, like that likes this idea of four fours, even good number to work with. Right. So you can kind of, you can have that one that like, you know, you can have the identities it’s like, they they’re doing it’s all about this idea of like a sit-com tradition.<\/p>\n So they only do what works. So for, has worked for them over time because it worked on like living single girlfriends is idea that you can kind of spread apart, like these different images of what black woman may look like. Right. I think, um, Harlem doing good, you know, having a black queer woman, they’re like, you know, bring some more difference, but still, yeah, this idea of, for.<\/p>\n Uh, struggling to find love. Professionalism is always right. And I think that, uh, yeah, that goes to, uh, uh, a deficit. Well, I think we, you know, we look at drama shows, you know, where it’s kind of like, you know, I may destroy you, stuff like that, where it is, it’s some difference, but like the sitcom mode tends to be the same.<\/p>\n And that’s kind of like sitcoms in general, I think now, um, where they kind of follow a certain formula because TECOM, they’re still kind of the most, they’re like the easiest to be made and the easiest to be canceled as well. Like when it comes to calm, especially ones that are on like a fixed stage, like a three camera stage, like that’s like cheap for them to make because you know, um, you’re not moving around the camera, falling with someone, not all six, something that comes with like that now, but sitcoms are kind of cheaper.<\/p>\n Amazing, you know, they’re, they’re quick, um, especially on the streaming services, you know, we don’t have to worry about advertising placements and stuff, so they follow a formula that works for them. But I think, yeah, there needs to be more creativity because. We S we funding, we all know the formula already.<\/p>\n We still watch it. Cause it’s like, it’s there, you know, by me, you know, so you want to watch it look like you, right. And you wanna hear their stories, but the formula goes over time because it, it works. But I think there other things work as well too. And although these are showing like kind of blackness in different ways for the four people, why is it always four?<\/p>\n Why can’t it be two or three? Right. And, um, it’s this idea that, uh, I guess four is a good way to spread it evenly. And so we’re not to like, you know, um, to, uh, leaning into one particular character more than in to then to many others, but there needs to be other, uh, forms I think. And I think, you know, I’m a MasterCard writer.<\/p>\n I know that, um, I definitely would, uh, defer to many writers in this case, but definitely needs to be a way in which we kind of break from these norms and traditions of like certain structures of the format. And I think that. Blackness in and of itself is a thing about, you know, breaking through, uh, identity, breaking through formats, breaking through like, you know, preconceived notions.<\/p>\n And I think that, uh, our identity needs to be expressed as part of when you break through the SICOM narrative, because the larger wasn’t created by us in general. Right. So, uh, we got to break through the narrative. That’s kind of been consistent over time. You’re in that first black show, you know, live in single.<\/p>\n It wasn’t until 19 90, 19 92. Yeah. So with that, it’s like, you know, um, it’s really 30 years, but it’s kind of really not that long ago. Right. And you think about it. And in black women starring in SOCOM to still new. Right. Um, and then, you know, you have people thinking like, you know, you know, uh, you know, friends is a black, it was black living single, right.<\/p>\n You know, and people pretend to forget. So you got to realize these formats and how they’re created and kind of end their usurped and give them more funding when it comes to casting white, white individuals. Right. So largely we created this form and which means being kind of create a new form and break away from that as well.<\/p>\n So I feel like for, cause we, you mean you, you work in the moody college of communications and specifically what radio, television and film. There’s there actually there’s several online and some in the room who are potentially your students and some have been your students. What advice do you have for them as they think about their scripts, as they think about their network pitches and the different things that they’re ultimately going to go on and do, uh, when they graduate, what advice do you have for them, for breaking those conventions for, um, the, the four black women or a defining blackness?<\/p>\n Like what advice do you have for them to be able to break into those spaces and shatter those norms or introduce them? Yeah, I like what this, uh, what moody does RTS specifically wrote television and film does. And a lot of schools don’t do this. Um, they make, you know, those who are in production, um, focuses.<\/p>\n They make them take, you know, immediate studies courses, right? Learning media history. That’s very important because I think that makes that biggest, better writers, better people with people who are better able to like take on. This new production industry as it comes, because if you know the history of what’s been done before, um, you know, how to make a way forward, and you knew how to sometimes not even harken back when necessary.<\/p>\n Right? So if you’re making a new show, you know, like kind of, um, a lot of folks get inspiration from these other shows of the past, right. You know, how to branch off from them. Like, you know, you may have shallow show from the, from the mid seventies that you really enjoyed. Like how can I make that show into like a, you know, a 21st century version of it.<\/p>\n And I think that’s very important. So like, um, learning the history is where I always tell my students, which is why I had these courses, that track history over time, because it’s like, why is blackness look one way in the sixties in a different way in the eighties. Right? Think about what’s happening politically.<\/p>\n Right? It’s so rice movement versus like Reagan and Reaganomics, right? You have like, in the very conservative eighties, blackness is kind of a, you know, a fixed look on like, you know, happy-go-lucky family that happens to be black, right? In the sixties, you have shows like, um, you know, mod squad, ice by et cetera, where they’re trying to place black people into lead roles to calm down civil rights issues.<\/p>\n Right. So you think. Everything going on in American history has to do with how we see TV in that particular moment. So knowing that history, you know, I think it helps inform, um, new shows. They can create helps inform back, you know, uh, what didn’t work and why. Right. And also, um, how they can use their spaces in production to, to make way for, for what’s new.<\/p>\n And I think that, um, with a lot of issue is a lot of folks in production. Like they have the power, you know, TV is a producer’s medium, largely meaning like, you know, the executive producer, the producer has the power. The writers have some power, if you can get on a staff writing position. But the director in TV is on, is on a contractual basis, like one episode, two episodes.<\/p>\n And that’s it, the director dodgy doesn’t really have control. And when it comes to TV is the executive producer. That’s there every day, the showrunner, what they call it, they call it now. Right. Um, that’s the power. So to understand how history of executive producers started kind of mainly in the seventies moment with normally are bud Yorkin, Mary Tyler Moore, um, even like, you know, um, Lucille ball, right.<\/p>\n People. Can I pretty much ran, um, ran the scripts, created the show. Um, did everything on set? That power. And you think of now, like a Shonda Rhimes, Ava, DuVernay, you know, all these folks who are, uh, showrunners, they have kind of that complete control over say, like, it’s not the, it’s not the, really the writers, the writers have a certain certain say, but like, how can you weave through writing and production culture, but also you have to know about the history of that culture, how it started, and that’s how you’re able to kind of, um, use your power more effectively in that system.<\/p>\n I’m gonna let you take the last question. Well, no, we’re not at the time. It’s just, we want to give our audience a chance to ask questions as well as our viewers online. Uh, we got a couple that are viewing online as well as here in the room. So want to give folks a check now again, if they don’t have any, you know, we’ll talk we’re podcasting.<\/p>\n Yeah. I’m curious. So you’re in the classroom, you’re teaching with a lot of students, we talked about, you know, identifying with your blackness. Um, w how do you feel? Like, what does the conversation sound like and look like currently in your classes, how students are defining their blackness.<\/p>\n I started the classes always with like, kind of what are you watching now, right. Uh, cause I like to reflect on, you know, w w you got to meet students where they’re at, and I’m also like, talk about like my black films course, I’m doing right now. Uh, you know, what black film and, uh, you know, right. Cause I always try to make sure I teach about ones that no one knows about.<\/p>\n Right. Uh, ones are very pivotal, um, that just like, you know, cause it’s idea of, um, having to television films, idea of a cannon, right. Canyon largely is created by, you know, it was Candace and every field, you know, education, English history, this Canon of writers who kind of determine what this field is.<\/p>\n And majority more often than not 98% of time, those were white individuals, white men specifically, right. Heterosexual men. And, um, I make sure that to ask them where they’re at and, um, who they’re watching, what’s important to them because. I wanted to turn my class around. What’s going to serve them best.<\/p>\n Right. And also, I want them to leave with something like if you have 14 weeks of stuff you already know about, about that one week you found someone new. I think that’s, that’s the success for me, because I think that, um, there’s so many artists over time that don’t get, um, canonized or don’t get put in, you know, these studies of states of American history, uh, because simply they didn’t have the support or the funding or their film didn’t reach a certain reach while they were alive.<\/p>\n But they had a, you know, cult status once they passed away things like that. I want to bring them back to the forefront and like live through them because the films are living objects, TV shows are living objects, right. We’re, we’re competing now on shows. And in my classes that, you know, happened in the fifties who I’m sure they probably didn’t know the impact of what their show would be then.<\/p>\n Right. So as far as didn’t define their blackness, now, I kind of take them where they’re at as far as like, you know, um, you know, do they even see themselves within this spectrum of blackness too, because. You know, um, I never assumed one’s identity and never seemed kind of how they see themselves, but I want to also, you know, open them up to like, you know, this is how I define blackness, or this is how, you know, blacks have been defined, um, academically.<\/p>\n And I want to always kind of push away from just the academic talk and jargon because in academia we can, we find ourselves having a lot of jargon, a lot of it’s ways in which we kind of code our language. So people don’t outside of the schools don’t understand it. And I always hated that like ivory tower rhetoric right.<\/p>\n Still happens everywhere. And I’ve always didn’t. I was just like that. So in my writing and my, and my teaching and my lectures, I always make sure to, um, speak to people, you know, as if like, it’s the first time you ever hearing about this stuff, right. Because you had to meet them where they’re at and, you know, and I think also folks tend to kind of, um, act like, or feel like they should know these things.<\/p>\n So they never talk about not knowing them. Right. So, um, a lot I met, I met, uh, the other day of class. I showed, you know, boys in the hood was like this kind of. You assuming you black, you see boys in the hood I’ve had, I had about at least six or seven black students who had seen the movie before. And actually I loved that because I y’all are gonna remember me in the film now.<\/p>\n And if someone did tell me they’re cried, all this stuff, I’m like, yeah. You know, when Ricky, Ricky tears were flowing, you know, all of these things are important. Kind of, we feel like staples in black community, right. Or black culture and just cause we separate for us. Like, and I think oftentimes folks like, oh, I haven’t seen that, oh, Tesla, can’t take their black car test and they’re black.<\/p>\n Right. And that’s one thing I never tried to do. Like I always ask them like, you know, uh, why you take this class? You know, I think that’s what, that’s one way the, I barometer, like, you know how they feel about blackness and it, cause if they’re black and they feel like they, they don’t prescribe a, and that’s fine too, you know?<\/p>\n But this class is about black film. We’re talking about black film, culture, history, people come here. Uh, creators. And that’s the perspective of all of these films. You know, there are other films that talk about black humor, but I’m talking about the films that are about black people and from black creators.<\/p>\n So that’s where we are in this class. That’s, we’re going to talk about, but if you feel like, you know, just taking the class for credit, which is fine too, um, know that you’re interested in class, we’re talking about blackness and how it changes over time, particularly how it’s cast it over time and who has like the space to talk about blackness.<\/p>\n So I’m meeting them where they’re at not judging where they’re at, based off kind of what they watch and stuff. Because a lot of folks who just like, um, their upbringings, you know, they may have been barred from watching TV and film, which a lot of folks are. They do a lot of them, you know, um, socioeconomically couldn’t afford cable, you know, um, allowed them access to movies and other critical things, a lot more immigrants who didn’t know about a lot of these shows and stuff too.<\/p>\n So, um, I love meeting people where they’re at and I love interesting people. It’s new, especially black people to new black shows that they never knew about because they see themselves. We did a talk about, you know, um, a different world the other day, The larger crowd of all black students, mainly they hadn’t seen him before and now they want to watch it.<\/p>\n Cause that’s all on HBO, max, you know, um, they all want to watch it now because they’re like, wow, I still see him. This is a 19 88, 87, 88 when it started. And I, they see themselves in it, especially the struggles of, you know, being a black student at a predominant white institution, right. Seeing these Bisons that are an all black school, how they’re able to network, uh, find community.<\/p>\n So how can they make kind of their own little community here at UT? So like finding ways to meet them where they’re at and stuff that they haven’t watched before, or that’s Washington talk about it. How do you feel about this? So I asked every student, like, you know, um, after a screening, would I think about how you feel about it?<\/p>\n Did you hate it? Did you like it? You know, and not judging them based off of their, um, where they’re at? Um, just like talking to them now, like, all right. Seeing this film from 85, does it reflect to you now in any ways? So you make them skip seasons. So I showed him intentionally asking that question one so I can show the rest of it.<\/p>\n So just making sure I’m like, forget episode one, I’m talking to but also Debbie Allen and a huge portion of that, you know, talking about content creators is why, you know, people will talk about history. History is of a different world. We’re not talking about any episodes of season one. We’re talking about season two on thank you and everything changes.<\/p>\n And, but that is a complete history in lesson two week-long lesson, about what changes when you have black creators talking about black issues on television. And I think that’s important thing like black constant being from a black perspective and what changes in the show because. I know I said that to Nelson.<\/p>\n Got that last question. So my apologies, but when we talk in different worlds, it’s like, I have to, I cringe watch season one, just to be like, yeah, let’s just get this over with, let’s get this over with. And then boom, immediately we changed the things. Debbie Allen fires, everybody. And it’s like, oh, this, this school went from a PWI to an HBCU.<\/p>\n Like it was supposed to be almost overnight, honestly, and in a great way. And I think that, yeah, it’s important to watch, to understand TV history and understand power structures and understand the kind of, it’s like a TV, like all kind of, you know, like you think nepotism in business TV has nepotism. Like they go to who they know can write television.<\/p>\n Right. But Ryan television, like, you know, it’s not easy of course, but Ryan television is like, you know, a skill of course. But when it comes to, you know, why studios X and EPS, they go to who they know and, uh, simply. White person who did not go to HBC, you are understanding these called black culture experience can not run a show about black college culture.<\/p>\n And I think that they arrived on this person who was a great, you know, it was an beats, a great writer where we’re saying that live great comedian, but you were kind of out of your depth in this case, when it talks about a specific black culture and that’s not a discredit to you, but you’re just, you just can’t align with it.<\/p>\n Right. And I think that, uh, that was a huge lesson in the importance of, um, black cultural creators in these spaces talking about black popular culture. Um, but yeah, again, to your question, it’s meeting students where they’re at in their, in their blackness or during the students to such right. I’ve met, I’ve talked.<\/p>\n Some folks were like, they felt like they told me kind of they’ve, you know, um, maybe at the time they felt more black after my class, I was like, that’s cool with me, you know, like that. But also too, like once people feeling like, you know, some students are like, they’re like, they’re kind of like, you know, uh, not mad upset with their parents.<\/p>\n Didn’t show them these films and shows too. Right. And I think that’s an important thing is like these shows. Track, you know, um, different times in black popular culture and blackness where blackness looks like in the nineties or two thousands. And earlier than that, so meeting them where they’re at, and I’m showing these films now at a, at a kind of more adult age and like talking through the film rather than just watching the film and passing by it’s about literacy, immediate literacy.<\/p>\n Like, what are you learning from this film yet? We just saw a scene of someone doing a drug deal, but it’s talking about the character is the character poor. Why is he poor? Why is he sell drugs? Do you think he’s a bad character? No. Why do you think sell drugs? Because he can’t afford anything else. He has no education because his mom made him get a drop out of school to go to work.<\/p>\n So you think about the societal issue? So like it’s about reading the film more deeply. He’s not simply a drug addict or assuming a drug dealer. Um, think my, why he had a succumb to that thing about socioeconomic background think deeper. And so family media, and that’s how you kind of get the most out of it.<\/p>\n I think. Excellent. So what we’re going to do now is, uh, for our audience, that’s here in person and all those who are viewing online, we’re going to give you a chance to put your questions, uh, in the chat. Uh, for those of you who are in the room, feel free to ask your questions out loud. We, the microphone will pick you up, uh, but don’t worry.<\/p>\n You won’t be on screen. So if you’re worried, like I don’t want to be seen that’s okay. You don’t have to worry about that. But, uh, what questions do y’all have for Dr. C bro? I have a question. You kind of answered it and I’m glad you did, but I was wondering how do you see the future of like the African diaspora supporting or like crowdfunding platforms, like the tea to support their lives around the world?<\/p>\n Like break those misconceptions I’ve already been told. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, great question. Thank you. Uh, there was this like very ambitious, uh, thing. I think so 2014, I believe I may be wrong with a year, but it was called Afro stream. It was this, uh, proposed platform out of this, um, this. Black a Frenchman, um, proposed platform that was about really the entire African diaspora.<\/p>\n So the whole streaming service was about, um, the African diaspora, every show on there. It was about, you know, um, black Americans, black Europeans, black lad, next folks, uh, uh, Africans, et cetera. So the whole platform was about pushing forward media of the diaspora. Right? A lot of crowdfunding, you know, went to Silicon valley to get money donations and stuff.<\/p>\n And it had, you know, it’s kind of, uh, it, it lingered for a little bit, you know, it didn’t reach a certain popularity, but it kind of ended up kind of failing because lack of funding, you know, folks now it’s, it started competing with like at first it was, you know, based in Africa and, you know, Nollywood or Nigerian films.<\/p>\n Uh, you know, that’s like the biggest market of a film, like straight to pretty much straight, straight to the video market. If they have there, it’s the biggest market of like, you know, selling and creating media. Um, well they say second big, the biggest category compared to like a Bollywood, but really I think it’s, I think it’s the biggest.<\/p>\n They just have, like, they don’t have the metrics to measure how, how fast that stuff moves in Nigeria and Nollywood. Right. But so Afro stream had a kind of, um, control over like, you know, um, casting, larger west African film cause no one was controlling it. And then the very next year Netflix started casting, um, African family.<\/p>\n And like, that’s the person you don’t want to be competition with. Right. Uh, so Netflix kind of, uh, you know, um, usurped, whatever plans that Afro sheen was having to be the only place that you can receive certain African cinema or television shows. So it was kind of, it was very ambitious. Um, Netflix now, is this media giant or streaming giant?<\/p>\n Uh, obviously it was very hard for them to compete with them. So that made it difficult. I think African still exists, but it’s like a kind of more of it. If, you know, you know, there are great things you could watch there, but I think streaming services have that potential, you know, Netflix had done some, like a lot of African series.<\/p>\n Now you go under diaspora there, they do some work there. Um, I’ve endorsed some of their African produced shows like, uh, um, queen Sonos. It was a really good, uh, love, love that show. I think it was like the first show, like a Netflix show in Africa, like, well, and the South Africa specific genre too. Yeah.<\/p>\n Loved it. Um, African women starring in it and, um, you know, a lot of other show Kings of Joburg and one really good one as well. Uh, so the potential is there and the ability is there. Um, but as most of them out of the care, so that goes into a matter of, um, us as audiences in viewers, you know, pressing them for this more.<\/p>\n I think. Position now, especially with everything going wrong, along the lines of DEI, diversity and inclusion, we have the ability now to pressure them more for these things, because everyone is trying to, you know, you have like a strong black lead. That’s like their kind of their social media thing. They have it for like every, um, um, underrepresented minority.<\/p>\n Now they have a kind of a version of, of strong black lead, right? Um, we’re in a space now where we can push for that. And I think that, um, the way African countries now are kind of, uh, definitely having more technologies and broadband access. We’re seeing more productions come out of there now. So I, I want to say it will be for the better, but as of now, it’s kind of only Netflix has that power.<\/p>\n So it’s still centralized. And I think any media that’s centralized in one service is, is not a good, um, cause that’s how you get a monopoly over it. And that’s why like, you know, the FCC exists to like prevent monopolies. No one should be in control of too much media cause that’s a huge political power.<\/p>\n Uh, so it’s kind of scary when you think about how much control Netflix has as, as a shooting. But they have the ability to, I think it’s up to us to kind of continue to further push the dash because like I, myself, you know, I’m working on a class right now about Caribbean film and television and cinema.<\/p>\n Um, because we don’t talk about that. And then diaspora is mainly, mainly in course like that on the east coast where most Caribbean immigrants are and stuff, but me, you know, as this kind of, um, childhood Caribbean immigrant, you know, and wanting to learn more about the culture of the Caribbean, you know, the movement through like, you know, Indian folks in the Caribbean, or, you know, Southeast Asian folks in the Caribbean, African folks in the Caribbean, you know, this, um, these whole different cultures mixing together.<\/p>\n I love that aspect of the history along aligning with the media. So, uh, in order to, you know, do that, we have to do a lot of research and kind of bring forth those stories as, as important to understand that a diaspora as a whole. And I think that, uh, they need to do more to do that. And it comes from like, you know, those folks who were kind of going to make that media and presented to them.<\/p>\n Yeah.<\/p>\n In person. Uh, so there’s a conversation that’s been going on for like the past couple of years now that, uh, is basically surrounding black trauma in the media. And it seems like, you know, we’ll get a lot of television shows and films that kind of center around like the more negative aspects of our history and our culture, instead of being more positive, you know, light-hearted stuff that you would get into something like different worlds and family matters and all this other stuff.<\/p>\n So what is kind of your take on, you know, black trauma in our media and if it’s, you know, staying at it’s going just to kind of how you be those situations. Well, I’m gonna throw a question back at you. How would you, how would you define like a negative image? Uh, I guess it would, so let’s say you get a show that is.<\/p>\n Based on slavery, like the underground or what was called. And so, uh, I haven’t seen the old thing, so I can’t speak on it, but, um, just something that would focus on, like, you know, something like slavery instead of, you know, a more modern and, you know, something that isn’t so traumatic or triggering to.<\/p>\n Okay. Yeah, I get that. Um, so I’m glad you, I asked that question because, you know, I think a lot of folks, when they say positive persona egg betrayal, I tried not to say those terms because, um, what can be positive to me, maybe negative someone else. Right. And I think it’s also, it’s, it’s sometimes subjective, especially like, I’ll try not to use the worst stereotype as much because I’m really, especially in academia, they use the word so much where it kind of like, what does that even mean?<\/p>\n Right. And we think of stereotypes, right? Like, you know, We may see a certain stereotypes, uh, even contemporary black stereotypes where we’re like, well, actually I do know someone that is like that. You know what I mean? Like where it’s like, not necessarily like fake or made up so stereotype, it has a negative connotation though.<\/p>\n So I think that want to push folks to always push for past those words, because, um, think of deeper in them. Like, you know, why is it negative to you? Why didn’t this negative thing deeper about this idea of a stereotype, but when you’re talking about trauma, I think, um, being a black in America, being black in America, um, specifically from, or like, you know, you are American.<\/p>\n It’s hard to imagine, you know, uh, a trauma list, you know, depiction of a where life looks like, even if it is a matter of a, you know, a contemporary look and story, like, you know, it’s about, there are, there are times of trauma, even in the best of times, when you talk about it again in a different world or other shows like that, there are episodes that are traumatic about, because they’re about the black experience, you know, like an episode, I think where, you know, um, one of the characters is I kind of call like an aunt Jemima figure or like a mammy figure.<\/p>\n Right. I think the episode is called something about the mammy, right. Um, and, um, being American black person or becoming black in America, or, you know, you can be an immigrant and, you know, you may not, uh, you may be like, you know, from a different country, African country, et cetera. Uh, but largely are going to be seen as black.<\/p>\n Right. So being black in America, Particularly often aligns one with, you know, uh, issues because you think about how America was built. And when it was built on a lie was built on this channel, but show the films and shows like, you know, like the TV show, uh, uh, them, right. For instance. Right. And that was one where I think it, this idea of like a trauma porn, that folks who were kind of into now.<\/p>\n And I, I honestly largely don’t think that’s for us black people really. I think it’s for other folks, largely I think we watched it because we would want to see ourselves on TV. So we, we were going to watch it, but I think the trauma is to kind of inform. Other folks. I mean, like kind of like white, liberal folks or other conservative posts, I kind of have our traumatic paths that they may not believe as true.<\/p>\n And so like, let’s see this trauma and like, hopefully that can kind of give them ideas of like things we live through every day. So I honestly don’t see those things for us. I think, I think those for like the greater mass of folks who don’t know our stories, like we don’t, we know that we know this stuff, we don’t need to know that or see it again.<\/p>\n Right. And I think, um, when it comes to films and shows about slavery kind of same thing, you know, um, it was that kind of point of realizing that we built this country. We were part of the building blocks and this is how we live in America today. You think of like, so like roots that kind of, you know, um, sparked this idea of snacking 77 sparked this idea of, you know, what blackness, uh, is an American now by Alex, Haley’s like, you know, genealogy of his, you know, um, uh, past ancestors in slavery and how, and where he is now, that was kind of America’s first real look at how slavery built America.<\/p>\n Right. It’s supposed to be eight weeks. ABC was so afraid that it wouldn’t be washed. They squeezed it into eight days, right. Straight, rather than eight weeks, because they were afraid they had shows like that are so called. Like the Holocaust miniseries that lasted the entire, I was like when Meryl Streep started, that lasted the entire, you know, um, season, but they said, Ruth we’re kind of, we’re worried.<\/p>\n So it has over eight days, I think it was, was nominated for like 30 plus Emmys that year because how good it was, because it was the first time America had to reflect on its past. Right. So we know the past already, but I think in moments like these, where we think about, you know, black lives matter movement, you know, we think about police brutality.<\/p>\n It goes a lot to like continuously reminding folks of our, of, of black Americans pass and what they had to go through. That really isn’t for us, you know, it’s for other folks that remind them. Yeah. Um, this is a traumatic path we had to go through and lived through everyday. So, unfortunately I don’t see the black trauma stopping, but I see that, uh, uh, I see important balance that’s coming.<\/p>\n Right. Um, especially in the physical Afrofuturism, you know, think of like, you know, worlds beyond like what, what blackness can be, um, what things can look like or thinking of alternative, alternative histories of black. We’re seeing a lot of that as well, too, in the supernatural as well, which I love to see, because it’s about, um, re-imagining your own blackness, what the backend looks like to you through a supernatural or through like, if this didn’t happen with blackness, be like, we think of like this idea of what condo, right.<\/p>\n This, I kind of, if we had a nation that was never, you know, um, Coco colonized, right. What, what possibility can we be? Like what’s Heights? Can we be so things like that are important moving forward, you know, and, and, um, you know, shows that are often canceled, right? Like Lovecraft country, for instance. Right.<\/p>\n Beautiful show. So much potential this kind of black kind of horror kind of scifi thing. Like things we don’t see ourselves usually in just that kind of escape, this narratives that are important to see buttons in this ways, but still harken back to black history, they would remind you so you can do both.<\/p>\n I think there’s a way there are some traumatic points of Lovecraft country, for sure that made me tear up and everything. But when you balance it with, you know, um, pot black possibility and, um, black freedom and feeling like, you know, you know, you’re not in a fixed place. I think that’s where we see progress coming.<\/p>\n Right. But when it’s strictly trauma being thrown at you invaded, it’s not necessarily for us. Um, as for folks who feel as though like, you know, who may have forgotten the trauma that we experienced. And unfortunately those are the folks who usually run media. So those are the shows that get green lit. I love Lovecraft country.<\/p>\n Oh, amazing show. And I cried when they said they weren’t weren’t renewing. Absolutely. Pardon? That deep breath of.<\/p>\n Not seeing it. Oh, please go ahead. So a lot of the, I would say activist kind of seeing repeat like my own day in day, uh, um, Dinsdale kind of emphasis, same, like that’s gross. Like I love to see them in different aspects of them, but how do you see like the future Hollywood embracing different roles or like younger generation or even different people?<\/p>\n Like who’s going to be able to grab this footage from, yeah, we were talking about that a little bit earlier. Um, this idea that there’s always been like, um, earlier looking like one black person or one black woman, you know, it was like a Davidson Ruby Dee at one point, or, you know, it was like one black person, one black woman.<\/p>\n Right. And like, uh, it was Cindy Portsea for like sixties and seventies. It was, you know, um, uh, Mr. Cosby for a minute, it was, you know, um, Eddie Murphy was Denzel. And at that point, Eddie ran the eighties, right? Like he was super smart. He’s what, you know, Kevin Hart thinks he is, you know, Mike and Kevin Hart obviously make more money and everything.<\/p>\n But like, as far as like anything of comedy, the pier of the rocket that came out of him and, you know, I love a black man making money. I love the work you’re doing. But when you think about like, kind of the essence of kind of where they came from and the roots of their comedy it’s much different. Right.<\/p>\n So, but there’s always kind of this, that one person that does the stuff right now. And I was actually saying earlier, like looking at specifically black men where I, uh, there’s not just one anymore, but there’s like six. Right. And like, we can name all of them. Right. You know, like all three brothers for like, you know, uh, Brian Tyree, Henry Lee, Keith Stanfield, uh, Donald Glover, you know, all, all the, those from Atlanta, which is why we haven’t had a season in two year.<\/p>\n Cause they all too damn busy. Right. Uh, yeah, I do. I’m a Mateen, you know, um, recipes, chat with Bozeman. He was one of these up and comers. Right. He was that person. I was going to be like that, that helm for sure. And of course, you know, Michael B. Jordan, you know, So you had these group of folks, right? And you think of like black women, it’s different.<\/p>\n Right. You know, you have violet Davis playing everybody. She has, she’s playing a Michelle Obama coming up. That’s going to be dope, you know, and Viola could do no wrong, you know, uh, but you know, there needs to be an array of individuals because there are many folks out there who are doing the work. Um, so we’re having a lot of folks come up in, in the, in the ranks, largely through like streaming shows and stuff too.<\/p>\n But when it comes to films, you know, you have like, uh, Tessa, Thompson’s other young folks kind of like, kind of get this round. But I think black women are, you know, uh, definitely needs to be a more concerted effort on getting more black women’s faces out there as well. But the fact that, you know, if ass on, like who a black lead may be, I’ll rush all the, I am to that list, to.<\/p>\n But I can name it all, all of them. Right. That’s the problem. And I think ended up with selfless. Um, there are progress the fact that it’s not just one anymore, but I shouldn’t be able to name all of them because if I asked mass about a white actor, I can go on and on and on. It’s not a discussion. You’re not, you, you kind of don’t know who’s going to be next.<\/p>\n But for black actors, we know who that Vanguard of folks is who that kind of click, uh, black actors are. You know, I even mentioned Danica Kalua, you know, um, uh, uh, David or yellow, like all these, you know, black, British actors as well, too. Um, you just OBA, you know, oh boy, who plays in, um, um, Damson Idris who plays in, um, snowfall.<\/p>\n Right. You know, so many black men show. But again, that makes it also clear to how many, um, how less black women led vehicles are there. You know, there’s no more scandal. There’s no more how to deal with murder where the black women led vehicles. Right. I’m ran secure now, too. I still, I still, you know, ended on a great note had, you know, cause you know, sometimes shows can go on too long because we all know.<\/p>\n That makes it clear to you, the lack of black women letting vehicles there are as well. So, uh, these companies, especially streaming, they have the ability to make that possible. Um, but I want to see happen more so in the feature space, right? Uh, when we look at, you know, uh, we look at the academy award and we look at big award shows and you, I hate the award rhetoric because so many great stuff doesn’t make awards.<\/p>\n And we all know it’s all political, who in these awards are. I would like to see a face of like black female actresses, uh, best actresses. I would like to see five out of six, be black. That would be amazing to see right in whatever world that may possibly be. But I think that, um, it’s moving into directions with the, be for black men because that’s how this, you know, patriarchal system works, you know, black men first and then black women and hopefully black queer people while seeing black gay men first, then black queer people.<\/p>\n And, you know, and so this way it moves. It’s very patriarchal system is moving slowly but surely. But I think that it just really makes clear the lack of black women vehicles. We need more because again, we can name all these folks and which is beautiful, but I want there to be a time where there’s an array of folk, my damn, who was that she’s dope, you know?<\/p>\n Um, but I want to see her next. Right. Um, so yeah, I, I, the potential is there, it’s just a matter of, you know, they’re probably like, y’all like Viola Davis, so we’re going to throw her on, on another one. Right. Um, which no one’s going to complain about. Of course. We need to make concerted efforts, uh, to show again, the Ray of what we look like as a people and how we act.<\/p>\n And, um, we’re not fixed in certain identities and certain people don’t represent all of us. And I think they’re sometimes throwing Viola that, uh, that image like, look you the black woman. So be all of us, right? Yeah. Any other questions? I have a question. I’ll go for it. And so the wires showed a harsh, but real look into the reality of inner city, Baltimore under funded school stories of Michael Randy, naming Flores.<\/p>\n Um, what are your thoughts on the virtual betrayal of that very real aspect of black existence in America? Um, how they’re handled and the need of those stories. Man. I love that show. So I’m glad you mentioned, like that’s the shirt I’m wearing, you know, it’s, uh, love the wire. I love this show. This is probably my favorite season.<\/p>\n I believe it’s season four, like, cause they do like, you know, um, you know, the police department, they do like the docks, the education system politics. I don’t have to box it all. Season two was yeah, no, no, no. Uh, that’s where they got away from most of the three bars back. Right. And then, uh, season four about like, you know, journalism and media print media, um, this season for sure.<\/p>\n Uh, Hertz to wash off now how it ended, you know, um, beautiful, but very real in that aspect and, but extremely important it’s chose. And I think this is. This show is one important, because again, um, it’s from a white shirt owner, David Simon, but his co writer of the show, uh, David Mills, a black man, um, from Baltimore area, um, you know, this kind of shows the importance of having a black writer in the room, a black, consistent staff writer, because all of the show wasn’t from a totally, from like a black producers perspective, having that consistent writer in the room who also worked on like trauma and other shows and David’s Jaime like made it clear, like the, the, uh, black Baltimore that you’re going to get in the show.<\/p>\n Right. You know, someone who could reflect on that and it showed like the wider, I think in a very important way, um, really talked about how the city breaks down, you know, I’m looking at a largest city, right. And how it breaks down, uh, it’s politics through like, you know, um, the mayoral office, you know, how they break down to education system through the police, to like the, the, you know, um, even the doc work at all.<\/p>\n I hate that season is important to see how, how the money rolls in a city, right? The, the, the illegal workings of it. And what’s what’s cared about and how it really, how police are involved in all these aspects too. Especially with port city. Those are the cities where the most corruption happens because that’s a huge moneymaker, but show like this and the fate of these individuals, um, it’s kind of a product of the environment thing.<\/p>\n That’s kind of hurtful to see, but it was like, so real it’s like if, if it ended in a way it was like a kind of happy go, lucky they all go off to college or something. It would, of course it would be beautiful to see, but their realism would, would drift off there. Right. Talking about the circumstances and how like, you know, one ended up, I don’t want to spoil it, but it’s been a while since the wire came on, but to watch it, everybody, I think how one of them, I won’t say who I want to him, like, you know, ends up in foster in the system, right?<\/p>\n How one of them, you know, ends up from. The actually from the family that deals with drugs, that’s the one that ended up being saved in a sense, going to the private schools and all that one is I’m on the run. And in one ends up, you know, um, his only community was within with drug addicts. So you become the drug addict and this idea that your community really we feel comfortable at that was the only space for him.<\/p>\n Right. And it just hurts to see, but it’s, it’s the fate of so many people in the community like that. Um, some young black boys and for this to be the state, it was hard purple to see, you know, I was by myself who went through foster care. It was like, you know, I had a parent who dealt with, you know, um, drug abuse, all these things.<\/p>\n I, you know, I felt it a lot. And I think that it was important to show these stories because, you know, it showed the real grittiness of what a city can do and how. The cities, every working part is a character education system is a character in the city. The police are, they all make up the experience of this kind of microcosm of what’s happening to the kids in the city.<\/p>\n Right. And, um, their lack of going to school, how they have to survive. And, you know, you feel bad for them because you know, they’re selling drugs and stuff. You may see them then like, okay, they’re drug dealers. But look at their surroundings. One kid, his dad was, uh, was one of the kingpins in this larger organization.<\/p>\n So of course he’s going to want to do too. Right. Um, one kid is, is, you know, he’s, uh, excludes extreme poverty. His mother steals from him when he has money. Um, he has to shower at school. So he’s going to be a part of his environment. He’s going to latch onto whatever waste you can get money. Right. So I think shows like this are important because they really tap into this idea that, uh, you know, last shows, a lot of news will say like, you know, poverty is the fault of that person.<\/p>\n You know, like for my homelessness in Austin, you think of all of this stuff, like, you know, Knowing their stories and knowing what came of these things is what’s so important. So I talk to my students and looking at media, let’s talk about the backstory. What made this person, who they are, you know, uh, watch, we watched boys in the hood talking about Doughboy character, played by IQ.<\/p>\n What made him this, you know, tough gangsters because he protect his brother and get the approval of his mother, the entire film. He’s not a bad guy whatsoever. He wants to protect his brother because his mom also she’s brother better than him. So he’s was always trying to pre pre trying to always be, um, in his mother’s eyes is cared about.<\/p>\n So we always was seeking love and affection and validation. So these things often, um, especially for young black men, Uh, yeah, my children in general, um, idea of this need of, uh, one to feel belonging and feel community that’s largely why they come together. And the fate of them often is dependent on the community and what happens.<\/p>\n So these four kind of like drift off into different spaces of life, where the one who was born at the worst, well, financially the best, but kind of the worst situation born into a drug family ends up being the one who’s like the most well-off only in the end because he like, you know, found someone that gave him a break or cared about him.<\/p>\n And, you know, you realize that that’s the fate of a lot of individuals and stories that haven’t ever been told before. So that’s what always was important to always cater to the stories that aren’t told. Great question. Others on the question? Yes. Uh, what are some type of like shows, or I guess we’re talking about television.<\/p>\n So what are some types of like black, uh, shows or stories, parts of the culture that you would like to be explored? Ideal show like what they would want to see. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I don’t know someone gonna take my idea and write it and win awards off of it. Um, you know, I always share information. So for me, I’ve always wanted to, in a style of, uh, like, you know, I got caught into like the, uh, you know, the, like the Shonda land or lucid, like grays, you know, I was like, what’s, she’s an 18.<\/p>\n Now my natural was the Allianz. I’m like, I’ve spent 20 years watching this show. Oh, I need to see how it ends. Right. Um, but like I got into shows like that. Talk about, you know, like, um, the personal lives of folks in certain jobs. I think they, I think of like a show, like Grey’s anatomy that a Cami, like scrubs both about kind of black at both about surgeons or life, like living as surgeons, but like comedy versus drama.<\/p>\n Right. So I’ve always been interested in shows like that. But then I think of like, you know, a show that really came out of that kind of was, it was kind of idea was had, was that show. The chair, this came out on Netflix. Right? Um, I love Sandra. Oh, great actress. Um, but I always wanted to talk about this idea of like, you know, um, how, uh, maybe a comedy around kind of like, you know, black faculty at like a predominantly white institution, right.<\/p>\n A commie around that, like, you know, you have the black person in the sciences or the black person who like does the romantic languages, but they’re old. And they’re like, you know, that’s part of their character. Right. Then being a romantic languages professor is part of like their smooth character, like funny things like that.<\/p>\n I always think about stuff like that. Right. Like, and how, you know, the FM person is like the, you know, he only wears black own stuff, things like that. And it was funny to me, like, I always think of like stories of like, um, folks in these, uh, professions that we don’t really see their true story of them about, you know, um, you know, what is it that, that black professor went through or what is it that, you know, um, kind of made them go into the field of academia specifically.<\/p>\n Um, but really, I just like seeing black art in many different ways. So. Other than that. I love to see, you know, uh, things are, are talking more about, you know, uh, black folks in fashion and style or, you know, like, uh, black designers and stuff too. I love shows like, you know, a lot of the, um, creative show is talking about kind of the design process.<\/p>\n Like, you know, I look at, uh, a service like complex, like, right. That’s like sneaker shopping and stuff like that. I love stuff like that because they’re talking to people about like, you know, shopping for sneakers and talking about the history and stuff. And then they’re all talking about like, you know, this idea of sneakers and like how it was a part of culture for them and for myself too, when I think of like, When I like wear clothes and things, I think about, you know, like, you know, who made this like the fashion and like, especially like, you know, black culture and how advising that I think in my black popular culture class, I’d do a whole week on like black fashion and like, um, what comes from net, right?<\/p>\n Uh, you know, what made them design a shirt this way? You know, what are they saying with the clothing? You know, uh, what is the largest thing about kind of the history they tapped into? So things like that. I love hearing stories about that. He doesn’t need to be a TV show. It could be like a, you know, a YouTube series like that.<\/p>\n And I love media actually that isn’t structured by the constraints of television or, or, or film. I love this kind of homegrown media that comes from like a Vimeo or YouTube series is like where you can kind of, um, not necessarily what you want, but you kind of this like made for, for you and by you that you can kind of like lower budgets, like stuff that really kind of in front of a camera talking about your livelihood.<\/p>\n I really enjoy like, you know, a lot of random YouTube shows about like, or she channels about like, you know, Folks experiencing new cities, stuff like that too. Like especially black folk experiencing new cities, like how to be black. I ran a couple, like, how do you, how to like how to live a black Austin experience?<\/p>\n Like stuff like that randomly. Right. And that’s the thing that’s beautiful about media, especially the openness of like a YouTube in general was because the kind of freedom that opens you to different things. Right. Um, and you can kind of make a show out of anything, um, or what kind of taps tap, what taps into your fancy, um, about style, livelihood, culture, and whatever things that kind of surround those things.<\/p>\n I’m always really interested in too, but lately it’s been a mix of kind of like fashion and hip hop culture had been my, um, interests as of late.<\/p>\n And it’s all. How would you kind of, I guess, inspire you like your students or anyone who wants to like, have an idea and just like produce it without like, worrying about, oh, do I have like enough expertise for, this is my story, like enough money for this? Like how do you kind of support telling your own story?<\/p>\n Yeah, I think the expertise thing, I think first is like, you know, Expertise like you can, um, research can be done by anyone. You know what I mean? Like, um, find resources, I think. Um, and also when you look at it and when you watch that, so everything about creating something, you know, find things that are kind of similar to what you want to create, but obviously you’re the difference.<\/p>\n Right? What about you is different? Why would they come to you? I think that’s important thing, right? Um, of all the, I was talking about fashion, something, I’ll bring that up again about like the fashion sites. Right? What about your site is different? Uh, you know, maybe you focus specifically on, you know, uh, retro Jordans, right?<\/p>\n I’m just dealing with something randomly out there, but your specificity is going to be what’s most important. Right? Why would people come to watch your show channel, whatever it may be. And as far as like, you know, the expertise, it goes to, you know, consuming these things. You know, when I like, I’m an immediate studies professor, but like I studied black sitcoms specifically, but I have to watch all sitcoms or all television in general, because I have to talk about how sitcoms are constructed as a whole.<\/p>\n And then how we see it as blastic on specifically. Right? So it’s about being a, kind of a master of your craft. You have to really put yourself into there. So really look at things that may not be exactly what you want to do, but are like, you know, um, tensions into what you want to do. Right. There are connected with close enough that you can see like, all right, cool.<\/p>\n Now, to be more specific to what I want to do, start with the overarching themes of what you like, uh, what things may touch that. And then from there, you can find a specifically what’s for you. That’s how you get gain kind of like a visual expertise from watching things, but also, you know, um, I being in a visual field, um, but I’m also on the study side.<\/p>\n So I have to write and read, um, I’d much rather watch things, but I have to read from my job and for my writing, because I have to know what has written about been written about it already, because. How my work’s going to be different. Right? They talk about the show already. Maybe it was talking about the show, is that talking about my writing, but how I talking about the show is differently?<\/p>\n What am I taking from these shows differently as well? Um, but also giving respect to those who came before you in that way too, like talking against them, buying an argument. Right? So reading these things is gonna be important too. So reading, watching, and I’m also really, um, people, you know, are going to be like your harshest critics.<\/p>\n So I think also be, you know, be open to showing them your things. Like if it’s that you’re recreating a new media, a new channel, a new show, whatever, or writing something, show them, get their perspective on it. And I think the best thing is. If what you’re doing, doesn’t make sense to someone who doesn’t like, do what you do, then it, then it needs to be worked on.<\/p>\n So like myself, like if I’m writing about history of like black TV, right. If I’m talking to a friend of mine who does, he works in natural sciences, right. If they’re reading my work and they don’t really understand it, then I need to be, I need to do better in my writing because I need to make it be able to be clear.<\/p>\n It should never be just for folks in my field to understand. I think that’s kind of like one of the things in academia that happens to so much time, like they use words, they use terms that are only people in academia can understand. And I think the best things are, uh, are, uh, what’s being able to be received outside of folks who just already understand what you’re doing.<\/p>\n Right. So be sure to always kind of share your work with folks who, um, are connected to your, like, you know, um, interest at all. And I think if they can find value in it, I think that’s a good step as well. Yeah, no problem. Well, we’re going to go ahead and close our session this evening. We want to thank everybody in our audience and those of you online, uh, who are tuning in.<\/p>\n We want to thank Dr. Seabrook for all you’re doing. You can give him a round of applause. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for hanging out with us and educate miss and entertaining and teaching us, uh, on this evening, uh, for those of you who are tuning in online, and those of you here, please make sure that you check in just so we can track and see who all was with us on today.<\/p>\n So you got those QR codes down here at the front and in the back, uh, hopefully in the chat, uh, you all received the, uh, QR QR code with the Qualtrics link, just so we can know, uh, who tuned in with us this evening. And so that we can follow up with you, uh, get some feedback and thoughts, because I think we’re going to do this again.<\/p>\n I, this is our very first time. Live and in person, we normally only do the audio version of this podcast. So beautiful. I think we’re going to do it again in person and, um, uh, Dr. CBO really enjoyed talking with you. We definitely got to have you back for another conversation. I promise it won’t be another year before we do that again, but, uh, we got two other, uh, three really, uh, happening.<\/p>\n In the life of our campus this week for a black history month tomorrow, we have a black history month, a poetry reading and writing workshop. That’s going to take place from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM over in the little field patio cafe. Uh, and it’s going to feature a local artists and it was Kamari Hawkins, and she’s going to be giving away some of her poetry books, as well as some of her writing journals.<\/p>\n And we’re going to learn how to write poetry. We’re going to learn how to create together. And so that’s going to be an exciting time. Uh, and then on Wednesday, we’re going to do an evening with Dr. Moore, where we’re going to have a discussion about his new book, teaching black history to white people. Uh, we’re going to have free food and dinner at that event and there’s dinner tomorrow, tomorrow night’s event.<\/p>\n And then on Thursday. Oh. And the event with Dr. Morris is going to be in the center Cento, uh, hall, multipurpose room. So make sure you come to that 5:00 PM on Tuesday. Excuse me. No, no, no, no. Today, tomorrow, Tuesday is little field pack. This is why I should’ve wrote it down a little field patio cafe for the poetry reading and writing workshop.<\/p>\n Wednesday 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM in the Santa Cento hall. Multi-purpose room. That’s the evening with Dr. Moore and then on Thursday at our jester J two dining location. And in Kinsolving we’re doing the diaspora dinners. And so I, I’m not going to give away the menu, but I’m telling you, if you have not eaten in the dining halls, all.<\/p>\n Thursday would be the day I would go because I’ve seen the menu. And let’s just say, think about all your favorite Southern dishes and all of your international Mediterranean, um, goodness gracious. Anybody think of the diaspora and think of the food associated with it. Africa, uh, Louisiana, North Carolina, Texas, all of that.<\/p>\n Y’all it’s it’s it’s gonna be incredible. So come eat, come hang out with us. Uh, and you know, come find me. I’ll make sure if you don’t have a meal plan, come find me. We’ll figure it out. We’ll get you in there. But I know our dining team would definitely appreciate seeing you all and getting your feedback, uh, on Thursdays, uh, dinner meal, that’s from five to seven or five to closing actually, uh, as well in Kinsolving and, uh, Jay too.<\/p>\n So want to thank you all for coming out. Thank you to the liberal arts instructional technology studio for hosting us and having us in here as always. We want to thank our media and marketing team from housing and dining, and every one of you who came to hang out with us on today. My co-host as always wonderful.<\/p>\n They should get the camera shot. Don’t don’t close without showing it tonight. I hear about it afterwards, but uh, if you want to give them the final words. No, thanks for coming. We’re so excited for our next episode. We’ll talk to you soon. Make sure you get connected with Dr. C bro. Check out his class and course list for next semester.<\/p>\n If you’re interested in that and having these conversations. So take care this next episode, we hope you enjoy today’s episode to catch the next installment. Be sure to follow us on Spotify, apple podcasts, Google podcasts, and Stitcher. This podcast was recorded and edited in collaboration with the L a I T S development studios.<\/p>\n Audio department, more information can be found@liberalartsdotutexas.edu slash L a I T. The interest song was composed by Ian Herrera. And you can find his work@ianherrera.com. The outro song was composed by Noah Keller, and you can find more of his work@noahdkeller.com. We’ll see you. Next time, Texas podcast network is brought to you by the university of Texas at Austin.<\/p>\n Podcasts are produced by faculty members and staffers at UT Austin who worked with university communications to craft content that adheres to journalistic best practices. The university of Texas at Austin offers these podcasts at no charge podcasts appearing on the network. And this webpage represent the views of the hosts, not of the university of Texas at Austin.<\/p>\n"},"episode_featured_image":false,"episode_player_image":"https:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2022\/03\/LIVE-logo-TPN.png","download_link":"https:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/live\/podcast-download\/349\/episode-29-a-conversation-with-dr-sebro.mp3","player_link":"https:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/live\/podcast-player\/349\/episode-29-a-conversation-with-dr-sebro.mp3","audio_player":"