By Kevin McCauley
CIVIL RIGHTS GROUP TARGETS OXYGEN NETWORK
A civil rights group with more than 850K members wants Oxygen Network to drop production of “All My Babies’ Mamas” because it doesn ‘t like its depiction of black families.
Set for a spring release, the reality show features Atlanta rapper Shawty Lo, who has fathered 11 children with 10 women. His current girlfriend is the same age as one of his oldest daughters.
Rashad Robinson, executive director of ColorOfChange.org, said Oxygen is using the program to earn profits by presenting “degrading and inflammatory images of our community.”
Oxygen says the program will showcase Lo’s effort to “split affection multiple ways while trying to create order” as he navigates the “dysfunction” of a “modern family.”
Robinson raps Oxygen’s portrayal of the program as “daring.” According to CoC’s letter to Steven Burke, NBC Universal president; Jason Klarman, Oxygen Media president, and Cori Abraham, OM’s senior VP/development “there is nothing daring about your decision to invest in and promote inaccurate, dehumanizing and harmful perceptions of Black families for the sake of ratings and advertising dollars.”
CoC believes All My Babies’ Mamas “reinforces negative stereotypes about black men and women as hypersexual, combative and unfit to parent.”
It also reduces self-esteem and the distorted portrayal of the black community “can lead non-black audiences to hold “onto problematic perceptions of black people.
FitzGibbonMedia is promoting CoC’s effort. |