Are Blacks To Blame For Negative Portrayals Of African Americans On Reality TV?

Are African American households participating in the most racist media propaganda campaign in television history by watching reality TV?

In a recent article on theGrio, Sil Lai Abrams argued that the proliferation of Black performers in reality television programming is doing nothing to help create a positive reality of the African American experience. In fact, Abrams says that our increased participation–which should be a good thing–is creating the opposite effect; it is perpetuating negative stereotypes that create false perceptions of Black people for the nation to consume.

The most recent candidate aspiring to make its way to primetime coonery is “All My Babies’ Mamas, starring Atlanta-based rapper Shawty Lo and his ten babies’ mothers.

The trailer sparked so much controversy that the NAACP reportedly sent a letter to Oxygen’s President Jason Klarman expressing its outrage over the proposed show’s negative portrayal of Black families. And a Change.org petition demanding that the show not air has gotten more than 35,000 signatures. The reality series is reportedly in “early development” and is not green-lighted to air as of yet.

RELATED: Shawty Lo and All His Baby Mamas To Star In Reality TV Series On Oxygen

Though other reality TV shows that are enjoying successful runs, like “Love and Hip Hop” And “Basketball Wives,” are not any better.

“The underlying message most of these shows send about blacks is that we’re shallow, impulsive creatures lacking in self-control without any vision of life that doesn’t include vacations (or funerals) they can’t afford, slanging rhymes, having too many children, and shopping oneself into bankruptcy,” Abrams said.

Below Abrams outlines how portrayals of Black people on television have devolved over the years: