Revolution Televised.pdf

196 Notes to Chapter 1
within U.S. popular culture; instead, there was media saturation of black
images, “hyperblackness.” I argue that the first case of hyperblackness on
television occurred in the 1970s. Gray’s cultural studies approach to the
examination of 1980s and 1990s television is a useful framework, as he
considers technologies, industrial organization, and the political economy
in order to address the issues that shape commercial culture, representations
of blackness, power, inequality, domination, and difference.
2. J. Fred MacDonald’s Blacks and White TV is deeply entrenched
in the positive/negative dichotomy of analysis. For example, the second
chapter of his book is entitled “Blacks in TV: Nonstereotypes versus
Stereotypes.” The chapter does not address the basis for categorization;
thus, what is positive or negative is assumed to be the same to any viewing
audience. While the book includes important historical material,
throughout it the analysis of television programs is framed by this assumption
of uniform reading. By the end of the book MacDonald shows
a complete lack of class consciousness when dealing with contemporary
television. In chapter 21, “The Cultural Debate,” he criticizes The Cosby
Show for dealing with teenage sex and condoms through the character of
cousin Pam. The introduction of Pam actually addressed the class difference
in black society previously ignored on the show. MacDonald states
that the show thus lost its “stately demeanor” (293). He considers cable
television a problematic venue because black comics are allowed to express
profanity heard only in locker rooms. He also suggests that cable
stations, especially MTV, and shows such as Yo! MTV Raps have allowed
urban underclass youth to “[mount] a forceful assault on middle-class
norms”(294). MacDonald states that Yo! MTV Raps was “a hip-hop
showcase replete with the full range of rap’s verbal transgressions—from
grammatical inexactitude and sexual boasting to crude sexist ideas—plus
the stifling of melodic song by the repetitive rhythm and unsophisticated
chant that are the hallmarks of the musical phenomenon” (294). While
he admits they are spokesmen for racial problems, he states that “angry
young black men” create hostility, and thus rap artists should make their
acts milder (297). Although the chapter includes many examples of this
lack of class consciousness, one can analyze this critique as emblematic of
the chapter. MacDonald does not discuss the problems that black artists
had in getting MTV to incorporate black images. As MTV became one of
the best routes to publicizing and selling music, their exclusion put black
artists at a disadvantage. Second, his description of hip-hop indicates an
“old school” interpretation of music; hip-hop certainly does not qualify as
being mainstream melodic. However, experimental jazz created by some of
the most famous musicians, such as John Coltrane and Miles Davis, often
did not fit into mainstream views of music. His critique of sexual boasting
also does not acknowledge that toasting and signifying are part of a long