Did anyone happen to catch Black in America on CNN last night?

Last night was the 2nd installment in the groundbreaking series presented by CNN that explores the current situation and issues facing African-Americans 40 years after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

The first part of the series, entitled ‘Eyewitness to Murder: The King Assassination’ premiered back in April. Part 2 – ‘The Black Woman and Family’ aired last night and Part 3 – ‘The Black Man’ will premiere tonight at 9pm. The series is hosted by CNN’s Soledad O’Brien.

I usually cringe every time I hear about a show that strives to encapsulate the ‘black experience’ in the span of a few hours. Generally, I find such efforts either way too myopic or too sappy and trite, laden with a ‘we-shall-overcome-negro-spiritual’ tone that just seems outdated and irrelevant. So when I tuned in last night, I had a high amount of anticipation mixed with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Unfortunately – due to the late hour – I didn’t catch the whole show, but watched a good portion and DVRed the rest for later. I can honestly say that I was quite impressed by the way the various issues affecting African-American women were presented. The show offered a well-rounded, emotionally engaging, interwoven story of several black women from varying social backgrounds and economic statuses. From the plight of the single black female raising a family on her own, to the single, successful professional who has a hard time finding a suitable black mate, to black females who struggle with dating / marrying outside of their race and parenting interracial children – each perspective was explored with sufficient depth and brought to light some little-known issues facing black women, while posing some tough questions. Thankfully, the show wasn’t arrogant enough to attempt to answer them all.

The show also revealed some statistics that I didn’t even know and found a bit shocking. A couple I can recall off the top of my head:
- 45% of Black women have never been married, compared to 23% of white women
- 70% of all new HIV/AIDS cases are African-Americans

Definitely things that make you go hmmm….

Oh, and before I forget…plenty big ups to brother Jon Goode, a.k.a. Juan Bueno! One of Atlanta’s own talented spoken-word artists held it down, introducing each segment of the documentary with his signature verbal flare and haberdashery handsomeness. You can check out more of Jon at his Myspace page.

If you missed the show, no worries. It will re-air again on July 26. Or, for around $3 you can buy both of the 2-hour shows airing this week from Itunes. Plus, be sure to check the CNN site for tons of engaging commentary and other snippets, videos, etc. about the show.

cheers,

k