Looking at Black America, Eyes Fixed on the Future

The first half of “Black in America 2,” a two-night special on Wednesday and Thursday on CNN, begins with a segment in which Soledad O’Brien, the reporter for the series, admonishes some boys in Bushwick, Brooklyn, who ignore their academics to play basketball all day. Good; the unrealistic dream of pro ball as the ticket out of poverty needs to be knocked down. Of course, Ms. O’Brien’s scolding would be more convincing if the next night’s episode did not included a lengthy piece about Tyler Perry. So, kids, let’s review: Don’t aspire to play pro basketball; you’ll never make it. Instead count on becoming a movie star/entertainment mogul. So it goes in this skim-the-surface program, a follow-up to “Black in America” last year. Wednesday’s installment is devoted to “Tomorrow’s Leaders” and Thursday’s to “Today’s Pioneers,” but both are essentially collections of upbeat features, anecdotes without much analysis as to whether these piecemeal efforts are making a long-term difference. The message to viewers is, in effect: “See? Someone in California is helping inmates transition back into the workforce when they’re released, and Chris Rock’s wife is taking those Brooklyn kids on a trip to South Africa to broaden their perspective. So everything’s O.K. in black America.” Not that the initiatives Ms. O’Brien spotlights aren’t worthy. Mr. Rock’s wife, Malaak Compton-Rock, certainly did a fine thing last year by taking 30 Bushwick youngsters to South Africa and turning the tables on them: instead of being on the receiving end of assistance, they were on the giving end, visiting families affected by AIDS. But Ms. O’Brien undercuts any heft this and other segments might build up by shamelessly injecting herself into the proceedings. Do we really need to see her having a heart-to-heart with one of the Bushwick children and personally wiping the girl’s tears? CONTINUE READING...