I have guilty pleasures just like the rest of you. One of mine happens to be reality TV. When I feel like dumbing down from all that it is I do daily, I specifically like to sit down, turn off, and watch the Real Housewives of Atlanta. Guilty as charged.
Many people are up in arms about the most recent episodes in which the ladies travel to South Africa. People are offended, find it as a beckoning call for them to singlehandedly change the way Black women who travel are viewed on tv. I get it, believe me I do. But:
1. What do you expect from the Real Housewives? Seriously. If you've ever watched any of their franchises or any femlae fueled shows on reality TV, it's quite ignorantly entertaining at times. You have to take it for what it is truly worth.
2. The Real Housewives of New York episode in which they took a trip to Morocco pissed me off more! That episode I literally changed the channel on, and discontinued watching the rest of the season because of it. Luanne set up a tent the size of a house, in the middle of the desert, and these chicks were still complaining. Their reaction to the poverty there was startling. Where the Atlanta cast were ignorant within their core group on personal drama, I felt the New York crew had a sense of ignorance towards the view of the world around them. That I couldn't rock with.
3. They gave back. I know this whole idea of 'poverty pimping' has come up in a slew of conversations. People speculate that celebrities have been traveling to different poverty stricken parts of the world for their own recognition and praise moreso than the sake of doing good. Personally, the jury's out on this one for me, and I can dive into that on another entry. But for the sake of this here blog, I'm going to give props to these women for putting their personal bullshit to the side for a second and spending time with the children of the Charity Trust Orphanage. They went to a neighboring supermarket and spent hundreds of dollars each on usefull things that this place needed. It wasn't about amenities. It was about maxi pads, tampons, Band-Aids, toilet paper, food, deoderants. How could I allow personal fueds overshadow that fact that these women filled up a van worth of goods for these children? I'm not so enthralled in their drama, as a viewer, to not recognize and commend the good in that. Period.
4. Phaedra. She went from my least favorite cast member in her first season, to my go to girl for the type of sound bytes that reality TV is made of, in her following season. I love some Phaedra.
5. A change is gonna come. How do I know? I'm the face of it. I firmly believe that if you aren't a part of the solution, you may very well be part of the problem. Maybe part of why I can disassociate so freely from this is two fold. One, I have worked in TV for years, so I know the set-up. Two, I have created the force of my own movement that can work as a balancing beam to the bullshit. Nomad•ness TV and the Nomad•ness Travel Tribe are a platform and community that tips the scale in a positive direction. If you know you are working on the progression forward, you don't have time to concern yourself with the non-sense of what came prior. The vision is too grand. The attention is too plentiful, and movement is too important.
With that said, I want to thank everyone who has already pledges to the Kickstarter for the Nomad•ness Travel Tribe. We have only 35 days left to reach our goal of $10,000. We are up to $3125 now after only 10 days of fundraising. Amazing progress! If you haven't please drop a donation. Every single dollar counts! Thank you! LINK: http://kck.st/zxbSbX
