Last week, Michaela Angela Davis spoke with Jacque Reid on the Tom Joyner Morning Show about a new campaign she is spearheading at Spelman College called “Bury the Ratchet”. Davis is a leading image activist that works to transform the ideologies associated with popular depictions in today’s society and culture by supporting and promoting positive images.
Davis described the campaign as an awareness project to reduce negative messages that have become associated with women of color from Atlanta because of reality television shows. In the interview, Davis says that the project is more of a “pro-leadership” campaign rather than an “anti-reality show” movement.
“[Many women] find when they say are from Atlanta the first image that comes to mind is mean, gold digging women….It has become completely evident that there has been a brand of women from Atlanta that are adverse to what most of these women are like,” Davis says. The image activist described how show producers seem to only pinpoint one type of black woman to represent Atlanta, those that represent violence and “black girl pain”.
“The goal [of the movement] is to get the spotlight off the ratchetness and on the successful women in Atlanta”.
Through a symposium at Spelman College in March 2013, Davis, along with other community leaders and scholars, will engage in an open conversation about the role reality television is playing within African-American culture and its impacts on society. The goal of the movement will be to produce a PSA of sorts that will publicize how young women of color truly feel about how they are being portrayed by media corporations.
[READ MORE, at CLUTCH]
We sit around flapping our gums about how black women are portrayed in the media, and that we need to build coalitions to promote positive images of black women. Got to support a woman who’s rallying the ground troops to make it happen.
Viva la resistance!
I will be the first to admit as a youngster I watched Real Housewives ATL and I have recently watched and episode of love and hip hop atlanta. I laughed at how over the top and stupid these shows were, no black women in my family or any black women I know act like that. I also know and have always known reality TV is fake and staged and is purely for entertainment(really there are casting calls for over the top offensive characters), and I think that anyone who thinks what is shown in Reality TV or VH1 is real is seriously stupid. That being said I know many people that are seriously stupid and do believe everything they see on reality TV. Another thing is that these images are being presented as "reality" and not as a parody of some sorts, the "reality" label makes people think all black women from atlanta are violent and in chronic emotional pain of some sorts. People also use these images to justify there sick reasoning that all black women are violent and in chronic pain(ie basketball wives).
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