So as I began to read the Washington Post on Thursday morning (Nov 2, 2006), I stumbled upon an interesting article on the cover of the Style section—Love Him, Or Leave Him? Flavor Flav’s Popular Show Sets Off Passionate Debate on Comedy and Race by Teresa Wiltz.

In a society like ours, laden with heavy racial baggage, is there room for farce featuring black folks? Or is, as Dave Chappelle says he found out before famously walking off his show, the difference between racial satire and perpetuating racial stereotypes too fine a line to tread? And what's to be made of the fact that in its second season, more than half of the women in "Flavor of Love's" key 18-to-49 demographic are African American? Or the fact that Flav, a classically trained pianist, is one of the founding members of a rap group known for its political militancy and black nationalist pride?

In my opinion our society can not handle a show of this nature.  We still have too far to go in terms of racial equality and acceptance.  "The problem isn't Flavor Flav," says [Mark Anthony] Neal. "The problem is Flavor Flav becomes the stand-in for the one or two black people you see on TV. And a figure like Flavor Flav takes on more importance than he should (Wiltz, 2006)."  This is so true.  People watching this show don’t see Flavor Flav, the individual acting, a mess, they really see all black men in his character portrayal; this is where the problem lies especially with the nature in which black women are represented on this show.

Think of the names these women are “given”.  Deelishis, Bootz, Buckwild.  I can’t get mad at how Flav basically rubbed, touched, smacked and stayed all over these women because they allowed it to be done.  Remember the episode when Flav had a party for some rappers and chicks were pole dancing and booty shaking?  What in the world?  And we wonder why black women are seen as over sexualized beings.  Between this show and music videos I can see why these negative stereotypes exist.  Watching these women on “Flavor of Love” is “like watching the Hottentot Venus on display…It’s without redeeming value…It’s just about exploitation.  It’s like having slaves right for your amusement (Wiltz, 2006).”

The question I have is this, why are we watching this show?  “Flavor of Love” is wrong on so many levels.  Clearly the ways in which women and African Americans in general are portrayed on this show are horrible, but for some reason, we made this show a hit.—“nearly 7.5 million viewers tuned in for the October finale, according to Nielsen…On Sunday, 6 million people tuned in for the reunion show (Wiltz, 2006).”  I’ve asked myself this very question.  Seriously, watching this show is like watching a train wreck and you can’t make yourself turn away.  I consciously know that I shouldn’t be watching, but yet I can’t turn away.  It’s sad.

So I know you are wondering, where does Mo’Nique fit in with all of this?  Well I was listening to Donny Simpson (Mr. Green Eyes himself) interview Mo’Nique this morning (Nov 8, 2006) on the radio.  Mo’Nique mentioned that VH1 approached her about creating/hosting a reality show, featuring the women from “Flavor of Love”.  The premise of this reality show is to present the “Flavor of Love” women with a different way to behave and portray oneself (not necessarily the right way, but simply a different way).  Supposedly Mo’Nique along with Susan Taylor, the Editorial Editor of Essence magazine, will work together to show these women a classier more positive way of living and representing oneself.  I think this show will be very interesting, I just hope it doesn’t fall victim to being overly dramatic and ridiculous for the sake of ratings.  Filming is supposed to begin towards the end of November and air on VH1 beginning in February.

For anyone who is interested, I wrote a paper somewhat related to this topic for my graduate program.