Black In America / Stereohyped

» 'Black In America' A Ratings Winner

A lot of people might not have liked CNN's Black in America, but it the news network is definitely still reaping rewards from the series. According to TV Week: "Reported and anchored by Soledad O’Brien, the documentaries, about “Black Women & Family” Wednesday and “The Black Man” Thursday, didn’t just win their time period against the cable news competition. They won decisively, outperforming CNN’s year-to-date averages for 9-11 p.m. by double and triple digits. According to data from Nielsen Media Research, Thursday’s installment averaged 2.6 million viewers, 1.2 million of them in the key news demographic of 25- to 54-year-olds."

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When Shopping While Black Becomes A Problem

It's never happened to me when I'm shopping by myself; I guess I have a pretty innocuous look about me. But add my 6'3 boyfriend to the equation, and its not unlikely for us to be followed around stores like we have "thief" tattooed on our foreheads. Years ago, a video store clerk trailed closely behind us for several minutes as we walked along the new releases wall until I finally turned around and half-yelled, "What do you want?" He said that he was just making himself available in case we had a question. I told him we wouldn't be needing help, and he followed us anyway. We left without renting anything. The boyfriend, who is a lawyer, is always telling me to calm down; that I get too worked up over these things. It's because he's used to it. But the fact that he's used to it bothers me even more — it happens to him that often. Just by virtue of being big and black and a man, his shopping experience is different than mine. But not all women can say the same about their individual experiences.