As I sat in Bulgaria
one night (that’s right, Bulgaria, why I’m here
at all is another article) I was feeling tired and bored. After arriving here me sleep pattern was off so I turned on the
TV in my room. I remembered when I was here last year and ended up watching a home fix-it show from Great
Britain because it was the only show in English besides some very dated HBO.
This time, I noticed a reality TV channel. Thinking I might catch that house make over show again, I turned to the
reality channel. Instead it was “Cops”, four episodes in a row back to back. Bad boys, bad boys, whacha gonna
do.
As I watched, it occurred to me that “Cops” was, in fact, America’s
social ambassador to Bulgaria. Think about it, they’ve
only seen what America is like by watching world news and
old “Cops” reruns. I think this explains Bulgarian apprehension to black people in America.
Thanks to “Cops”, they are pretty sure black people are the criminals of America
and should be feared. Second only to anyone who speaks Spanish. They never see the other side of the coin. They never see
reruns of “The Cosby Show” or “MTV Cribs”. They know about the NBA, but I’m pretty sure even
those black guys scare them.
I know why they have shows like “Cops”, it’s been on for over a decade so it’s available really
cheap for syndication, but do we really realize what sort of social picture we are painting?
So much for the theory that TV doesn’t dictate what you think and believe. I confess to have warped concepts
of various parts of the world strictly based on TV. To this day, I am pretty sure the top two places to be beheaded are Iraq
and Sierra Leone. TV also teaches me that every Columbian
male works for a drug cartel and will kill you at the drop of a hat because it’s common knowledge that they “kill
for fun, man”.
I used to deny the affect TV has on me, thinking educated people can make their own opinions, but TV does influence
all of us. We have to remind ourselves it’s a very limited view of the world around us.
