Comments on: Interracial family on Nanny 911 tonight

By: justin

justin — Sun, 19 Mar 2006 18:18:18 +0000

So I was watching fox news and they were talking about expiry dates on girl scout cookies. The white female presenter turned to the black male presenter and started questioning him about the shelf life of Oreos. He didn’t know the answer and they didn’t explain why the lady thought he would. Then they cut to a clip of the black presenter and some white men singing along with Roberta Flack. I think I’m losing my mind, sometimes.

By: wt

wt — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 00:18:04 +0000

hard to say on this one. definitely can understand how someone can be sensitive about this and feel its a(nother) negative portrayal of Black men in the media. but to me, it’s more clearly a jab at Martha here. it may be both, and can understandably be perceived as both. folks should be more in touch with what their audience may hear, though. isn’t that what we learned in 7th grade English class? write to your audience?

By: Keya

Keya — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 23:07:54 +0000

Yup, I totally agree with you. They wouldn’t of said that if it was a white mom.

By: Darla

Darla — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 23:02:57 +0000

Uhhhh, pretty sure the whole “imprisoned” statement is referenicng to Martha’s time in jail:

“knows all too well what it feels like to be imprisoned, HOWEVER UNLIKE MARTHA. . .”

By: daddy in a strange land

daddy in a strange land — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 22:45:26 +0000

Funny on what you pick up on when you’re focused on one particular topic or another… I’m a hapa stay-at-home-dad. I picked up the race stuff you mentioned, but also saw the “Martha Stewart/domestic diva” references as sort of a Mr. Mom-ish type thing, as in, let’s see if this GUY measures up as a homemaker, since, you know, he’s a GUY. So it’s got racial stereotypes AND gender role stereotypes, yah! Hmmm… We’ll see what they do with all this. (BTW, I linked to your post and wrote about this on Rice Daddies, the Asian American dad group blog, this morning.)

By: Nina

Nina — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 22:18:14 +0000

Jeffrey, 26, a stay-at-home dad, knows all too well what it feels like to be IMPRISONED, however unlike Martha he is under HOUSE ARREST because of his children Imari, 4, Kobi, 2 and Kadin, 2. Jeffrey raises the children while wife Theresa, 34, works to bring home the bacon as a financial analyst.
——————

Translation: It’s hard out here for a pimp!

By: mtevc

mtevc — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 20:34:16 +0000

as a writer, we need to think about how people perceive these things we say, and the images we use for a story…this one is too blatant to ignore…i am so anti-PC…but the black guy and the prison imagery, well…that’s awful…and i bet the writer didn’t realize it or mean it…but it doesn’t matter…

By: mamazilla

mamazilla — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 18:58:53 +0000

i dunno… as a stay at home mom of two, i can totally relate when another stay at home parent feels like he/she is a prisoner.

some days it’s brutal and oftentimes thankless… parenthood is truly part joy, part guerilla warfare.

although i’m skeptical… i’d give the website the benefit of the doubt on this one.

By: Rachel S

Rachel S — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 18:02:44 +0000

The prisoner analogy is a bit much. I guess they will used the show to prove the interracial couples can malsocialize their children just like everybody else. LOL!!! It seems like they always portray the stay at home parents as the underappreciated and controlled, but I don’t know that they use the term prisoner.

By: P.Moore

P.Moore — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 17:46:55 +0000

Why you gotta go and say “dude” when addressing the Black guy? What’s that about? Totally kidding. That did give me a laugh though. The thought of Black men and jail has permeated its way into so many levels of our psyche as a society. I didn’t even get mad reading this. It was more like a smirk and a shaking of the head.