(ThyBlackMan.com) “Where’s the rest of it?” is a line of dialogue from my web-series I thought would work as a title for this blog because I am asking Hollywood the same question about the stories it produces about inner-city black youth.
My web-series, the Miseducation of a First Generation College Student, is a dramedy that navigates the struggles of an inner-city first generation college student through the fictional character Lavor, but is a semi-autobiographical retelling of my experience(s) in undergrad. I attended the historically black college Delaware State University in Dover where I met a variety of interesting characters who I will try to recreate in the series. Although more importantly I believe being the first in my immediate family to attend college introduced some unique and oftentimes laughable learning curves suitable for dramatic storytelling.
Whereas Hollywood will produce inner-city stories about black males the narrative is limited. And this is why I want to tell my story. From John Singleton’s ‘Boyz n the Hood’ (1991) to Rick Famuyiwa’s ‘Dope’ (2015) a single parent struggling to raise an incredibly gifted athlete or genius who gets caught in a drug war is only part of the inner-city reality. As there are many two-parent homes struggling to raise children who never interact with drugs or gangs but must still overcome the challenges of their impoverished communities. There are different options in the ‘hood’. There are different people. There are different stories, problems, fates, and solutions. The drug dealer lives next door to someone who is devoutly religious and, though economically deprived, they are refusing to live morally corrupt; and next door to this staunchly religious neighbor there is someone different. And so if there is variety in the ghetto it should be reflected in the stories we tell. Otherwise we continue to glorify one part of the ghetto and what message does that send?
Dope was an amazingly well-crafted film but there could have been another obstacle in the main character’s life besides a bag of drugs. He could have had a father in the house and still struggled to get out of his poverty stricken neighborhood. There are entire families in the ghetto. There are blended families in the ghetto. We have to look at this. We have to know why Hollywood continues to produce stories about our inner-city youth from broken homes that involve the selling of drugs. Film is a powerful medium that helps to shape the identity of today’s youth.
It is difficult to defy the stereotypes mainstream media adamantly continues to produce. My web-series is one story about an inner-city black male who comes from a struggling two-parent home. He is not an athlete. He represents the ‘other’ part of the inner-city that successfully avoids selling narcotics. We love John Singleton. We love Dope; but we need to tell the rest of our story. The drug dealer is NOT the main character in every ghetto and some of us lived in two-parent homes. All of these images are important because we want to see the truth, but when part of the truth escapes us we remain ignorant about our diversity and potential.
Tylie is a rising dramatist who will attend the MFA program for dramatic writing at NYU Tisch School of the Arts in the fall. Follow his web-series @tylieshider on YouTube now!
Follow Tylie on Instagram; http://Instagram.com/theplaywright (——–
Staff Writer; Tylie Shider
Also connect with this brother over at; TylieShider.com.
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What i like to see in website is people talking about the good things that black people do & everybody have to be together and respect each other & don't matter what skin color is & that every body are the same & don't be racist with them
What would you like to see in the media?
I would like to see more relatable situations happening in movies and tv shows that do not make the inner city look so bad and show the good things that happen and the good people that people think we don't have.
I would like to see in the media how can black people do everythig as a lightskin person can without racism or people blocking their goals. Also, I wanna see movies or a play in which no one mentions how bad black people can be or the bad things they do.
What I would like to see on the media are positive ideas and positive tumors about my inner city instead of seeing negative and hearing negative stuff about my inner city
Inner city youth in the media are portrayed by their skin and make on youth want to be those standards mainstream media makesbkids want to act like someone they really not in the media I want to see better then people being portrayed in disrespectful ways
I think that this article stated the truth about the lives of black youth. This article explains how our lives are portrayed in the media ,What I see in the media is that they portray or communities as being predominantly African American living in the ghetto with the crime rate high. I saw a lot of black youth who are now living in poverty. Right now some of them are living the street life and they don't have something to eat. I would like to see more projects involving black youth because that would help them a lot .
I Think the media always portrays people of color as gang members and drug dealers. It doesn't represent in a good way. We need to show them that not all of us live in the "hood" and that we are actually more than that .
I want to see more people of color in the media. We need to be given more opportunities and we need to be represented in a good way. They always portray us as lazy drug addicts or that we are gang members which then later puts that image out there about us. I would also like to say that we have many cultures here and they don't show that so yeah we need to step up our game and prove them wrong.
I would like to see more love, creativity, and peace in the media. Positive news & motivational information that everyone can relate and effect on.
An amazing article ! Now adays all you see in the internet is gossip , fights , sex and stuff that is not productive to our generation . Our generation is growing up to fast ! And some of that is bescause of the stuff we see in the internet . So instead of all the negative stuff lets try beint positive .