My daughter went to college and got a specialty in diversity particularly as it pertains to underserved communities such as racial and LGBTQ+ individuals. Since she is in school for this working on her Master’s degree, I have been talking to her about her classes and information about how underserved communities are represented in media, that is, television, commercial, news, etc.

There are more gay characters on television now than ever before. Black entertainment is at an all-time high, with their own network (BET). Commercials are seeing products both bought and boycotted because they put a gay couple in an ad. If you want a good laugh, go to the ‘million moms’ website. I won’t link to it because I don’t want to give them any credit in the google-fu universe that they don’t deserve. One of their latest ‘campaigns’ is because Blue’s Clues used the word Pride with rainbow colors for the letter P in their alphabet song. Yeah. It’s that crazy.

It’s not about indoctrinating children like they claim. It’s about normalizing something that is natural and normal by itself…. and we’re making headway on that.

There are a lot of mixed-race couples being represented too. I remember when a cereal ad first came out with a black dad and a white mom, and a mixed-race little girl in the ad, who truly was  mixed race and not just acting like it, and the backlash that came from that ad. It was insane. I couldn’t help but wonder why we’re not past all this.

Then there’s things like the Floyd case that just came back with a guilty verdict. God, I can’t imagine what would have happened if that had gone differently. Instead, I saw people of all different races and colors and ages hugging each other outside of the courthouse. I wish it could always be like that.

It’s important that these underserved communities are represented in the media on more than the news. We need to see black couples and mixed race couples doing ‘normal’ things, living ‘normal’ lives. Same with gay couple and Hispanics or Latino people and couples alike. When we normalize the behaviors, we learn there is more we all have alike than we are different.

We all want to be loved, sheltered, clothed, have enough food to eat, work a good job or do what we love. We all have dreams and sometimes have trouble sleeping. We all have aches and pains sometimes. We all cry and we all smile.

I could go on and on about all the ways we are the same. I celebrate the ways we are the same and the things that make us each different. I want to see more of that represented in the media other than on the news. I want to see gay couples kiss the same way straight couples do. I want to see black people living their lives, raising children and working hard to earn a living because that’s what the majority of them do. Just like white people, but with less representation. I want to see all of this normalized so we can see just how alike we really are.

My papa was an old man when he used to call his best friend ‘colored’, but we’ve come a long way from that. Now, people of color have the same legal rights that they didn’t have when just my mother was a kid. She still remembers the first black student to come to her school when they stopped segregation. We’ve come a long way from then, but we have further to go still for all underserved populations.

Just some deep thoughts today based on current events. I’m sharing my thoughts–you feel free to share your own in the comments.

I love and need you all.

Love and stuff,

Michy