For those unfamiliar, "All My Babies' Mamas" is a special about Shawty Lo, a rapper with eleven children by ten women, and, according to rumor, another one on the way. To his credit, he supports his family, and apparently part of that was going to be a basic cable special that would serve as a backdoor pilot.
And then people, for some baffling reason, went ballistic and now the special may never see air. Which is both good news and bad news. Good news in the sense that those concerned the special might feed into ignorant racial stereotypes. And bad news in the sense that the cancellation and hubbub around the special seems, at least to me, to be pretty racist itself.
I understand the concerns about idiot racist morons pointing to the special and saying... oh, who the hell knows? I've been on the Internet long enough that I won't be surprised if Shawty Lo is accused of being the Illuminati or raising a private army to take over Atlanta and sell it to the Canadian Moosemeat Cabal. But they are reasonable and valid concerns: As far as we've come in America, even a honky like me knows we've got a long way to go.
On the other hand, the arguments against the show are a bit disingenuous. Shawty Lo may be completely irresponsible with his contraception, but, first of all, the entire crux of the show is that he's supporting his children. It's not like this is the "Parental Abandonment Hour".
Secondly, wait, once the non-white people show up, suddenly we've got a problem with reproductive stupidity as entertainment? Seriously, how is this guy any different from Kate Gosselin? Or the Duggars, who by the standard of many are seriously creepy people? Or the kids on the teenage pregnancy specials and series that infest the air?
And what about fictional shows? "The Secret Life of The American Teenager" features two teenage boys fighting over who gets to be a responsible father at one point. At least the reality shows hint that having a kid is a lot of work!
There's no arguing that "All My Babies' Mamas" is tasteless and irresponsible. That's pretty much obvious from the title and not really the point. The point is that it's no more or less tasteless and irresponsible than, well, any other show about people who breed beyond all sense and reason. If it's really that outrageous, maybe it's time to pack in all these shows.
RP, there is a significant difference between Shawty Lo and Kate Gosselin and the Duggars. The latter two (over)bred as couples, while Shawty spead his seed to every fertile vagina he could find. Also, many of the people, if not most, that signed the petition to do away with the special were black. Therefore, it would be difficult to say that the hubbub was racially inspired. With that being said, the show was just a hot awful mess to begin with, as is most of the reality trash on TV. However, Shawty Lo's mess felt as if the line of all lines was about to be crossed, as if we as a society were really about to go over a cliff, and there needed to be a push (or pull) back.
Don't get me wrong: The guy's an ass and I don't think behavior like that should be supported or encouraged. And I also understand the concern and outrage from the Black community, absolutely.
But it's hard for me to view him as any more or less irresponsible than the examples I mentioned. I'm not one to say "Women shouldn't do this or that" because it's not my body and therefore not my choice. But I do think there are some pretty serious ethical issues that are going unexamined here.
I will agree with you. I also agree with your last statement that it is time to do away with all these shows. Do you think that Oxygen should repeal there decision? It seems Mr. Lo is starting his own petition to save his spectacle.
I think redoing the special and interviewing people as to why it was taken off the air, what the media ethics issue are here, would be a good idea.
Unfortunately, that probably won't pull ratings.
Huge difference between Duggars and Shawty Lo
Duggars- one home, kind, decent, non-drug selling parents. Have never been on welfare or social assistance of any kind. Kids see both parents each day and each child is shown consideration by both parents.
Shawty had his first kid when he was still a kid, in fact most of his kids were born before he made it as a rapper, so welfare is almost a given. Not that welfare is inherently bad, but having that many kids and not supporting them is inherently bad. He became a rapper much later so most or many of his kids were raised with a drug dealing baby daddy. He was a drug dealer turned rapper.
...Errr, you do understand that comments like these kind of illustrate the problem I was talking about, right? The Duggars are crappy parents by the yardstick of many, MANY people.
I am raising three black males from the inner city of Milwaukee. They have one mother but different fathers. The reason I am against this show is because in my mind he is irresponsible and so are the baby mamas. The ones who suffer are the children. These women allowed themselves to be impregnated by him so they can get money not because they love him or there kids. What scares me with a show like this is that the real message will be missed. The message in Teen Moms was to show teenagers how hard it is too be one. Instead what happened is some teenagers thought the message was look at how popular these girls are and they are getting money for being a teen mom. Instead what we should have on this rapper is more of a documentary style show and educating people on who suffers the most when adults and teens do not use contraception properly. Yesterday at my kid's dental office a black father was there with his daughter. He was talking on the phone with someone that he is interested in dating. In there conversation she said she had her tubes tied after having her latest child. He asked her if that can be reversed. I thought to myself that's crazy you already have 3 kids and you want to produce another that's sick. He also lied to her saying he had a car and a job he did not have a car he was waiting for a cab to pick him up. Do not have kids that you can not take care of period. I am so sick of seeing children suffer because of irresponsible parents. Right now there are kids in this country who go too sleep on the floor because they do not have beds. Babies die because parents co-sleep with them because they have no cribs. I know you said he is taking care of his kids. He will wind up broke like so many other baby fathers Terrell Owens, Chad Ochicinco, etc. Popularity and money runs out and who will end up taking care of all of there kids? We the taxpayers.
I think you're extremely right about this being JUST like the Gosselin's and the Duggers. First of all, they're all exploiting the children - putting them on television shows, and whether or not they come from one home, it's disgusting that people watch any of these shows.
Regardless of their differences or similarities, though, we (as viewers) should not be rewarding anyone for overpopulating and exploiting their children. The children get no choice in their publicized private life, or in how the populous will then view them for the rest of their lives.