Deepest Red

Shoot the Messenger? Or the BBC...

OK, I admit it, from the moment I heard about this programme I was ready to hate it. From its original title: F*ck Black People, to its opening line: "Whenever I think about it, everything bad that has ever happened to me has involved a black person.". But most of all I was ready to hate it because white pundits, from newspaper journalists to radio presenters were saying that it was an important drama that every black person needed to see - we’ll decide that for ourselves thank you very much. I hated the hype, hated the concept and hated, to be honest the fact that our ‘issues’ were being debated so publicly.

But you know what? Having watched it last night I can honestly say that this is a thoughtful, well-acted drama that I would gladly encourage my friends to see. There was a strong storyline and much that I could identify with culturally - and let’s face it there is such a paucity of black representation on TV that sometimes you have to take those cultural references where you can get them. Of course I still have issues with aspects of it, but then I do with most dramas that I watch.

The story: Joseph Pascale, a young black man living in London decides to quit his financially rewarding job as a computer programmer to serve his community as a school teacher to a class of poor black adolescents. He is determined to bring salvation to his students through enforcing a strict class regime with tough penalties of detentions and extra curricular work, particularly for black pupils. One of his most reluctant students is Germal who views Joseph as an over zealous middle-class nerd whose demeanour is more ‘white’ than black.Germal falsely accuses Joseph of assault, a move that whips the black community into a frenzy. Joseph is sacked and branded a criminal and a sell-out. Then Joseph’s induced psychological trauma sees him decline into madness and he ends up treated in a mental asylum, and upon his release becomes destitute and homeless with a persistent hatred against blacks.

David Oyelowo’s acting in the lead role was a revelation – as was Charles Mnene’s who played Germal. But having said all that, let’s not pretend that this drama was balanced. It relied heavily on portraying black people in a negative light and rolled out all the stereotypes: the single mother with numerous babyfathers; the tartily dressed woman that was more interested in maternity leave than the job that may have been on offer; black people in prison; young black males failing at school, black men with mental health issues… And really that is the nub of the issue. When will the BBC – or any of the mainstream TV channels - be happy to show the bigger picture? The black experience is about a lot more than underachievement, self-hatred and criminality.

This drama was hyped to hell. When programmers are as ready to invest in dramas with positive representations of us, maybe programmes such as this will be accepted more readily. From lead actor David Oyelowo to writer Sharon Foster the mantra has been that this drama portrayed issues that our community needs to debate. Maybe so, though let’s not pretend that in some quarters these debates are not being had. The thing is it wasn’t just our community watching – and as Ligali, the African media monitoring organisation, have said this drama may have played into the hands of racists and right-wingers. That’s not to say we let them set the agenda. Just that the BBC are doing us no favours by investing so heavily in showing just one side of the story.

posted by Andrea Enisuoh @ 10:25 AM