Perpetuating the stereotype of young Black men

I rarely watch the Dr. Phil show, but I watched it today. The first 30 minutes were moderately entertaining. Then it things spiraled downward. The topic was about relationships for money. The guests in the first half-hour were a woman, whose sole ambition is to find a sugardaddy and be a kept woman, and her husband, who passively tolerates his wife's efforts.

The guests for the second half-hour were a 34 year old Keli, a White woman and her 20 year old Black boyfriend, Zach. Continuing the same theme from the first half of the show, she was the "sugar mama" and he was the kept man. Keli was delighted to take care of him. Zach is unemployed and not looking to change that status, so she pays for everything, including a couple of trips to NASCAR, at $1000 each. In the space of about 20 minutes, the show managed to touch on virtually every negative stereotype of young Black men:

--YBM are shiftless, lacking in ambition;

--YBM view White women as trophies--objects of sexual desire;

--with YBM, it's all about the sex and money; who needs love and committment;

--YBM need to be taken care of, and told what to do;

--the main value of YBM is their sexual prowess; like the Energizer bunny, YBM keep going and going.

Perhaps I should be happy that nothing suggested that Zach had a criminal record, but I was so annoyed by everything else, that this was scant consolation.

There was nothing inaccurate about the Keli/Zach story, but I am always bothered by stories that unnecessarily portray African-American men in a poor light, even if the light is accurate. The picture of Keli is not a pretty one either, but there are enough positive images in the media that one silly, insecure woman will have little effect on how other White women are viewed. But there is so little positive press about Black men, that to add another negative image to the other side of scale does exponentially more damage to Black men.

I doubt that it was intentional on the part of Phil McGraw or his producers--at least I hope that the case, but I'm sure that there were many other candidates who the producers could have chosen to make the second half of the show. I wish they had thought of the implications of selecting Keli and Zach.