"Apprentice" castoff Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth yesterday slammed the show's executive producer, Mark Burnett, for the way he handles African-American players on the popular reality show.
Manigault-Stallworth said Burnett has demonstrated a "pattern of betrayals of African-American women" on "The Apprentice.
I totally agree with her in principle, but here's a case of the flawed messenger.
As an avid watcher of "The Apprentice," and, still, "Survivor" -- because these are great examples of the manipulative power of TV -- I agree that there definitely is a bias in casting, but you can't really blame Burnett.
First, there are a limited number of spots on these shows -- 16 to 20 people, tops.
They try to go for a cross-section of the population, which is impossible in such a small group, so they do the next best thing: they simulate reality.
In their casting process they create a false cross-section by selecting over-the-top personalities who are more or less stereotypes, people who are not nuanced, who won't require a lot of backstory for viewers to understand, and who can represent apparently broad segments of the audience.
Secondly, the main audience for these shows is decidedly mainstream, so since he only has a few token spots for Blacks to fill on his casts, Burnett's got to play to his core audience, and their biases.
Keeping and growing his audience is how he stays in business.
Many other groups could voice similar complaints about their treatment on his shows; for instance, look at his treatment of (invisible) Asians; if you watch his shows, you'd believe there are no Asian men anywhere.
Burnett's only responsibility is to create a hit show for his clients, so does he really have to care about the social message his shows convey?
I have to think not.
The guy's become fabulously wealthy off of these contrived "realities," and I don't think he got into it because he had a social conscience.
That being said, Omarosa was Black Women's own worse enemy.
No one is more responsible for creating an impression of the modern American Black woman as a ball-breaking b*tch in recent pop culture than she was.
.
She had an opportunity to play against the type and she blew it.
I'd argue that this is Burnett's genius: he knows people better than they know themselves, and he casts impeccably.
Omarosa's fifteen minutes are up.
But I do love analysis of the great propaganda machine: the Boob Tube.
Let's move on.
b/w: negrophile.