I love the Dorchester YMCA. They have everything you can ask for - even if the times aren't conducive to my schedule, at least it is there. I was there with my son last night for swimming class and I was reading the December 2009 Essence. (I am so behind on my reading.) In the letter from the editor, Angela Burt-Murray spoke about black love and all the covers that have featured strong African-American couples. The part that resonated with me was:
"Now on the threshold of our fortieth annivesary year, we continue to tell our love stories, despite the reality TV catfights and guess-the-daddy segments on trashy talk shows that would have so many buy into the fiction that Black Love is dead, or at the very least on life support. We will pull back the veil on the lie we've been sold by the mainstream media, which consistently promotes the idea that African-American women and men can't be civil with one another, much less be loving, caring, supportive and emotionally whole partners to each other. Time to change the channel."
In addition to pool time, I try to get to my neighborhood Y by 6:15 every morning and get a "brisk" walk on the treadmill. My objective is to burn 600 calories in 35 minutes. The most I've gotten is 589. However... I have lost 6 pounds much to my delight. I love that the Y has TVs hooked up to the equipment so you can be distracted from the misery of what you are doing. Now I'm not sure if I was just mad because I was 20 minutes from the end of my torture, or really mad at TVOne. At 6:00am while other stations are showing news or even informercials, TVOne is showing Divorce Court!!! I remember saying to myself "It is too early for this mess!!!" The Google listing for TVOne says "TV One is a cable television network featuring classic black tv shows, movies, news, and entertainment for African Americans." Really???? And is there nothing that African Americans would rather watch to get their day going besides discontent, disharmony, disillusionment, and discord between a black couple who have fallen out of love? Don't we see and hear enough about black on black crime? Isn't television supposed to take us away from the occasional bleakness of everyday reality? I'm not sure what the programming personnel over at TVOne are thinking, but it is obviously not about true entertainment for African Americans!!!!