Piece Comment

Review of Black Tension


I like the way she opened the piece at a beauty salon because that's where many blacks feel comfortable sharing issues and starting a dialogue, i.e. Beauty Shop and Barber Shop-two popular movies that feature both blacks and africans.

One of the reviewers felt the piece was all over the place. I disagree. The fact that he could so vividly remember the points he highlighted shows the piece was somewhat memorable. There were a few technical problems and I agree the writing could be a bit tighter but overall she makes some very important cultural observations. These are issues that aren't spoken about much in the mainstream-just behind closed doors. The dirty little secret is everyone harbors certain prejudices and stereotypes -the bravery comes in talking about them and trying find some common ground. A piece like this is important because it gets us talking. I wonder how many people know about the tension between these two groups? As the reporter suggests there's a temptation to group all blacks together because they share the same skin color. We need more pieces that explore issues of race on the radio--and gosh not just during black history month.

Nice job.