Does Jesse Collins Exploit Black People For His Own Benefit?
The NFL along with Jay-Z and Roc Nation have announced that next year’s Super Bowl halftime show will have a Black Executive Producer.
Jesse Collins will executive produce the Super Bowl LV Halftime Show next year in Tampa, FL. He is a 58-year-old Toronto native who has been the brainchild behind many of the shows in the BET archives. He has directed and produced nearly all of the network’s award shows as well as Black Girls Rock, Real Husbands of Hollywood and Love and Happiness: An Obama Celebration. Elsewhere in his resume is VH1’s Hip Hop Squares and Dear Mama along with Netflix’s Rhythm + Flow.
Browsing through his directorial catalog you will notice a theme. His shows are definitely Black-centric. The shows feature predominantly Black casts and production crews. You will get no complaints from me here. It is advantageous for Blacks to slowly start carving out a lane in media and Hollywood. Tyler Perry has been a trailblazer in that sense. Jesse Collins looks to continue on that path.
Here’s the issue.
Blacks in Jesse Collins’ productions are not depicted in the most flattering light.
Take the BET Awards.
Every year, this glorified high-school talent show feeds into numerous stereotypes within Black America. Now, this may fall more on Hip-Hop itself than the vision of the show. The accompanying visuals add to the poor messaging of the songs.
Here is Compton, CA rapper Roddy Ricch performing his song “The Box” at the 2020 edition of the BET Awards.
The song talks about sexual exploits. Standard fare in Hip-Hop. Ricch performs in front of an expensive, white sports car with a Black Lives Matter shirt. The movement is supposed to highlight police brutality and other societal inadequacies against Blacks. BLM has told many Black Americans that they are a victim of a “systemically racist” country. This is the same system where a Black musician can create disposable songs, perform in front of an expensive vehicle and accrue a net worth of about $3 million. Statistically speaking, he is more likely to be killed in an accident driving that car than being shot by a police officer.
Real Husbands of Hollywood was a smash hit for BET. It parodied the Real Housewives of “Whatever” craze that swept television, depicting several Black mainstream actors as househusbands with ample time to explore various meaningless activities. This feeds fuel to the narrative that Black men are merely sidekicks to Black women. This can be a dangerous message to perpetuate to not only Black America, but all of America. RHOH subtlely suggest women are on a higher pedestal than men. Kevin Hart, who has sold out 20,000+ seat arenas on stand-up comedy tours and is one of the world’s biggest stars, is relegated to the role of a whiny, subservient husband who is constantly belittled by his friends. This counterproductive messaging on network television, hidden behind glossy production and exaggerated humor, speaks volumes of Jesse Collins and possibly his views of Black America.
Collins might just be a product of a mainstream media infrastructure that encourages Blacks to exploit, mock and pander to one another, keeping our community running in place on a mental treadmill.
