You just don't ...

Dear Mr. Barnhart:

I read with great interest your article on UPN's Half and Half.  While I can respect your opinion that Half and Half is a "forgettable show," I would ask forgettable to whom?   Half and Half is ranked as one of the top ten shows watched by African-Americans.  Since you state that the message is to reach its intended audience (single, African-American females), are you qualified to determined that it has?  Your treatment of the episode of "Girlfriends," is crass and condescending.  Perhaps the reason why the AIDS episode airs so frequently on BET is that it connects to that particular audience. The viewer you mentioned on Jumptheshark.com actually is the one who doesn't get it.  What the show conveyed is that you can be "young, cosmopolitan, urban, educated," and have a hysteria regarding AIDS.  This premise sounds plausible, particularly in light of best selling books marketed to black women on how to detect "down-low" black men and the high incidence of AIDS in black women.   

Mr. Barnhart, you do a great job at what you do, however, there are some areas that maybe you should just admit that you frankly do not understand because of the cultural divide.  Thank you. 

Dwyane Smith

(My response on the down low.)

Hello Dwyane and thanks for your email.  Have you seen this episode of "Girlfriends" I wrote about?  It was awful -- and "Girlfriends" is a good show.  The premise was less believable than "Nick and Jessica: Newlyweds."  And the scene with the knife-cut ... now if the episode had actually been about men on the down low, that would be another thing.  But it wasn't.  It was about a knife in the kitchen, which trivialized the matter and forced the characters to play stupid for half an hour.  All in the interest of doing good.

Also, read back and you'll see I ask the question whether these HIV episodes reach their targets.  I never answer it.  I leave that up to the reader.