Television, Part 4
- Jun 2, 2017
- 2 min read
I saved this one for last. This show changed my life. It inspires almost every decision I made for 4 years.
This show was A Different World.
The show was about a group of students at a fictional HBCU, Hillman College. The idea of black people in college in television was amazing for me. I had never seen this kind of television with people who look like me. You didn't see this on mainstream television. Black people were seen as poor, ghetto, and socially behind. For the first time, I could see young black people dealing with issues that I never thought of. I knew what it was like to be poor, live in the inner city, or not know where my next meal was going to come from. That was everywhere on my screen. Or I could just look out of my window!
This show proved to me that college is an option for me and people like me. I knew that black colleges existed, but this show put it in my face. I got to learn more about black culture and the college culture. I got to learn what life would be like when I attended college. Before this show, I would have said "if I attended college".
The characters were real and relatable. There was Whitley. She was your black debutante. I knew girls like her, but not black ones. She was a spoiled princess from the South. Her accent was strong, and so was her temper. Her roommate was Kimberly. Kimberly was the one I could relate to the most. As a dark skinned girl, she was the witness of racism and discrimination within the black community. When she started dating a white guy on campus, the shock that it caused, it was riveting. Freddie was an interesting girl. As a modern hippie child, she was enlightening and a look into free trade and self-exploration. She loved history and was a law student. The guys were Dwayne and Ron. Dwayne was a math genius. Ron was the ladies' man. The guys are roommates and have different outlooks on life. Dwayne and Whitley begin to date. Ron dates both Kimberly and Freddie.
There are different characters that come in and out. A new generation will come in after the initial characters graduate. A Different World brought in topics like homosexuality, interracial dating, racism in the black community, HIV and AIDS, teen pregnancy, and many others. More importantly, it put higher education in the faces of children who never thought it was an option for them. I was a member of the generation that believed that seeing someone like us on television was important. We need more positive images in the media to show what life could be like. WE STILL NEED THOSE IMAGES.
If you can find the show online, on DVD, or on television----WATCH IT AND LEARN ABOUT YOUR CULTURE
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