UK/Shoot the Messenger/ BBC2/ Wednesday 30th August
Last night viewers on BBC2 in the UK witnessed a watershed moment.
Shoot the Messenger was a timely drama addressing the foibles of black people living in Britain. The drama managed to acquire the esteemed Dennis Potter Writing award and controversy in its depiction of black stereotypes and culture. The story centred on a young black teacher trying to make a difference in school with black boys who tend to do badly in the education system. The plot turns when the main character, Joe Pascal is accused of assaulting a pupil. After losing his job, his life and his mental state begin to unravel. The drama then went on to comment about the culture and inner workings of the collective black psyche, studying aspects of the culture such as the tendency for young mothers to give their children fanciful names like Tashana and Kwame and why black women like to out human hair on their scalp in the form of extensions. The
programme addressed many issues that do not get aired on any platform and debated them in a satirical, powerful and revealing manner.
"Slavery was when black people were at their most productive", says David which is one of the many troublesome comments that he makes throughout the programme. The main point of the drama was to talk about how black people as a
community in Britain tend to blame their predicament on slavery, the white man and other injustices and how they always state them as an excuse for black people not progressing in life. I think the conclusion that one may have come away with was that it is only up to black people to change the way things are and not to blame others for being where they are as a community growing in Britain. It was mentioned that other cultures rarely have the same problem such as the Asian or Chinese communities.
As a black woman living in London, I praise the programme's ability to speak out theatrically about the proclivities and insecurities that black people have and how they can be detrimental to our growth as part of the wider community. I sincerely hope that this is the beginning of new form of representation of black issues, by black creative people, solving black problems.
By Catherine Emenike