Despite the overwhelming support and praise for the runaway monster hit of the year, “Empire” starring Taraji P. Henson and Terrence Howard, there are some who vehemently oppose what the show stands for and the images it projects out to urban Americans.
PBS’s Tavis Smiley suggests it may actually be showing only the worst.
In a clip from his upcoming interview on Larry King’s PoliticKING , the television host said he’s overheard conversations in barber shops and other community haunts about the problems with cultural representations among the characters, played by stars like Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson.
He says:
“There is a debate in the Black community that hasn’t really surfaced, hasn’t really boiled to the top yet, but I hear it in barber shops and other places, [about] whether the problem with Empire is that it advances the worst of every pathology that black people have – crime and drug dealing and this and that and the other. A lof ot people are looking for positive characters that may come out in the second season. But the first season everybody is ahhh!”
To listen to the interview in full, click here.
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