Videoblack - Afro-Americans as videocassette viewers; includes information on favorite videos of prominent Afro-Americans

Ebony, April, 1992 by Karima A. Haynes

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THE age of the videocassette recorder (VCR) has dawned in living rooms across Black America, giving Black viewers a high-tech link to a rich heritage and an electronic window on current trends.

With the touch of a remote control button, Blacks are tapping into the enormous power to control the images coming into their homes and a treasure trove of entertainment, history and cultural programs available on video.

And there is increasing evidence that Blacks are disproportionately outspending Whites on home video.

The impact of the video explosion is most evident in Black households where a VCR is hooked up to a television set in 9.4 million homes, representing 13 percent of the 71.7 million households with at least one VCR.

Blacks spent $344 million on home video equipment, tapes and discs in 1989, according to the latest figures available.

As a result of Black America's tremendous video spending habits, today Black videocassette programs abound on video store shelves and in specialty catalogs. But that wasn't the case when VCRS first hit the consumer market it decade ago.

During the home video industry's early years, Ave Montague, publisher of A. M. Video, a San Francisco-based mail order catalog, says Black videos were practically non-existent.

"When I first started the business, I would call the main distributors and ask them what they had in Black videos," she recalls. There would be a pause in the conversation because they didn't know what I was talking about."

At the time, Black video programs were considered a cottage industry, she points out. But the success of "blaxploitation" action films released on video opened the door for Black classics and other programs. "Now distributors are calling me to let me know what's new on video. "

Blacks are not only watching jungle Fever New jack City, The Five Heartbeats, Boyz N the Hood, A Rage in Harlem, Straight Out of Brooklyn and other recent blockbusters, but they're also viewing classic films such as Cabin in the Sky, Stormy Weather and The Green Pastures. In addition, they're screening historical videos on Frederick Douglass and motivational tapes like the Ebony/ Jet Guide to Black Excellence.

With home video, Black viewers are reliving the trials and triumphs of the universal Black American family depicted in Alex Haley's Roots, the ABCTV mini-series.

Families are tuning in the made-forTY movie, The Autobiography of Miss jane Pittman, that starred actress Cicely Tyson and Mandela, the Hbo-produced television movie on South African antiapartheid leader Nelson Mandela.

And, of course, Blacks are enjoying videos by Black recording artists, including Michael Jackson's Thriller and Moonwalker videos, the biggest selling music videos of all time.

Children are getting caught up in the video craze, too. Among their favorites are How the Leopard Got Its Spots, narrated by actor Danny Glover, and The Chocolate Princess, featuring the voice of Bill Cosby, America's favorite TV dad. Children's videos are popular because youngsters see their culture reflected in the storylines.

Cheryl Fabio-bradford, program director for the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in Oakland, Calif, is amazed at the impact the new technology has had on her 4-year-old son. "I'm really impressed with being able to program his viewing," she says. "I'm not just plopping him in front of the television with just anything coming out. "

Fabio-bradford says she had a harder time getting her 15-year-old daughter to watch Cry Freedom, the film biography of South African freedom fighter Steve Biko. But she was delighted when she heard the teenager inviting friends over to watch the movie. The VCR and videotape gave her daughter control over when to watch the film and with whom.

The video boom is also benefitting college students as well, says William Barlow, associate professor of communications at Howard University in Washington, D.C. "I use videos in class to help illustrate the subject matter," he says.

Students enrolled in film history, cinema and broadcasting courses are viewing historic movies on video. "Since we are a video-fixated society, this is a good way to put videos to use," Barlow concludes.

Serious video collectors are unearthing rare educational, cultural and historical programs.

Live performances by the Dance Theater of Harlem, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, opera divas Shirley Verrett and Leontyne Price, and classical pianist Andre Watts are available in local video stores.

Video documentaries underscore the historical significance of educator Booker T Washington, mathematician Benjamin Banneker, poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, renaissanee man Paul Robeson, politician Adam Clayton Powell and civil rights leader Martin Luther King jr.

While Blacks are spending millions on home video products, they are not necessarily sharing in industry profits, asserts jannette L. Dates, associate dean of the communications school at Howard University.

"Black people have given a large profit margin to much of the film industry in spite of some negative images on the screen," says Dates. Now we are going to rent those films on videocassette without realizing that we are giving them even more of a profit. "