MaDD Blogger

What's next MySpace, sensitivity training?

Something unusual happened on MySpace today. I was visiting the Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza's page just to read some of the fan reaction to the new material they released last week. That's when I found this disturbing post from MySpace.com founder Tom Anderson:

Tom

03/07/2006 12:05 PM Through extensive screening, we at Myspace have noticed that you are not encouraging diversity within your Friends. In an effort to express this, please add at least 5 more black people to your Friends List within 72 hours, or your account will be deleted. Please post this as a bulletin to spread the word. Thank you for your time, Tom

I thought this was a put on but it is indeed quite real. MySpace is threatening to delete Danza's account for not having enough Negroes as friends. Notice that the call was specifically for black people and no other minority. This is totally absurd for a number of reasons but I'll try to stay on the main points. First how many black people do you know that actually listen to Metal music? I'd wager to say not many. I own records from Metallica, Oasis, Linkin Park, Fuel, Filter, Elton John, Michael McDonald, Sting and The Police. I have a few Kelly Clarkson tracks on my desktop and some Gavin DeGraw and Rascal Flatts. But if you look in my CD collection or in my music folder you'll find that the overwhelming majority of the music that I've purchased or downloaded have been by black artists. Most of the time I listen to Hip-Hop or R&B but I'm not so close minded that I can't experience other cultures and other types of music.

This may come as a surprise to most of you but most of what we watch and listen to is separated by race, age, or gender. VH1 was created to serve an older crowd that MTV wasn't catering too. BET became a black alternative to MTV because if you were a black artist and your name wasn't Michael Jackson MTV wouldn't play your music. Lifetime and Oxygen for women, Spike and ESPN for men. Nielson and Arbitron ratings are always broken down by age, race, and gender so that advertisers get the most bang for their buck.

My point is this. If I go to see Toby Keith in concert I'm sure that I would see some black people there but they will be grossly outnumbered. Should the concert be shut down for not having a diverse enough audience? I've gone to see Danza play a few times. The first time I was one of only 3 black people there, the second I was the only one there and the crowd was even bigger than before. I had a good time, made a few new friends and the band thanked me on stage for coming out. Maybe the band should have gone to the hood and put out a few more flyers not that any of those people would have come but maybe a few brothers would have shown up to help "diversify" the crowd.

Why is MySpace worried about a hardcore rock band not having enough black friends anyway? I happen to be one of those black friends by the way. I had never even heard of MySpace before Brad Thompson told me about it and asked me to join so he could add me to the bands buddy list which I did. I can personally state that they don't have a racist bone in their body. I plan on contacting Tom on the bands behalf. Hopefully I can help stop their page from being deleted.