September 11, 2025 • 9 mins
Black Gen X grew up with no blueprint. Mainstream TV and movies didn’t reflect our lives—until the arts began to open the door. From The Cosby Show to Hip Hop, from BET to School Daze, representation transformed how we saw ourselves and how others saw us.
📖 For more insights, check out my book Black Gen X in the Middle, where I share how our generation bridged the gap between era
https://mynameisreeves-shop.fourthwall.com/products/gen-x-in-the-middle-how-black-gen-x-bridged-two-worlds
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/in-the-know-with-tony-reeves--5596987/support.
📖 For more insights, check out my book Black Gen X in the Middle, where I share how our generation bridged the gap between era
https://mynameisreeves-shop.fourthwall.com/products/gen-x-in-the-middle-how-black-gen-x-bridged-two-worlds
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/in-the-know-with-tony-reeves--5596987/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And in the good Evening everyone in the Tony read
Tony Reid. When you read Tony Reid, buyer following the
news and great shape or form. No shortage of things
to talk about, what willor this is reality? We simply
happy and read me read, but the go ahead and
(00:24):
kids started. When I was growing up, I was, like
most kids, locked into a variety of different ticular shows
that I loved watching, whether it be Trapper, John and
THEE or Happy Days or Mash or Emergency. All of
these were shows that were just part of our normal
(00:45):
landscape and made a part of our life in terms
of entertainment that I watched on a regular basis. But
there was also something that was also powerfully consistent about
a lot of these early shows. Back in the seventies,
I didn't necessarily see a lot of people that looked
like me. And now, as we're moving forward and there
are greater opportunities for people that look like me, what
do you do when a generation early on doesn't necessarily
(01:07):
see a reflection of who they are on the big
screen and on the small screen. This is a chapter
that I unpacked deeply in my book Black Generation X,
Generation in the Middle, which is available in my shop,
so check it out. But I want to talk a
little bit more about why it was important for my
generation to be exposed to representation that was more reflective
(01:28):
of who they were as we were moving into this
new world. You've got to imagine that during the seventies
and the eighties, we're talking about this explosion. You're talking
about color TV, you're talking about cable, You're talking about
different programming platforms and so forth, like HBO and things
like that. You're now having more platforms available to expose
a greater generation of people to different representations across our
(01:54):
local landscape. That these were things that weren't there necessarily before.
Prior to we were mostly limited to the basically three channels,
which was ABC, NBC and CDs. But now with the
added benefit of additional programming from different areas, we're now
able to start exploring and expanding what we're able to
see on a day on most small screen as well
(02:14):
as we're starting to see an explosion of various movies
and so forth that are coming out as well. But
it's also important to represent something as well. Now that
we've come out of Jim Crow, we're now segueing into
a particular period of time where you're now having a desegregated,
integrated society, and a lot of these people who are
coming forth, these kids who are finding themselves in this space,
it was important that they saw representation of the entire
(02:37):
diaspora on the screen before them, because that was going
to shoot who they was going for, not only for
the black kids who needed to know that there were
persons who operated in all these various professions represented all
screen as well, but to also reinforce to white kids
that excellence is something that can be formed across all diaspora,
not just merely people who are white. And it's important
to remember this is one of the reasons why I
(02:58):
wrote a book about this. I wanted to get people
to understand that as we moved forward into this new
world order, there also had to be a new world
order in terms of how we were to be represented
as well, because we had both of these generations, both
of these different cultures, predominantly white, predominantly black, now being
interspersed with each other, and they were going to get
(03:19):
a more personalized view of how each other viewed the
world through the artists. So as we're coming out of
the seventies and this period of time where now we're
seeing all these different representations, and you're slowly but surely
starting to see representations of us in different programming, whether
it be Barney Miller here There or Welcome Back Harter,
or even as we see other programs like Good Times
(03:41):
and The Jeffersons. We're now getting to the point where
members of Generation extre starting to segue into their teenage years,
and so it becomes more important to make sure that
we provide a representation of what not only their current
looks like, but also what their future could look like
as well. So if you're talking about the eighties, you're
now talking about brand new landscape, you're talking about the
(04:02):
Cosby Show, You're talking about a different world, You're talking
about school, the movie School Days. You're also transitioning into
the early nineties with Living Single, and now all of
a sudden, you have mainstream representation of individuals who are doctors, lawyers,
business owners, entrepreneurs, instructors. Black people are now being shown
(04:23):
representing in these areas as well, which is not indicating
that they just materialize anyway, but it was now introducing
to this new generation Generation X that this was a
reality that was available to everyone, not just merely persons
who are white. So now you've got this new dimension.
So now as we utilize the vehicle, whether it be
(04:44):
a big screen a small screen, you're also now in
a great position where white students, Puerto Rican students, the
students of various diasporas are now seeing themselves on screens
and different representations and knowing and being reinforced with reality
that this was something that was the norm for them,
not the exception, but a distant stop. There. There were
(05:05):
other vehicles that were utilized to tie all these worlds together.
Remember around nineteen eighty one is when we saw the
emergence of the music television or MTV. I think roughly
around that same time period, black entertainment television materialized as well.
So now what's happening is that you start to get
this infusion point where you have other platforms that allows
(05:26):
us to get exposed to different types of musics across
various genres, and other music was exploding as well. We
had just come out of the disco areas era of
the seventies, but now we were segueing into pop. We
were segueing into hip hop, we were segueing into rap,
we were segueing into punk, we were segueing into all
these different diasporas. And what was happening is that young
(05:47):
people realized that they didn't have to be not only
hamstrung to one particular reality, but they got exposed to
each other's reality through representation on these various platforms of
beet and MTV, so that they could find different things
that they could relate to that was more reflective of
who they were. This was new. Unlike previous generations where
(06:08):
you only had maybe little snippets or snapshots here and
there and you may have felt off to the side,
all of these different things were now being shown in
the mainstream. So wh when you start seeing grunt, when
you start seeing some of the early Twisted Sister or
the Van Halens of the world, was the run DMCs
and the Salt and Peppers. You're now getting a chance
to see different diaspora being represented in different vantage points
(06:31):
and everybody's getting exposed to this. So why is this crucial?
Because remember there was no blueprint for how Black Generation
X or Generation X or whatever this new integrated society
was supposed to move forward with remember, we had two
hundred years of slavery and then we moved into slaves
being free, and there was no blueprint for that as well.
There were people who resisted against that, of course aggressively,
(06:54):
and we saw good one hundred years of Jim Crow
and restrictive covenants and various discriminatory laws where there was
this need to maintain the order of separate in terms
of how the community's operating. But now, after nearly almost
three hundred years of divisive cultural attitudes, were now in
this new situation where effectively you're taking young people who
(07:14):
are different ethnicities and different backgrounds, thrusting them together and
basically tell them figure this out. But what was wonderful
was that there were all these various things that were happening.
There was the music, it was the fashion. You know,
it was not uncommon to see people wearing things that
Madonna wear or Michael Jackson would wear. All of a sudden,
(07:34):
you know, you would see people who would be into
Depeche Mode or who was in to rush the saying.
Those same people would be into the time and be
into the deal. It was not uncommon to see, you know,
black kids going to rock concerts and watching kiss and
seeing white kids out there and watching and support watching
and sporting public enemy. What was happening was that this
(07:56):
cultural revolution was happening, was that all of the individuals
came together with the understanding and recognition that being exposed
to each other's culture in such an integrated way gave
them the ability to understand and see each other in
a very different light. And this was not something that
was regularly promoted or put forward from the previous generations.
So now as we're moving forward, Generation X is now
(08:18):
binding themselves in the position where they are recognizing that
they are moving in the same space. You're seeing the
high top phades, you're seeing the parachute pants, you're seeing
the silk gloves, and so forth. Everyone is sitting here
having similar heroes and similar individuals that they are viewing.
As a culture on pop icons, we were all in
the same mix together. It's important to remember the arts
(08:41):
didn't just entertain us, they defined us. Remember the old
adage art imitates life. So we were now in this
new part where we had this new life that no
one had ever experienced before, but there was nothing out
there that was reflecting it. And the eighties ushered in
in the eighties and early nineties ushered in this new
(09:02):
world order of art. We were all in this new
space of recognizing that we are now looking at each
other and defining the world that we want to see
for ourselves, and this was necessary in order for us
to grow. Hey, if you liked this video and you
thought you got something great out of it, I would
encourage you to check out my further content. I just
did a book about Generation in the Middle, focusing on
Black Generation X, but I've got a wealth of different
(09:22):
content that I think you really like at very reasonable prices.
As always, thank you for turning to tuning in, and
I hope you enjoyed what you had a chance to
listen to.
And in the good Evening everyone in the Tony read
Tony Reid. When you read Tony Reid, buyer following the
news and great shape or form. No shortage of things
to talk about, what willor this is reality? We simply
happy and read me read, but the go ahead and
(00:24):
kids started. When I was growing up, I was, like
most kids, locked into a variety of different ticular shows
that I loved watching, whether it be Trapper, John and
THEE or Happy Days or Mash or Emergency. All of
these were shows that were just part of our normal
(00:45):
landscape and made a part of our life in terms
of entertainment that I watched on a regular basis. But
there was also something that was also powerfully consistent about
a lot of these early shows. Back in the seventies,
I didn't necessarily see a lot of people that looked
like me. And now, as we're moving forward and there
are greater opportunities for people that look like me, what
do you do when a generation early on doesn't necessarily
(01:07):
see a reflection of who they are on the big
screen and on the small screen. This is a chapter
that I unpacked deeply in my book Black Generation X,
Generation in the Middle, which is available in my shop,
so check it out. But I want to talk a
little bit more about why it was important for my
generation to be exposed to representation that was more reflective
(01:28):
of who they were as we were moving into this
new world. You've got to imagine that during the seventies
and the eighties, we're talking about this explosion. You're talking
about color TV, you're talking about cable, You're talking about
different programming platforms and so forth, like HBO and things
like that. You're now having more platforms available to expose
a greater generation of people to different representations across our
(01:54):
local landscape. That these were things that weren't there necessarily before.
Prior to we were mostly limited to the basically three channels,
which was ABC, NBC and CDs. But now with the
added benefit of additional programming from different areas, we're now
able to start exploring and expanding what we're able to
see on a day on most small screen as well
(02:14):
as we're starting to see an explosion of various movies
and so forth that are coming out as well. But
it's also important to represent something as well. Now that
we've come out of Jim Crow, we're now segueing into
a particular period of time where you're now having a desegregated,
integrated society, and a lot of these people who are
coming forth, these kids who are finding themselves in this space,
it was important that they saw representation of the entire
(02:37):
diaspora on the screen before them, because that was going
to shoot who they was going for, not only for
the black kids who needed to know that there were
persons who operated in all these various professions represented all
screen as well, but to also reinforce to white kids
that excellence is something that can be formed across all diaspora,
not just merely people who are white. And it's important
to remember this is one of the reasons why I
(02:58):
wrote a book about this. I wanted to get people
to understand that as we moved forward into this new
world order, there also had to be a new world
order in terms of how we were to be represented
as well, because we had both of these generations, both
of these different cultures, predominantly white, predominantly black, now being
interspersed with each other, and they were going to get
(03:19):
a more personalized view of how each other viewed the
world through the artists. So as we're coming out of
the seventies and this period of time where now we're
seeing all these different representations, and you're slowly but surely
starting to see representations of us in different programming, whether
it be Barney Miller here There or Welcome Back Harter,
or even as we see other programs like Good Times
(03:41):
and The Jeffersons. We're now getting to the point where
members of Generation extre starting to segue into their teenage years,
and so it becomes more important to make sure that
we provide a representation of what not only their current
looks like, but also what their future could look like
as well. So if you're talking about the eighties, you're
now talking about brand new landscape, you're talking about the
(04:02):
Cosby Show, You're talking about a different world, You're talking
about school, the movie School Days. You're also transitioning into
the early nineties with Living Single, and now all of
a sudden, you have mainstream representation of individuals who are doctors, lawyers,
business owners, entrepreneurs, instructors. Black people are now being shown
(04:23):
representing in these areas as well, which is not indicating
that they just materialize anyway, but it was now introducing
to this new generation Generation X that this was a
reality that was available to everyone, not just merely persons
who are white. So now you've got this new dimension.
So now as we utilize the vehicle, whether it be
(04:44):
a big screen a small screen, you're also now in
a great position where white students, Puerto Rican students, the
students of various diasporas are now seeing themselves on screens
and different representations and knowing and being reinforced with reality
that this was something that was the norm for them,
not the exception, but a distant stop. There. There were
(05:05):
other vehicles that were utilized to tie all these worlds together.
Remember around nineteen eighty one is when we saw the
emergence of the music television or MTV. I think roughly
around that same time period, black entertainment television materialized as well.
So now what's happening is that you start to get
this infusion point where you have other platforms that allows
(05:26):
us to get exposed to different types of musics across
various genres, and other music was exploding as well. We
had just come out of the disco areas era of
the seventies, but now we were segueing into pop. We
were segueing into hip hop, we were segueing into rap,
we were segueing into punk, we were segueing into all
these different diasporas. And what was happening is that young
(05:47):
people realized that they didn't have to be not only
hamstrung to one particular reality, but they got exposed to
each other's reality through representation on these various platforms of
beet and MTV, so that they could find different things
that they could relate to that was more reflective of
who they were. This was new. Unlike previous generations where
(06:08):
you only had maybe little snippets or snapshots here and
there and you may have felt off to the side,
all of these different things were now being shown in
the mainstream. So wh when you start seeing grunt, when
you start seeing some of the early Twisted Sister or
the Van Halens of the world, was the run DMCs
and the Salt and Peppers. You're now getting a chance
to see different diaspora being represented in different vantage points
(06:31):
and everybody's getting exposed to this. So why is this crucial?
Because remember there was no blueprint for how Black Generation
X or Generation X or whatever this new integrated society
was supposed to move forward with remember, we had two
hundred years of slavery and then we moved into slaves
being free, and there was no blueprint for that as well.
There were people who resisted against that, of course aggressively,
(06:54):
and we saw good one hundred years of Jim Crow
and restrictive covenants and various discriminatory laws where there was
this need to maintain the order of separate in terms
of how the community's operating. But now, after nearly almost
three hundred years of divisive cultural attitudes, were now in
this new situation where effectively you're taking young people who
(07:14):
are different ethnicities and different backgrounds, thrusting them together and
basically tell them figure this out. But what was wonderful
was that there were all these various things that were happening.
There was the music, it was the fashion. You know,
it was not uncommon to see people wearing things that
Madonna wear or Michael Jackson would wear. All of a sudden,
(07:34):
you know, you would see people who would be into
Depeche Mode or who was in to rush the saying.
Those same people would be into the time and be
into the deal. It was not uncommon to see, you know,
black kids going to rock concerts and watching kiss and
seeing white kids out there and watching and support watching
and sporting public enemy. What was happening was that this
(07:56):
cultural revolution was happening, was that all of the individuals
came together with the understanding and recognition that being exposed
to each other's culture in such an integrated way gave
them the ability to understand and see each other in
a very different light. And this was not something that
was regularly promoted or put forward from the previous generations.
So now as we're moving forward, Generation X is now
(08:18):
binding themselves in the position where they are recognizing that
they are moving in the same space. You're seeing the
high top phades, you're seeing the parachute pants, you're seeing
the silk gloves, and so forth. Everyone is sitting here
having similar heroes and similar individuals that they are viewing.
As a culture on pop icons, we were all in
the same mix together. It's important to remember the arts
(08:41):
didn't just entertain us, they defined us. Remember the old
adage art imitates life. So we were now in this
new part where we had this new life that no
one had ever experienced before, but there was nothing out
there that was reflecting it. And the eighties ushered in
in the eighties and early nineties ushered in this new
(09:02):
world order of art. We were all in this new
space of recognizing that we are now looking at each
other and defining the world that we want to see
for ourselves, and this was necessary in order for us
to grow. Hey, if you liked this video and you
thought you got something great out of it, I would
encourage you to check out my further content. I just
did a book about Generation in the Middle, focusing on
Black Generation X, but I've got a wealth of different
(09:22):
content that I think you really like at very reasonable prices.
As always, thank you for turning to tuning in, and
I hope you enjoyed what you had a chance to
listen to.
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