New York Goes to Work: Premier

New York Goes to Work
Monday 10pm, VH1

I don’t throw out the ‘R’ word often. Growing up I lived with enough kids from enough different cultures to know that when we made fun of our differences, it wasn’t racism: it was ball-busting. Even today, I think people are too quick to label things as sexist, racist, or homophobic when really those things are just stupid or teasing. But watching the premier of New York Goes to Work last night, I have to say…I’m throwing it out there. So let me take a cue from Tracy Morgan on last week’s 30 Rock by playing my yellow Race Card: this show is racist. There, I’ve said it. Let the chips fall where they may.

There is so much about the premise of New York Goes to Work (NYGTW) that is just wrong from the start: New York (originally a Flavor of Love reject) will participate in a humiliating job for a chance to win $10,000. The audience chooses what job she will do by texting their choice. And you can bet that audience is never going to have New York do a job like “regional sales representative.” No, it’s all going to be humiliating work like pig farming or (as in the premier episode) exterminating. Now, if you look at the audience (predominately white) and if you look at the participant (a black woman), it’s pretty obvious where the racist undertones come in: a white audience chooses unpleasant tasks for a black woman to do for their amusement.

As if the format wasn’t uncomfortable enough, VH1 adds all kinds of little excruciating details which set my teeth on edge. New York rolls up to the exterminator office in an Escalade with her hair and makeup immaculately done, her clothing modest and professional, and then proceeds to get…what? Smacked off her high horse? She’s put in her uniform and joins the (all-white) exterminator staff, who have her help clean out beehives, wrangle snakes, and remove a dead animal from under a house. They badger and belittle her to get her to work, frustrated by her frequent running-away. The lesson here? White people know how to get a job done. Isn’t it funny to watch black people try and work?

As if that wasn’t nauseating enough, watching New York work is equally painful. What, there’s something about watching her climb under a house in full hair and makeup that’s supposed to be entertaining to me? Why should I be entertained? Because she was a classy African American women and it’s fun knocking rich African American women down to size?

I’m guessingVH1 is banking on New York’s reactions as being the key entertainment factor. These are usually (but not limited to) screams, hysterics, tears, and prayers. But this is another area where I’m going to call Race Shenanigans. I’m not trying to rip on New York—I like her, I think she is who she is and has a sweet personality. But at the same time I also think she plays up many traits associated with those old-school Southern plantation stereotypes, and I think VH1 exploits that.

NYGTW isn’t far from that tradition. Remember Prissy from Gone with the Wind? The dim house slave who claimed “I don’t know nothin’ ‘bout birthin’ babies, Miss Scarlett” then spent half an hour running around the house screaming? Remember how horrifying it was to see the 1930’s glorify that behavior as being “how black women were”? I can’t help but feel VH1’s decision to air NYGTW in the format they did—specifically designed to elicit hysterics from New York—is similar to Gone with the Wind’s decision to have Prissy play a hysterical mess. “Oh, look at New York and that snake. Those black people, they get so crazy!”

To add insult to injury, the show’s credits and graphics give NYGTW an even seedier feel. Before each commercial break, New York’s three prospective jobs for the following week pop up, and viewers are invited to vote. Each job appears before a swirling candy-colored background next to an avatar of New York as, say, a construction worker or a school teacher. The whole thing is supposed to be playful, but it instead brings unpleasant connotations of late-night solicitations for text message horoscopes or Girls Gone Wild trials.

There’s nothing inherently racist about allowing New York to work for money—hell, even having us vote on it isn’t racist. There’s something about the combination of her reactions, what we’re being asked to laugh at, how she’s being dressed, how the show is shot…the whole thing comes across as a bit bullying. It’s the unstated interaction between New York and the audience: she plays up her fear for the audience’s benefit, the audience humiliates her for their own benefit. So any way you add it up, $10,000 seems like little more than reparations for the half-hour of suffering. If you ask me, it isn’t enough.