Much has been said about the state of the image of black women in today's media. There have been boycotts and congressional hearings and sit-ins, all in an effort to change the image of the black woman as welfare mom (see your local news), oversexed groupie (see Karrine Stefans aka Superhead at a Borders near you), or scantily clad video ho (see 106 & Park on BET anytime of the day or night). Gone are the Whitley Gilbert's of A Different World, the Gina Water's of Martin or Khadijah's of Living Single. They've been replaced with I Love New York and the uberoutrageous Flavor of Love Cast.

So where can you find images of beautiful, intelligent, healthy and positive images of black women on television? Just travel a little further down your cable dial to the Africa Channel. Besides providing a glimpse in the so-called dark continent that doesn't feature famine and war, the channel is largely dominated by reruns of juggarnaut reality show, Face of Africa.

I'm a channel flipper by nature and I happened upon this gem a couple of months ago and have been hooked ever since. Never have a seen a show that featured that many black people in one place without there being some sort of social demonstration or concert. It was like a breath of fresh air. Beautiful black women who were students, models, aspiring actresses and everything in between, of all colors and hair textures and facial features.

This was a reality show that seemed to be the polar opposite of what I had been force fed on basic cable. Every woman hailed from a diffent African country where girls lined up to the next Face of Africa, much as they do today for America's Next Top Model, proving that African girls dream just as big (or small depending on how you look at it) as the average American girl does. They weren't plucked from the bush as most of the African supermodel back stories (written by opportunistic journalists) would have you believe (see Alek Wek and Iman).

Viewers are also treated to a rare treat as the show touches down in new African countries to search for more girls, actual true depictions of everyday city life in countries like Ghana, Namibia, Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Much of what Americans get to see of Africa is what's blasted to the world on CNN. If you never sought to dig a little deeper you'd think the whole continent was in constant turmoil, creating a kind of ethnocentrism that's sadly become oh so American.

What you'll find glaringly absent as well, besides synthetic hair and acrylic nails, is the catty infighting that seems to be a staple on every reality show that gets greenlighted these days. The girls are genuinely sorry to see the others go home when they are eliminated. It's like women can actually get along. What a concept? It makes you wonder how many myths about women, in particular African-American women are purposefully perpetuated.

Now I'm at most a psuedo-feminist so I'm not a proponent or opposer of beauty pageants (having been in one or two myself), but I am so grateful to the Africa Channel for showing that black women are beautiful and human.

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