Inner city's teen talk
05.24.05 (11:51 pm) [edit]I often leave radio on when I am in my place with or without doing other things for the main focus. One of my favorite program during the daytime hours i s Teen Talk Radio that is on the air from four to five pm on tuesday and thursday on 91.5 FM in tri-state NY area. The amazing thing about the program is that you actually get to hear lots of different voices that's hardly, or almost never,on the air in the usual broadcasting context. Therefore, this program is outstanding. What the program offers is to have inner cities teens and let them talk about themselves and thier troubles in lives. They have regular members for the show and they graduate after certain period just as a school semester opens and closes. Most kids in the show are minority kids who usually get no attention from the society but negative ones like criminal potential. Subjects they bring up in the show are sometimes too harsh; this is not the MTV fake 'real TV' but real teens nobody had bother with. The triumph of them is the fact that they do voice thier experiences and connect themselves to others. Troubles they discuss are from wide range;drugs, teenage pregnancy, relationships, school, dropping out of school, adoption, gangs, abuse, addiction, self esteem and empoerment material. The kids set topics and themes for each week and organize the show. They often perform skits based on small piece of script written by themselves.
As I happened to run into this show, I literally recognized how little these teens are represented in the society unless being generalized and judged as unnecessary trash, or midly put, undesirable state of human lives. Just one hearing would tell you their voices are something you scacely hear somewhere else, but only in the negative context; gangsta rap or TV drama's troubled teen criminals.
Most kids in the radio show are african americans (or small number of latino/as). Just taking accents of them explains how underrepresented their real presences are in media. Thieir distinvtive accents are never to be broadcasted unless certain label of novelty is attached with proper market strategy.
However, it is only rediculous to try keep on ignoring them when they really are the majority of the inner city life. Whether you like it or not, they are even the representative figures of the inner city teen life. So figure out why they are having suhc a hard time struggling to be heard.
These teens in the show invite mentors everytime according to themes they have for a week. Some are volunteers in many different fields who were in jails and got straight afterwards. Some might be HIV positive people who are coping with the treatment. Others are former homeless who are building thier lives up again. All those real mentors guide those kids and tell stories of what brought them to the trouble and how they got out of them. They are no nonsense because they are all have- been- there- done- that people you can never listen without respect. And I have got to say that there is certain honesty in their voices here you can't find anywhere else. The reason is very simple. This is the part what the mainstream society dismisses, ignores and pretend not to exist. The denail and dismissal is what the society constitues of. But I turn the volume of the radio up and say that you can never say they don't exist after having these kids say what they have in minds. Hear them talk because this is the most honest and trueest part of the society. And these are the most crucial voices that we have to encourage to be heard more. Because the indestructability of human is there we can reach in their remotest voice from what is called 'standard English' that is circulated as the main stream social order.