Like I said, even though Stephen was a sucky person, he did go to Howard University so you can't really say that MTV hasn't cast someone from an HBCU. Also, just because Ty is wearing plaid shorts doesn't mean he's trying to imitate Abercrombie & Fitch or anything that really resembles that. I actually work there and from the pictures we've seen, Ty doesn't really wear any clothes that resemble anything we sell. And even if he did, so what? The clothes we sell are nice (even though I can't afford any of them since they pay me minimum wage!). I still don't see how it's fair to say that black people should be represented a certain way on reality TV when it's better that they're represented in an array of ways because it shows that no two people are the same regardless of race.

Marco, I find their casting completely realistic. How is he imitating them? You don't know a thing about him. That is the way he dresses, and because of that he automatically is a fake African American? Not every African American is like BET okay?

Well from my perspective, most of the African Americans that I know attend HBCU's. Also, the majority of the African Americans that I know that attend regular universities also act similar to the kids on BET's College Hill. Go to any college campus and the majority (90%) of the African American student body acts like the kids on College Hill. That's just my take.

MarcoSanchez;105914 wrote:
Well from my perspective, most of the African Americans that I know attend HBCU's. Also, the majority of the African Americans that I know that attend regular universities also act similar to the kids on BET's College Hill. Go to any college campus and the majority (90%) of the African American student body acts like the kids on College Hill.

Don't stereotype the stereotype.

Um, Marco, I go to Maryland and my school has a very large, present black population. It's not an HBCU. All of the black students act differently. They're all interested in different things. They don't emulate a stereotype perpetuated by a TV show on BET. You're encouraging a stereotype when in this day and age, we should be looking at the person and not their skin color.

The thing I like about BET's College Hill is that it protrays a wide range of personalities of African Americans. MTV should take notes when they cast the next season. Also, a color blind society will never exist. Everyone will always have prejudiced and/or bigoted thoughts about other people who are different. It's just a fact of life. In addition, stereotyping and racism are about as American as apple pie. It's what this country was built on. It's foolish that people assume that prejudice/racism/discrimination went away with the rise of Mr. Obama. It's still alive and well. Anyway, I'll just have to watch to find out how Ty is once the show airs. Pictures could be deceiving.

MarcoSanchez;105928 wrote:
The thing I like about BET's College Hill is that it protrays a wide range of personalities of African Americans. MTV should take notes when they cast the next season. Also, a color blind society will never exist. Stereotyping and racism are about as American as apple pie. It's what this country was built on. Anyway, I'll just have to watch to find out how Ty is once the show airs. Pictures could be deceiving.

So that means everyone should stereotype? Oh how fun, lets make the world worse.

Can you point out a few black cast members that are the same? Yeah, because Nehemiah, Will, Nick Brown (It's a movement!), Karamo, Stephen, and He Who Must Not Be Named (to name a few) are so similar, it's uncanny. Let's go into the women. Are Shavonda, Coral, Janelle, Brittini, Brianna, Devyn, Jasmine, and Aneesa anything alike? The Real World is never narrow when casting different personalities, and that's what I've been saying in all of my posts. Their point is to not perpetuate a stereotype, and they haven't been. And by saying that stereotyping and racism are as American as apple pie, you're perpetuating stereotyping and racism. I don't see how you can sit there and say things about how we will never live in a color blind society when we have a black President. I'm not saying that this means our society is no longer color blind but we have certainly come a long way since the days where two people of different races wouldn't even be allowed in the same restaurant--now people of all different races are picked to live in a house together and have their lives taped!

tjhallow;105929 wrote:
So that means everyone should stereotype? Oh how fun, lets make the world worse.

No, but I'm saying that stereotypes will always exist whether we choose to accept them or not. We are naturally biased against things that are different. It's human nature to search for differences whether it's skin color or whatever.

Yes, stereotypes will always exist, but it's the sign of a progressive society when we choose to look past them. And while it's human nature to search for differences, we are taught at a young age that different is not bad. We're all different people so by your logic we should be biased against everyone we meet, right?

behindme;105931 wrote:
Can you point out a few black cast members that are the same? Yeah, because Nehemiah, Will, Nick Brown (It's a movement!), Karamo, Stephen, and He Who Must Not Be Named (to name a few) are so similar, it's uncanny. Let's go into the women. Are Shavonda, Coral, Janelle, Brittini, Brianna, Devyn, Jasmine, and Aneesa anything alike? The Real World is never narrow when casting different personalities, and that's what I've been saying in all of my posts. Their point is to not perpetuate a stereotype, and they haven't been. !

All of the women you mentioned all had loud mouths and yelled to get their points across. Also, most of the guys you mentioned have been dark skinned and aggressive to an extent. MTV should cast light-skinned black guys or black guys who are mixed with Hispanic heritage. They are really attractive.

behindme;105936 wrote:
Yes, stereotypes will always exist, but it's the sign of a progressive society when we choose to look past them. And while it's human nature to search for differences, we are taught at a young age that different is not bad. We're all different people so by your logic we should be biased against everyone we meet, right?

Sure, if we disagree with their differences then we should be biased against them. Society would be better if people openly expressed their racism/prejudice instead of concealing it. The only thing I respect about the Ku Kux Klan is their willingness to be open about their hatred. People have to come to terms with their hatred before we can address the hatred that exists.

Oh my god. I don't think that someone's skin TONE should be looked at by the BMP producers. They have much more important things to look at when casting someone for the show, like, I don't know...their personality and whether or not they'd make good TV. And since when was Brittini loudmouthed? And I don't think we've seen Jasmine be any louder than any of her other female castmates. Shavonda wasn't even that loudmouthed. Also, being aggressive is kind of a trait that they look for in everyone they cast for the entire show. No one wants a passive person on The Real World--that would make absolutely terrible TV. And society would absolutely not be better if people openly expressed their bias and hatred. That's all I have to say.

It just seems to be a trend with the African American girls to be the loudest ones and the most dramatic on these shows. I have never seen the Hispanic or European girls act disorderly and upset the dynamics of the house. If anyone's being stereotypical, it's BMP.

Like I said before, pretty much everyone they cast on the show is loud and dramatic. As for the Hispanic/European girls you speak of, have you been watching Cancun? Ayiiia has been the most dramatic one so far! Emilee blew up on the guys a few episodes ago. On Sydney, Parisa and Trisha were constantly going at it, and neither of them were black. I don't really want to argue about this anymore because this is Ty's thread and it's not really a place for a heated debate on racial relations in the US and how black people are represented on the show.

I just looked at Ty's pictures and he looks nothing like an Abercrombie guy. He looks like the guys in the NFL. He looks exactly like TO. He should also enter the next NFL draft. He's probably really athletic too and runs really fast. I would love to have him play football with me so my team could win. I wonder if he says dude and bro a lot. He probably walks like a frat Abercrombie guy too. I'd much rather see him walk/talk like Karamo or Brandon from BET's College Hill though.

I dont care what he is wearing or whether or not he is a "real" african american... what is a "real" african american anyway???... i think the plaid shorts are kind of cute, shows that maybe he is a confident guy... hes hot, im happy to watch. :) <3

Dartagnan;105910 wrote:
Marco, I find their casting completely realistic. How is he imitating them? You don't know a thing about him. That is the way he dresses, and because of that he automatically is a fake African American? Not every African American is like BET okay?

I agree fully, and I don't even care for BET too much. *Nota Bene: I'm saying this as a Black man myself.

I think everyone should calm down and read this article from the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/business/media/02reality.html?_r=1&em

Dartagnan;105910 wrote:
Marco, I find their casting completely realistic. How is he imitating them? You don't know a thing about him. That is the way he dresses, and because of that he automatically is a fake African American? Not every African American is like BET okay?

wtf? what is that suppossed to me?

Alexa;106063 wrote:
wtf? what is that suppossed to me?

He is trying to say that the African American race is what you see on BET, which is a wrong generlization, because every African American is different and not everyone is like that. This is not a "race" thread though.

Back to Ty--I have a friend who went to Bryn Mawr, which I'm pretty sure is Gilman's sister school. It must be, because she has a LOT of Gilman guys added on Facebook. Anyway, I asked her if she'd heard of Ty and she said that she had, and that he was pretty popular at Gilman and in the entire Baltimore private school circuit. He was a senior when she and I were both sophomores (but I went to public school in the town she and I are both from, which isn't in Baltimore County), so she didn't know much about him/hadn't met him, but heard through the grapevine that he was a really cool, chill guy who was pretty hero-worshipped because of how good he was at football.

Thanks for the info Behindme!!

I actually went to Bryn Mawr and was a year ahead of him...I know him well, but I don't know how much of that (him being nice and being worshipped because of how good he was at footbal etc.) is true.

I mean, my friend WAS a sophomore when he was a senior, so she was probably getting the younger kids' views of it, and generally the younger kids always think that someone who's older and good at something (especially football) are cool.

UKnow, are you saying he wasn't nice, or just not as nice as the post said?

He can be nice and would probably appear that way on first impression, but he has the tendency to be aggressive in certain situations. He can also be very argumentative, doesn't always deal with his anger in appropriate ways, and can be a know it all.

I'm sure I won't like Ty. I haven't seen one picture of him hanging out with people of his own race or hanging out in majority black/Hispanic establishments. I'm sure that Ty could find one African American buddy to befriend out of thousands in this city. That just scream self-hate to me. What's up with that? On the season opener, we can probably expect him to say something like, "I'm not your typical African American guy". Then he's probably going to act like an Abercrombie frat guy and eventually try really hard to act black/ghetto once he isn't accepted by the roommates. Hopefully Ty learns a good lesson about not trying to be something you're not. Ugh, Ty will probably act like the people I can't stand. Ty and other people that act like him should just come to terms with their cultural heritage and accept it. In closing, everyone should be proud of their skin color and stop trying to distance themselves from it. People like Ty and other self hating (African Americans/Asians/Hispanics) are the reason why there is not enough unity within these communities.

Why are you judging a book by its cover? I know plenty of black guys who dress like Ty and are still very proud of being from the black community. Ty is from the actual city of Baltimore where there is a great deal of unity in the black community and just because he doesn't dress like the way a black guy is "supposed" to dress and went to Gilman, he's automatically "not your typical black guy"? And why would the roommates not accept him? Because he doesn't "act black"? What is "acting black" anyway? That's an incredibly close minded approach to the fact that anyone can be whoever they WANT to be. I don't run around in a head covering with a Qu'ran in my hand--I don't even practice Islam--so am I not a "real" Persian? How do you know he's self-hating? Because he wears plaid shorts and went to Gilman? Because he's a Republican? I guess Dr. Ben Carson is a self-hating African American too. I see you're from Montgomery County (a fellow Marylander!) and I would think that being from such a diverse county as MoCo, you would know that people are diverse in personality regardless of their race. MoCo has a huge Asian and Indian population. Are all the Asians you know rocket scientists/physicists? Do they only have Asian friends? The answer to that would probably be NO. People like Ty have probably transcended their cultural heritage, accept it, and choose to act like THEMSELVES.

Marco, relax.