As an advocate for black men, I immediately fell in love with VH1’s show Black Ink Crew. The show provides a first hand view inside the life of a young black entrepreneur who runs a tattoo parlor in Harlem called Black Ink Tattoo Studio. Ceaser Emanuel, the owner, and his friends work hard to maintain the shop’s reputation as one of the best tattoo parlors in New York City. One of Ceaser’s friends, who is also a 
tattoo artist at the shop, is Richard “O’S**t” Duncan. His nickname, O’S**t, should indicate that his life is no bowl of sunshine.
O’S**t is a former college athlete who played football until he tore his ACL and could no longer perform. Art was his backup plan. As a very talented artist, tattooing just came easy to him. His talent is undeniable, but it is often his personal life that is the subject of controversy on the show.
O’S**t has a rainbow coalition of baby mammas, three to be exact. He has one child each with a white woman, a Hispanic woman, and a black woman. In one infamous scene, we see his Hispanic baby mamma get into a fight with one of his girlfriends in a restaurant in front of the children. This event clearly demonstrated that O’S**t has no control over the relationships he has with the women in his life.
Of greater concern, however, are his interactions with the criminal justice system. On the show, O’S**t shared that his mother’s dying wish to him was that he stop getting arrested. He said that as a young man he got arrested a lot, and Black Ink’s camera crew has chronicled his latest bouts with the justice system. He got a gun charge when he was pulled over driving his girlfriend’s car where she kept her service weapon. Police found the gun, and the show has shown O’S**t in and out of court and in and out of the bail bondsman’s office ever since.
If all that is not enough trouble to warrant his nickname, it was recently revealed that O’S**t has a drug and alcohol problem. He has gone on alcohol benders where he disappears from work and is not seen for days. Not only that but he has failed drug tests given to him by his bail bondsman. In one incident, they found powder cocaine in his pocket, and he had to choose between going to jail and going to rehab. He chose rehab.
O’S**t’s story is important because it is one part of a larger conversation about how black people are seen in the media. O’S**t demonstrates everything negative that the world says about black men. People say black men indiscriminately have children all over town with different women. People say black men cannot control themselves with women. Also, people say black men are on drugs and in and out of jail. O’S**t’s sexual exploits, baby mamma’s, drug use, and arrest record make him a walking, talking stereotype.
This is not to say that Richard Duncan is a bad person. In fact, he is not a bad person. He just has the same particular set of problems that come with being an African American man. People in our community can say that Richard is just like any other black guy trying to make it, but what about people outside our communities? If they happen to see the parts of O’S**t’s life that are highlighted on the show, they might begin to think that what people say about black men is true.
So we do need to look at the way black men are portrayed in the media. When Black men on “reality” TV shows are living out the narrative that most people already have of them, it can be problematic for us. It gives people something to point at and say “look at how they behave, I am sure all of them act like that.” When that is the case, the issues we face will only get worse because public perception is everything.
References
VH1. (2015). Black Ink Crew: O’S**t. Retrieved from http://www.vh1.com/celebrities/ohst/#cast=black_ink_crew
Photos courtesy of VH1
FROM BOYZ 2 MEN, INC. 