County Cable Needs to Think of Diversity

I feel a significant amount of frustration every time I flip through the channels on television and pass by a station known to the “folks” here in suburbia as TNN. The Nashville Network--to be official--seems to be the craze among residents here in Ventura County.

I never knew being a cowboy could be so easy.

That is fine for the Caucasian population, but why hasn’t Ventura County Cablevision reached out to the other side of the spectrum and brought in BET (Black Entertainment Television) for the growing number of African Americans who live here in Ventura County?

As a young black male, I am very aware of the fatal disease know as fiscal and social conservatism that haunts Thousand Oaks and its neighboring cities. The last thing this city wants is its homogenous “culture” disrupted.

Myself, I once went to a local nightclub in Westlake Village and critically questioned one of the bouncers about the club’s choice in music. He told me that they “don’t want to attract the wrong crowd.”

Is that what Ventura County is afraid of--attracting the “wrong crowd”?

Ventura County Cablevision under the rules of the FCC should throw out the demographic census and strive for a multicultural medium. Believe me, BET, which is available to Calabasas residents as close as 10 miles away, would not only be watched by hungry black viewers, but by open-minded white viewers also.

Speaking for the roughly 3% of African Americans who make up Thousand Oaks, all that’s asked is that we have our representation. As long as the needs of non-Anglos are ignored, Ventura County will always be the laughingstock of diversity.

JEFFREY W. BURDETTE

Thousand Oaks