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New YouTube show ‘C.A.K.E. The Series’ aims to improve Black image

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Americans live on a steady diet of reality television shows, social media, and Hip Hop music. Whether you are young or old, Black or White, you are being exposed to themes and ideas that the media wants you to see; but are these concepts really accurate? Are all Black people really as extreme as the characters chosen to be on reality television shows? Do all Black people talk about the themes and ideas portrayed in mainstream Hip Hop culture? The answer to these questions is obviously “no,” and a woman by the name of Ericka Harden is ready to tackle these issues head-on with her new YouTube show entitled C.A.K.E. The Series.

C.A.K.E. The Series is an interesting satirical narrative written, directed, and produced by Harden. It’s constructive, very witty, and refreshingly entertaining. The show is about four secret agents from an organization called Covert Action to Kill Extinction (C.A.K.E.) and their ongoing mission is to change the messages and images that media promotes to the general public. For their first mission together, the four agents target an up-and-coming Rap artist named MC Komodo who has hit the mainstream market and taken the Rap game by storm gaining an untold number of fans and supporters. Their objective is to use the rapper as an instrument of change in their plan to improve the Black image.

“I started this project with the intent of giving everyone an opportunity to get involved in improving the image of Black people in mainstream media. My main goal is not only to get people to talk about it, but to find solutions to these problems,” Harden says. As an actress, she said she sometimes finds it difficult to find roles for Black people that aren’t stereotypical, and this in a way sparked her interest to research racism and how Blacks were being portrayed in the media. “Every time I see a casting call for a Black person, they always have to be a gangbanger or a drug addict or overtly homosexual. You always had to be the extreme. So I was like, let’s just do the complete opposite and create these characters that are dynamic with a purpose.”

As reasonable as it sounds to cast Black people in roles that do not portray them as extremes, historically it seems to have been an earth-shattering concept. How often does one find a show where the roles of the Black characters are not stereotypical in some way? The answer to that is almost never.

“I feel in my personal life, all those characters portrayed on TV, I don’t really run into them, ever. It’s not my normal and it’s not a lot of people’s normal. But for some reason they are becoming the poster children of who [Black people] are. I want to show that there are more dimensions to who we are.”

Not only does Harden aim to tackle issues in the media, but she also wants to focus on other aspects of Black culture such as the natural hair movement, treatment of Black people in the workplace, and the ongoing “light skin vs. dark skin” feud.

In future episodes of the show, Harden also wants to discuss controversial issues such as religion, politics, and education. Her goal is to expose “The System” as much as possible so people can see and understand that the ominous influence of racism spans much further than just media. “Religion, politics, education, law, the distribution of money—all these things are included in the racism that is affecting us. It’s not just TV, and it’s not just police. It’s actually everything that we do,” she continued. “Because it really is a system; we are all dependent on these things and we are all controlled by these things. I would like to explore all these aspects of life, because even if you stop watching TV, you are not exempt from it or protected from racism happening to you.”

She is also focused on keeping the show balanced by providing the opinions of people outside of the Black community. “Entertainment needs to have a balance,” Harden stated. “There are people who have opinions, and they have every right to have those opinions, but there are also other opinions that are not being showed. I’d like to show all aspects of it [in the show] because we all have different perceptions. I feel that White people definitely have a voice and we hear what their voice is all the time. All you have to do is pick up a newspaper. And by listening to that opinion your whole life, it’s only natural for you to pick up that opinion too, and you start buying into it, especially if you don’t have any other perspectives to come from.”

Harden believes that with a wealth of knowledge, people can start forming opinions of their own rather than accept what the mainstream media is force feeding the public. She wants C.A.K.E. The Series to be a place where that information and knowledge is readily available. “People are easier to control when they think one way,” Harden said, which is possibly the reason why the mainstream media works the way that it does. That is why she encourages people to do their own research and find all of the angles before making an opinion, not just about people, but about anything. “Anything that you believe, as long as you have really thoroughly researched it, then I can respect that.

I feel like we all, especially us Black people, need to dig a little bit deeper because [we] are the most vulnerable. They really do target us a lot. They use Hip Hop in commercial ads now because they are trying to get our attention. And we need to dig a little bit deeper to find out what is it they are really telling us and what it is they are trying to get us to do.”

Harden is very optimistic about her YouTube series and is hopeful that people will support the show and her efforts. She plans to have multiple seasons, and new characters and story lines are currently being developed.

However, just as it is with any show, the show’s continuation will likely hinge on the amount of support it receives from viewers. “I invite people to support it to be a part of this project and improve [the show], because as long as people are supporting it, I can keep making it. But it all depends on how much support I get from the viewers out there.”

In an effort to boost support for the show, Harden has started an Indie GoGo fundraising campaign. Supporters can participate by donating money, equipment, or even film locations. Some perks that come with donating are: a video shout out on social media from a cast member, remastered download of released episodes, official C.A.K.E. The Series button and beret, and a 30 minute video Q&A with the creator of the show.

C.A.K.E. The Series currently has five episodes already posted on YouTube and can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/user/CaketheSeries. The rest of the show’s first season is planned to be released sometime this fall. Without a doubt, this show is making moves in all the right directions, and Ericka Harden has truly put together a show of considerable substance.

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