Read this article on Substack!
I just started this show, “All American” on Netflix. It checked all my boxes for my next dramatic series: it’s 7 seasons, so it’s long, it has a black leading cast, and there’s football. I bring it up because so far I have teared up twice in the first season… I know. I’m not that mushy but like I said it’s my kind of show. The second moment I teared up though, I felt manipulated. There is a particularly emotional scene with one of the main families in the show, but what made me feel manipulated is that while that scene is happening, wouldn’t you know they are playing “Shed a Tear” by Kodaline.
This was annoying to me because what I thought was a raw emotion from decent writing come-to-life, was actually a manipulated and gas lit moment. Which in the grand scheme of the show isn’t that surprising one season in; but, what’s appalling for me is the blatant effort that goes into manipulating someone regardless of whether or not that’s the intended goal. In this case, the writers approved this scene, picked that song, and timed things in such a way where they wanted the moment to tug at your heart strings and for you to maybe shed a tear.
In this same episode, however, the main character is dealing with some of his issues around love. His family situation isn’t whole and therefore he had a tendency to break up his romantic relationships, out of fear that they were going to fall apart anyway. He wanted to get ahead of any potential pain in his romantic relationships by instigating conflict instead of dealing with his feelings about being left by his father.
The episode previous to the one I’ve been talking about is based around a college combine, and as I was watching the athletes it made me think about my high school sports days. While I was thinking I thought about one of my old coaches, Coach King.Wouldn’t you know that not only was the college coach for one of the scouting teams in the show in this episode named Coach King, the actor who played him was Hosea Chanchez, most known for his role as Malik Wright on The Game. Malik Wright and Jason Pitts are probably my number one and number two favorite characters from The Game.
Now, the only one that could have caused that moment was God. The writers of the show didn’t write the show or any particular episode just for me, to my knowledge. They didn’t know I had a high school coach called Coach King or that Hosea Chanchez is a favorite actor of mine. They couldn’t have known because I just started watching The Game a month ago. All American has been out since 2018. After going through these motions with God I realized that manipulation is one of the reasons I am adverse to romance. I love, love, in all its forms. It takes effort for me not to mention love in some capacity in nearly every article I write for Life with Ken. That said, when I think about giving my heart to one woman for life and being responsible for her’s, not wanting to be manipulated is a well welcomed reason not to; but more importantly it gives me further insight into who I am as a person.
To emphasize my perspective, let’s discuss more about music. That song “Shed a Tear” was probably written in the key of shedding a tear. I don’t read and write music but I can understand it enough as a creative vehicle. That’s point number one right there, music is a language. When someone produces music they are trying to communicate something to you. And sinisterly, they are trying to communicate something to you insidiously, because you probably don’t speak music well enough to know the nuance in the language when you hear your favorite song. Not to mention you don’t know how many stacks or layers a final track has. By the time you’re hearing your favorite song and the vocalist and the producer finishes stacking 30 tracks for only a few parts, you don’t know what is being said, all you know is you like the sound. Music is an easy example of something that can be manipulated to manipulate others. Whether it be how a song is written to feel happy or sad or whatever feeling, or whatever words are put to music.
You ever notice how some of the best pop is an upbeat music track to some sadder than happy lyrics? All of that, intentional or not, is manipulation. I wanted to listen to some music while preparing this article but I had to think twice before I picked some random playlist because of the rise of AI music slop. And if you don’t think music is manipulative, ponder this, the first job of the world’s greatest manipulator was musician. It’s Black History Month and I mentioned this once, but I’m going to mention it again. It’s really easy for negroes to call themselves something else when all they hear is themselves being called out of name in their favorite music genre.
I’m not here to bash on music. The bottom line is I realized that I rather steer clear of romantic love than to put myself in a position to be manipulated. It didn’t feel good knowing that the only one who could make me feel the way I felt in the moments described earlier was God, because he knows me so well. I live a life where I love God and I am learning to Love God, so God “manipulating” me probably isn’t what was happening anyway… but that’s what I felt. And I don’t want to feel that from anyone else. With God it was some TV show, but with another person it’s your bank account, your housing, your livelihood, your happiness.
Subscribe to our Substack to receive new articles directly in your inbox:
Leave a Comment