Monday, May 21st Morning Update: Some of you may continue calling the National Action Network about this DL Hughley situation. That is your choice, but might I suggest a different use of your anytime minutes, Viacom, Mr. Hughley’s new employer. DL has a new show coming out this fall on BET. You can call Viacom at (212) 258-6000 read them DL’s quote and ask them if DL Hughley is the best they have to offer to America. Let me remind you that Rev. Sharpton doesn’t own any networks or comedy clubs. While calling the National Action Network may make you feel better, calling Viacom may actually be a more effective use of your time, talent, and treasure ( anytime minutes). (212)-258-6000, just go ahead and save it in your cellphone. ( I called and got transferred into oblivion, so I will have to regroup after work.)
Folks Sharpton Watch is over. I got an e-mail from Tamika Mallory, Director of National Action Network Decency Initiative at 5:13 PM Friday. The following is Rev. Sharpton’s statement regarding the D.L. Hughley Situation. We’ll be talking more about this on the Black Women’s Roundtable Saturday at noon.
It has recently come to our attention that D.L. Hughley has made
disturbing comments about the young women of the Rutgers basketball
team. Let me start by reaffirming the position of the National Action
Network. We do not accept or find humor in the denigration of women or
any other group. It does not matter whether the person making the
statement is black, white or from any other race. Nor does it matter
whether the intent of the comment is a lame attempt at humor, a racist
attack, or in the case of Mr. Hughley, an obvious attempt to create
publicity for himself. It is sad that after a very successful career in
comedy, Mr. Hughley would stoop to behavior that is disrespectful to
women as a means of self promotion. We hope that the entertainment
industry will see through this feeble attempt to gain publicity in order
to find his next job.In Progress,
Reverend Al Sharpton, President of National Action Network & Tamika
Mallory, Director of National Action Network Decency Initiative
Yes. I know some of you will think it is not enough but if you remember ALL we asked for was ANY response to DL’s comments, and we got that. It was a small victory for a blog that isn’t a month old. Stay tuned for our big summer effort regarding Black Exploitation Television. Thank you to those of you who called and e-mailed and urged me along.
21 comments ↓
nice blog
OMG I can’t believe he responded! What was it 4 days? That’s pretty good in my opinion. There are lots of professional people, family members, and friends I know who don’t get back to me in 4 days. I wrote letters to Cosmogirl Magazine complaining about their film contest and THEY NEVER RESPONDED! This gives me confidence that individual people can make a difference and reach our leaders.
Trinity you need to e-mail me your e-mail. I tried to send you a private e-mail about the Sharpton statement, but I couldn’t find it.
You can absolutely reach leaders. I had so expend some anytime minutes, and technically, we reached his staff, but I will take a win where I could get it.
This was actually reaffirming for me. It was a tiny victory, but I think it was enough to move on to bigger tests coming up this summer. I want there to be a coordinated effort to contact five advertisers. The time for talking is over.
I couldn’t have done it if my readers hadn’t gotten me better contact information than I already had.
Damn good job Gina…
This is a perfect example of what we should be doing with these blogs. You (& we) won this battle… and hopefully we will win the much larger war eventually.
And you just started this blog a few weeks ago????
Whew!!!!
You have the natural skills that are necessary for this.
You and Bronze Trinity together…. WATCH OUT!!!
You should also join the Afrospear forum (if you haven’t already). The one individual who initially caused a problem is not part of the forum (i don’t believe).
Your presence would be great for the forum…. several like-minded people there.
You are also welcomed to cross-post some of your blog entries on my blog (although my blog covers various topics). My co-blogger will probably be happy to assist as well.
o.k.. I have to go…. The Amazing Race is on
(i’m addicted to this show right now).
My email is simple, bronzetrinity@hotmail.com
Okay um….did you see 20/20 last night. It was about Taboos like the n-word, calling Black people articulate, and the whole Imus thing. They interviewed people like Michael Eric Dyson. They also interviewed…DL Hugley!!!! Here’s the link http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=3188555&page=1
He commented about not censoring the N-word in fact joking that White people have the right to say it because they made up the word. 20/20 did a pretty good job except for using him in the interview. They didn’t mention that he insulted the Rutgers girls too. Yeah….OMG…
OH you KNOW I saw 20/20. I e-mailed ABC before the show came on and asked if Elizabeth Vargas was going to ask him about it.
I also liked his hopeful comments about the chances of a Black man/woman becoming president( Not). He is just a little fountain of inspirational quotes for black folks.
Angry Independent,
Thanks. We absolutely did this together. A couple of my readers got me a number that I called and less than 24 hours later, we had a statement. Intensity and focus can do great things.
I actually had a website 13 years ago, but I didn’t keep it up. It was even written up in Essence as one of Soledad O’Brien’s favorite sites. As I got focused on going for mine, I got away from it. This was back in the day when you didn’t have web editors, you had to type the HTML code yourself! I also had a leadership position in almost every student organization known to man and did a lot of event planning. This blog has definitely gotten me in touch with the woman I used to be.
You are right, I’ve been given a lot of gifts that I wasn’t using for about a decade. I didn’t want to do this blog. I still hope that someone will take up the mantle and my participation won’t be necessary, but that hasn’t happened. If you go back and read my original post on the blog, you can tell that I thought that by now, I wouldn’t be posting. I typically have a very short attention span, but for some reason, I keep coming back every day with a new post. Maybe this is what I was born to do. I think it is a little early for that conclusion though.
In the next few weeks I am going to try to have all of us connect with all of the other people we know with a web presence to form a temporary alliance to target the advertisers of BET. I say temporary because I think a lot of times we form committees and organizations for a single purpose and then maintaining the committee or organization becomes the focus and we get away from the original goal. I think if we take on a simple single goal and focus a great deal of energy on that goal we can accomplish a great deal. I view getting this statement from Rev. Sharpton as a sign from the universe to keep going.
I could have easily focused on Jesse Jackson, Oprah, Al Roker, Ron Allen, Gwen Ifill, Media Matters, NOW and any of the other people who spoke out during the Imus situation.
I’m glad Rev Sharpton finally addressed this issue but I can’t help but to wonder why he didn’t addressing it as loudly and as fervently and as publicly as he did the whole Imus situation. That’s why people call him a media whore, he only hollers when he thinks he’ll get the most press.
I’m going to pose that question to him via email, I’ll post his response if and when I get one…
I feel you on the forcefulness of his response. I actually undertook Sharpton Watch to prove a point. I never expected him to say ANYTHING.
NO, he didn’t set up a protest in front of Viacom asking them to cancel Hughley’s Show, but this was just an experiment for our movement. A test. I don’t want to get so obsessed with complaining about Sharpton when real change is going to come from pressuring large corporations subsidizing this nonsense. The whole point of this site is that we don’t need Rev. Sharpton to fight our battles. We can fight them for ourselves!
You have to think long term about this. This whole Imus situation is an Arch Duke Ferdinand moment. It will one day be a footnote in history. The real battle is just beginning.
Sharpton Watch was merely a scouting mission.
I’m glad that Rev. Al responded and all, but when are black people going to demand Hughley’s head on a stick? I personally find it far more demeaning that a black man would say this abouit black women than a white man. Black men think they can say anything about and treat black women any way they choose with no consequences. That must be true based on the lack of outrage over Hughley’s comments. He is a regular on Bill Maher’s show. Someone should have contacted Leno for equal time on this issue. Then contacted HBO.
I hear you. But on the seventh day they rested. Next week we’ll start a new campaign. IF SOMEBODY DOES NOT BEAT ME TO IT FIRST ( hint hint). We clearly would be focusing on his BET show, any sponsors of his comedy tour. But let a sister take a pause.
“OH you KNOW I saw 20/20. I e-mailed ABC before the show came on and asked if Elizabeth Vargas was going to ask him about it. “
LOL you are on the ball. While I was watching it I was hoping people were watching.
I didn’t even know DL had a show sot thats why I thought nothing would happen. Can’t fire a guy without a job right? I wonder why they choose to interview him though. It would have been better to interview Chris Rock because although he did that “there are two kinds of Black people” joke in the past, he has now changed his mind about it. He now thinks that it was wrong and he doesn’t do that joke anymore. People can learn and change and regret what they did in the past. That is an important story for the media. Just because rappers believe in their messages now and think that they are doing a good thing in a few years they may change their minds.
What I HATED about the 20/20 piece is that all they had were Dyson and Hughley. I have my own problems with Dyson, but any other subject matter they would have “experts” talking about the issue. When its an issue affecting black folks, they go find a comedian. As if they are the thought leaders of the community.
I guess I can give them a pass for going to dyson, but he is part of this whole Edutainment movement that Cornell West sometimes get caught up in during his live appearances ( I love West’s books) in person appearances are another thing.
To Anon who asked for Hughley’s head on a platter. Patience. We don’t want to become like certain unnamed people who show up on the scene every time a camera light goes on. I’m taking the weekend to try to project into the future to figure out who would be the focus of any campaign against Hughley.
Everyone is running around saying they never knew. Well THAT is about to change.
It’s cool g-e-m2001. You’ve done a good job. I’m just frosted that most black people don’t even know what Hughley said.
I agree with you about Dyson. He makes my teeth ache and my whole head want to explode. Is there a way to broaden the horizons of the mass media because they are the ones who keep running to Sharpton and Dyson. What about Ellis Cose, Skip Gates, Nathan Hare, Julia Hare, Dr. Alvin Poissaint, or even a conservative like Tony Brown. Even the annoying and curmudgeonly Stanley Crouch does’t bother me as much as Dyson. Dyson is like a character in a sketch comedy come to life except he isn’t funny.
I called and got hung up on. . .by a BLACK man. I will be calling back to see if I can reach someone else and let them know what happened to me.
Who did you call?
How awesome! This is the type of activism we need across the board in our community.
Peace,
Bygbaby
I want to know what’s going to happen to Hughley? No protests? Nothing? Just because he’s Black and can demean us when he wants to! He had NOT RIGHT talking about those girls like that! It was irresponsible. But, nothing is going to happen to him. I don’t care what color Imus is, this issue SMACKS of the DOUBLE STANDARD and THAT is NOT fair!
Great job g-e-m2001. Thank for giving us Al Sharpton’s email address. We sent him an email also, but got no response. He knows now that we are watching and networking from all across the country and around the world. I worked the Shaquanda Cotton case. In less than 2 months of blogging, she and 473 other juveniles were set free from Texas juvenile imprisonment. Also, new state legislation now proposes not to send non-felony juveniles to prison. Great victory for the blog world and the Afrospear especially. We are a think tank and communications action group, working on solving the problems.
Again, great work get Al to respond. Maybe now we can use his voice, instead of the other way around.
I am so excited about the work you’re doing and I am looking forward to your next endeavor. I have two daughters, one who is almost 13, and I know the attack on young women is fierce. Parents can’t get distracted on just saving black men…all of our children need protection. Keep up the Great Work!
Thank you for your kind words