Thursday
Jul262007
I Could Not Have Said It Better- So I Won't Try
Thursday, July 26, 2007 at 8:08PM The Blogmother
See what BET could have been. TVOne Broadband. Select the "lifestyle" channel.
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Reader Comments (23)
Awesome find. Thank you.
Here is a poll I am taking. Cast your vote on my blog:
Black Entertainment Television
__ Hates Black People
__ Loves Money
__ Sells sex, drugs, violence,
and ignorance
__ All of the above
Blackwomb
Hates Black People
Hey...I know this guy. I used to work with him. He has a website call www.hiphopmusic.com and from what I remember he does a radio show on wbai in ny. It's a radio show on underground hip hop. I'm pretty sure John is sick of the crap that mainstream hip hop has produced and is sick of BET's minstrel shows and much as I am.
Black Entertainment Television
B. Loves Money
&
C. Sells sex, drugs, violence, and ignorance
Good commentary about that nonsense...
Notice that the Thur. 9pm description of the show is different from the Sat. 2:30am description. The Sat. am show might be the actual "mess" they intended to air.
You now, I stated in several posts and during the round table that this is an opportunity for BET to do better. I still had hope. You tried to tell me. Damn, damn, damn. Tell me it aint so.
Here are even more bad reviews!
Series debut drew 800,000 viewers, but only added more fuel to the fire. This site generated tons of publicity for the show but most people say the show was awful! They would have actually generated great press if they had cancelled the show and said that they no longer want to do that sort of programming. They made the wrong choice.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-et-ghetto27jul27,1,2597661.story?track=crosspromo&coll=la-headlines-entnews&ctrack=2&cset=true" REL="nofollow">LA Times
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0707/5131.html" REL="nofollow">The Politico
All the above.
yeah they could have made a killing on selling the DVDs if they had canceled the show. Everybody would have been trying to purchase the DVD to see what it was all about.
That is why THAT SHOW will not be mentioned by name here again. It is going to die a natural death. I heard that at one party some teens who would have been in BETs target audience actually turned their backs and started texting! HA!
I LOVE Black people!!!Most especially critically thinking Black people like this brother and Gina, who are not afraid to speak truth to power.
I believe that the 21st century will bring an even wider divide between the Black "haves" (all things being relative, of course) and the masses of overimprisoned, undereducated, and unemployable Black poor in this country.I see this HGM travesty and Cosby raining his vitriol on the already burdened shoulders of the Black poor as manifesting a rabid hostility born of this disconnect.
I don't believe that the Hudlins, Douglases, and Cosbys are well intentioned.I think that they are embarrassed b/c they believe that white folks are watching(which matters-NOT!)and that their progress is being hampered by the antics of "those" Black people. Rather than use their position/education/money to meet our responsibility in dealing with the problems of our people, they mock the most vulnerable to create a distinction that ultimately doesn't mean a damn thing ("I'm nigga and you're Dr.Nigga"in the words of Malcolm). Anyway, I am excited to have recently become aware of the WAOD site and again want to thank Gina for her courage and the brother in the video for his insightful comments.
This guy's commentary is fantastic. His analogy with Michael Vick and PETA was on point. He hit the nail right on the head.
Regarding TVOne, I have been a fan from day one. Cathy Hughes got a good thing going with this network to reflect our people.
However, it's unfortunate that while I give TVOne its props, I gotta take major cool points away from Ms. Hughes because her Radio One empire is to radio what BET is to television. And that's a whole 'nother discussion! Hmmm, I may need to blog about that.
His commentary was excellent! I did not watch the show (I refuse to watch BET...period!) but I have seen the photos.
New Girl..I must respectfully disagree. I believe that Americans of African heritage are entering a critical historical phase. They have for centuries been the victims of obvious totalitarian control and brutality. But we are now entering a period where you have one- maybe one and a half generations that have known no OBJECTIVE oppression. Yes we can argue subtle racism and legacies of this and that which are significant but not NEARLY as significant as overt institutionalized oppression. A victimized person is given a pass on many things because he/she is not totally responsible for their situation. If you now live in a context of personal responsibility for your situation and destiny and seemingly INSIST on being illiterate, immoderate, and mean spirited, then the tone and angle of criticism from your fellows takes on a different mood and urgency. Television (especially consumer product sponsored) is ultimately about mediocrity. Not to
label HGM as high-art, it was nevertheless arguably edgey and scandalous. You can't have that in a medium that MUST play ALWAYS to the middle. I won't go so far as to applaud HGM as relevant but how much on TV is REALLY high quality anyway? Could a genuinely edgy and provocative show make it? You have killed this show, fine. The episode I saw sucked. But when a show comes along that you think is high-quality AND EDGEY I can't wait until another group of organized weenies kills it for you.
Christopherlee:
"Weenie" remark not withstanding, I thank you for your comments.I am not certain however they were responsive to what I actually said.
In any event, in the last 30 years,the number of federally imprisoned blacks has doubled for non-violent drug related offenses when whites consistently outpace our drug consumption. There is an exploding prison industry that makes our continuing disproportionate imprisonment highly lucrative. The fractional resources applied to predominately Black public schools in poor urban areas (as compared to affluent white ones) virtually guarantee an unskilled labor force that is relegated to finding jobs that no longer even exist b/c they've been shipped overseas. Those truths are matters of injustice, not "victimhood" and, if that does not amount to "OBJECTIVE...significant, institutionalized oppression" than perhaps with all due respect a new dictionary may be in order.
As for the cultural value you assign to HGM for its "edgyness," I don't get the impression that WAOD's intention was to get BET to "play to the middle." Edgy is fine, reckless and irresponsible is not fine, highly UNentertaining may be the worst of all. Thank you again for your comments.
Christopherlee:
"Weenie" remark not withstanding, I thank you for your comments.I am not certain however they were responsive to what I actually said.
In any event, in the last 30 years,the number of federally imprisoned blacks has doubled for non-violent drug related offenses when whites consistently outpace our drug consumption. There is an exploding prison industry that makes our continuing disproportionate imprisonment highly lucrative. The fractional resources applied to predominately Black public schools in poor urban areas (as compared to affluent white ones) virtually guarantee an unskilled labor force that is relegated to finding jobs that no longer even exist b/c they've been shipped overseas. Those truths are matters of injustice, not "victimhood" and, if that does not amount to "OBJECTIVE...significant, institutionalized oppression" than perhaps with all due respect a new dictionary may be in order.
As for the cultural value you assign to HGM for its "edgyness," I don't get the impression that WAOD's intention was to get BET to "play to the middle." Edgy is fine, reckless and irresponsible is not fine, highly UNentertaining may be the worst of all. Thank you again for your comments.
"In any event, in the last 30 years,the number of federally imprisoned blacks has doubled for non-violent drug related offenses when whites consistently outpace our drug consumption. There is an exploding prison industry that makes our continuing disproportionate imprisonment highly lucrative. The fractional resources applied to predominately Black public schools in poor urban areas (as compared to affluent white ones) virtually guarantee an unskilled labor force that is relegated to finding jobs that no longer even exist b/c they've been shipped overseas. Those truths are matters of injustice, not "victimhood" and, if that does not amount to "OBJECTIVE...significant, institutionalized oppression" than perhaps with all due respect a new dictionary may be in order."
You will never get me to defend the Military Industrial Prison complex. I know it is unjust for EVERYONE white and black. But you know where you start in these sorts of things is the individual. We need to keep vigilance with institutions but the critically needed effort is transformation of culture. You know what kids black, white , asian or latino. Stay away from drugs and drug culture. I know kids from all backgrounds who get in trouble with that and the amount of hassle involved with your FELLOWS in the drug community as WELL as the police is enuff of a deterrent. Second, black education, we need to transform the culture. You look at mass American WHITE culture and the lack of knowledge of history, passable business writing, literacy is horrible. The same is true in black culture. You need SOMETHING like HGM to critique mass culture. Just LOOK at it. Social critique is a given, and productive trope in Western Civilization. I agree that HGM is TOO MUCH and therefore counterproductive. But the spirit of self critique is what needs to be supported. You may change the OTHER you may not, but it's YOU that makes the difference. The English were pigs to the Roman Empire. They were enslaved, colonized and brutalized. They asserted there own right to exist against a superior opponent. That's what matters, not the total reform of the OTHER.
"I believe that the 21st century will bring an even wider divide between the Black "haves" (all things being relative, of course) and the masses of overimprisoned, undereducated, and unemployable Black poor in this country.I see this HGM travesty and Cosby raining his vitriol on the already burdened shoulders of the Black poor as manifesting a rabid hostility born of this disconnect."
On the contrary, those poor, undereducated, and unemployable could learn a few things if they took responsibility for the problems and stopped blaming the evil white man!!! The things Bill Cosby said may have been harsh but it's the TRUTH!
Stay in school, stop having babies so young and out of wedlock...it's not hard and you don't need money to do these things. That's advice that will help anyone out of poverty if they adherred to it and worked hard. If you want things in life, you have to work for it. And yes, some people have to work harder than others.
Shavonn:
I'm batting 0 for 2 with you and christopherlee,but I'd like to try this one more time.An analysis of personal responsibility-to be useful-must be balanced by an acknowledgment of structural societal defects.Public education in urban america is so underfunded that the children who do "stay in school" do so to find, upon graduation, that they are qualified to do little more than get a low-skilled, low wage job-which, due to the globalization of capital, NO LONGER EVEN EXISTS. That job has been shipped to Mexico. Acknowledging those facts does not absolve poor black people of responsibility for their choices. It creates the opportunity for informed discussion that can move our people forward in the way that blame laying cannot. And,by the way, you might want to read Dyson's book on Cosby/Black middle class. I think it would diabuse of your apparent notion that Bill Cosby has the moral authority to tell anybody anything.Money and virtue really are two different things.
NEWGIRL-Any and everyone's life is a negotiation of objective social structures beyond you and your individual ambition, imagination and personal power so what? Objective conditions are only a factor for black people? NEWSFLASH people accomplish things in spite of and often as a reaction to current conditions. You see injustice? Maybe you are called to right that wrong. I don't see what you are getting at? The pretty blonde girl born rich in Beverly Hills has it easier than the po' black child in the ghetto? Well so does the rich black kid in East Hampton have it better than the poor white boy in Eastern Europe. You are still stuck with the individual and his/her will power and responsibility.
Oh,christopherlee, I just give. We don't simply disagree, which would really be fine. The problem is that you can't hear what it is that I am saying.I haven't mentioned anything in any of my posts about blaming white people, or the virtues of victimhood, or a blameless black poor, or the insignificance of individual will. "What I'm getting at," as you put it, is that an IMBALANCED critique of the Black poor, or the eastern european poor, or indigenous Alaskan people or even white Beverly Hills hedonism (a la Paris Hilton) is WITHOUT MERIT. Your resignation to the "objective social structures" that everyone negotiates blinds you to the historical fact of their mutable nature: student activism in Red China, voter registration in the Jim Crow South, Cindy Sheehan's anti-war activism....Those are all about the will of the individual AND AND AND AND an acknowledgment of and an engagement with OPPRESSIVE SOCIAL STRUCTURES. The absence of that last part makes commentary on the first part a cruel, useless, masturbatory exercise. That is Cosby, that is Hot Ghetto Mess, and that is your "NEWSFLASH".
Newgirl- I understand perfectly what you are saying. That's a demonstration of educated discussion. Clarification and elucidation. peace-
The irony. I said HEAR...not understand. Peace to you.
too funny. Ok. I understood you but did'nt "hear" you. Ok you win :)