BET and it's new program line-up Part 4 - 7.4.2007.4

Continued from BET and it's new program line-up Part 3...

Am I angry? HELL YES. BET is apparently using the guise of comedy to insult us and profit from that insult. It’s exactly what has happened with the promotion of gangsta rap over any other form of the music genre. It’s finding a way to get someone to call me the N-word, which they can’t do without an issue, and get paid for it. And the meaning is exactly the same one that has been used in this nation for 400 years. Doesn’t that get you upset?

Now I could be wrong. This may be a serious program, addressing the issue in a serious manner. Of course I don’t know why they couldn’t get a Dr. Cornelius West or other noted figure to host a serious program discussing the issues affecting African Americans. Then again to say this is serious kind of flies in the face of their own description of

“…like the traffic accident you can’t look away from. Viewers will laugh.”

I could be wrong, it might be funny. I’m sure someone will find the booty shaking they promise to provide to be funny. Very likely those that like the music videos made by rappers. Then again it’s been stated often that for rap music today 4 out of 5 buyers of rap are reportedly white suburban males. So the question might be who is Viacom trying to entertain?

So as I sit and think about this whole post I have to wonder something. Who watches BET. I don’t, and I’m unaware of anyone that does. Well that’s not true, I am aware of 3 people. Each of them are ultra-African Americans. I know this will piss some off, but here me out.

When I say Ultra-Balck I’m speaking about the caricature that you can see in Mr. Chris Rocks film CB-4. The character that sings the song, I’m Blacker Than Black. I am refering to those peole that want to prove they are so African American that anything that relates to Black culture is a must. They will see every film starring a African American entertainer 3x, no matter if it is bad or not. They will support anything that has to do with Africa and African Americans, even if they have no idea what it is. They criticize anyone who speaks without slang, who doesn’t own and can recite every recent rap song, who wears anything but FUBU as a sell-out. I mean people who are so polar opposites of sell-outs that they are so Black a blackhole in space looks like a shining star against their ass.

That doesn’t mean everyone who watches BET is like that. This is the experience I have had. It’s not universal. Neither is being Black, or a Black Puerto Rican. African Americans run the gamut from one extreme to the other with everything inbetween.

But I can’t escape the seeming fact that Viacom doesn’t recognize that diversity. That they believe there is only one type of African American consumer, and that they need to feed the lowest forms of entertainment down our throats. Viacom, especially with this new program – HOT GHETTO MESS (do you think they were making a play on hot ‘ghettoness’ and figured it was close enough? Black enough?), seems to believe that people will drink sand if you don’t offer them a choice.

I disagree. I’d rather buy a DVD of Passenger 57, or play a CD of Mr. Lenny Kravitz, or read Ms. Robin Roberts book From the Heart. There is no starvation for good entertainment. There is no reason to bolster a corporation that wants to say they want to improve the community and culture, yet profits from it’s deterioration.

Maybe I’m not black enough. But when I wake up every morning, that Black Puerto Rican man looks back at me. When I go out and deal with society, I’m as Black as anyone else. When a cop or anyone else calls me the N-word, I’m definitely Black. But I’m not African American enough to accept the sand Viacom is offering. I’ll find water instead.

This is what I think, what do you think?

**To be fair I will be contacting BET to find out their thoughts and justification for this program. I will be writting back shortly on this matter.