Submitted from Further thoughts on the Black Entertainment Television PSA Part 2...
I want to mention something for Mr. Williams, it’s an old saying. A mind that must use a vulgarity to express something where words are common and available is a small mind. Words are merely the vocalization of thought, and those small words reflect a small closed mind.
I would also like to remind Mr. Williams something else. Being a bit older than I think he is I actually remember what rap music was when it first started, when it first got placed on albums (vinyl not a CD or cassette tape), and when MTV created the concept of a music video. I can say based on growing up and watching the phases rap music has gone through, that Mr. Williams seems to have no idea what rap music intended or was capable of.
If you want to know what rap music was about, listen to Grand Master Flash and the Furious 5. If you want to know what rap music is capable of being, listen to Public Enemy or KRS-One. To say that the mindless, money-grubbing, record company driven, commoditized, lateral sales targeted, repetitive, lyrical vomit that is gansta rap (originally a mere sub-genre of rap pre-1992) today is all that rap can attain is both narrow-minded and insulting.
But staying focused on my original point, this Public Service Announcement that Black Entertainment Television has on its cable network airwaves sickens me.
Now I know some may read this and say, ‘well you just don’t get it. You aren’t Black enough. You are too busy trying to be White.’
Time to wake up and stop hiding from the truth. I was born in the Bronx with a tan that never fades, summer or winter, in the sun or not. My color of skin is dark enough to have gotten me lynched in the 1600’s, the 1800’s, and in 1965. I have been called N-word too many times to count, and as recently as 2 weeks ago. That wasn’t the rose colored glasses view of a salutation some hope it is, but meant as the word is defined.
I’m Black enough to have been denied jobs, and have women held their purses tight in an elevator. I’m Black enough to have police draw guns on me for a simple traffic stop. I’m Black enough to watch some people smirk and deny that I own a business, just because they don’t.
If the fact that I earned my education instead of buying the latest overpriced sneaker offends, be offended. If the fact that I have never been to jail and prefer to wear suits as opposed to platinum teeth intimidates weaker minds, be intimidated. If I use a vocabulary that doesn’t include words found on a rap album, don’t feel bad because they are the same words that the executives that own the record company you are funding use everyday.
So perhaps someone who has been around long enough to know what things were like before the internet, and gangsta rap, can be Black. And that same person can see when a television network is using the people it claims to serve. It’s not a unique vision. But as long as some cow-tow and praise actions that degrade the people it supposedly represents, things won’t get better.
Here is perhaps the most obvious point on how “classic” or “ironically positive” this PSA may be. Every other network, especially the national broadcast television networks, will not play this PSA. Viacom, which owns BET, won’t play this PSA on any of its other channels. This isn’t quiet because it won’t be played; it isn’t being played because of the embarrassment and insult it is.
If that isn’t an example of exploitation and insult, I can’t wait to hear what is.
This is what I think; I want to hear what you think.
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