Those last two paragraphs are the most phony of that whole little screed. We condemn them because they act out of bad faith and crass opportunism, and we know it. In an America that works overtime to deny any trace of classism, it is only this portion of the black community that openly, blatantly promotes class bigotry. They really do have a shocking, sickening hunger for it. For them, any proposed solution to any problem affecting any black person is dismissed out of hand if it doesn't have a strongly punitive component to it. It makes you wonder just what they would do to the rest of us if they were really unleashed to do what they want with impunity.
rikyrah
· 2 years ago
People rank on Spike Lee, but, aren't we living out his movie Bamboozled?
marisa
· 2 years ago
From the BET statement above: "Cutting edge, original, relevant and irreverent, “Hot Ghetto Mess” is like the traffic accident you can’t look away from. Viewers will laugh. They'll cry. They'll think. They'll learn, and hopefully they'll recognize they've GOT to do better."
The pronouns are all screwed up here, and I think the screwiness reveals something important about BET's disingenuousness. The show is supposedly like the traffic accident "you" can't look away from, which suggests that the ideal viewer is outside of the spectacle. But then BET switches gears, "Viewers will laugh. They'll cry..." Now Hot Ghetto Mess isn't about exploitation for entertainment; it's in fact a civilizing mission: "They'll learn," "They'll recognize."
Who's laughing at whom? And why? If that's not about minstrelsy, I don't know what is. (Oh, and by the way, with what we know about the digital divide, there's also something kind of effed-up in the way the website's creator addresses his hot ghetto masses in his own statement. Does he imagine people acting crazy, and then going to his website to check it out (and then repent)? Who does he imagine to be his own target audience? Does he even know?)
The Christian Progressive Libe
· 2 years ago
Dang, we don't need to be verifying the stereotypes we already face.
At least Cathy Hughes had the good sense to stay away from this. When I see crap like this, I curse Bob Johnson all over again for selling his network to Viacom and reducing Blacks on TV to 21st Century versions of "The Coonies" or Stepin' Fetchit.
dnA
· 2 years ago
Marisa, that's a great observation.
Ronnie B
· 2 years ago
If this were ABC or FOX preparing to run a show like this, we'd be protesting full force.
Seems to me that just because it's BET doing the lampooning, doesn't mean that we can't come out with the same force.
Let's show society that we're still not going to be $tereotypically ridiculed like this. Even if it's by one of our "own".
NMP
· 2 years ago
BET attempting to raise social consciousness? Sorry, dna, that's a hard sell. Please be aware that BET's new summer line up also incudes a new show hosted by D.L. Hughley who recently appeared on Jay Leno, with an audience probably 100x that of the former Don Imus show, defending Imus. Moreover and more shameful, he called the young women of the Rutger's ladies basketball team some of the ugliest and nappy-headed women he had ever seen in his life--all for White folks entertainment. It would seem to me if BET was elevating its social consciousness, they wouldn't have hired Hughley. BET's programming hasn't changed. It's still 24 hour cooning.
I am not Star Jones
· 2 years ago
I wonder if Reginald Hudlin and Debra Lee would ever qualify to be featured on my show Whorish Black Snobs.
You know the show where black people are more enraged about being denied admittance to some country club but see nothing wrong with making money from the life choices of their so called inferiors.
"Hot Ghetto Mess" is what results when whites own a medium that's supposed to be black-oriented. I agree with Aaron McGruder: BET stands for "Booties Every Time". I say let's boycott BET, and in the meantime take steps to create another black-owned entertainment medium.
All Comments
The pronouns are all screwed up here, and I think the screwiness reveals something important about BET's disingenuousness. The show is supposedly like the traffic accident "you" can't look away from, which suggests that the ideal viewer is outside of the spectacle. But then BET switches gears, "Viewers will laugh. They'll cry..." Now Hot Ghetto Mess isn't about exploitation for entertainment; it's in fact a civilizing mission: "They'll learn," "They'll recognize."
Who's laughing at whom? And why? If that's not about minstrelsy, I don't know what is. (Oh, and by the way, with what we know about the digital divide, there's also something kind of effed-up in the way the website's creator addresses his hot ghetto masses in his own statement. Does he imagine people acting crazy, and then going to his website to check it out (and then repent)? Who does he imagine to be his own target audience? Does he even know?)
At least Cathy Hughes had the good sense to stay away from this. When I see crap like this, I curse Bob Johnson all over again for selling his network to Viacom and reducing Blacks on TV to 21st Century versions of "The Coonies" or Stepin' Fetchit.
Seems to me that just because it's BET doing the lampooning, doesn't mean that we can't come out with the same force.
Let's show society that we're still not going to be $tereotypically ridiculed like this. Even if it's by one of our "own".
Whorish Black Snobs.
You know the show where black people are more enraged about being denied admittance to some country club but see nothing wrong with making money from the life choices of their so called inferiors.
anonymous, thanks for the tip.
http://washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=1993