Monday, July 16, 2007

We aren't all ghetto, Reggie...

Ergo we aren't all stupid. This show isn't a cultural microscope, and no, it won't be about dialog or debate. Negro, please!!! It will be about ratings, showcasing and fostering even worse behavior and fostering voyeurism by our own people. You want to do something meaningful then put the news shows and documentaries back ON. No? I didn't think so. Reggie, you took this from the VIACOM playbook--MTV, VH-1. MTV gives teens "My Super Sweet 16" which doesn't make any such Hudlin- and Debre Lee-esque excuses about showing uber spoiled brats bathing in wretched excess much to the delight of the viewers. VH-1? Hell where do you start? The Flavor of Love and beyond is hardly raising consciousness anywhere, and not a single overweight person has been inspired by Screetch on Celebrity Fit Club. Insipid, retarded. Reggie please don't shuck and jive like we ARE ghetto and say you're giving us McNeill-Lehrer, okay? You want to keep these kids stupid because stupid means ratings in your mind. Has anyone even BOTHERED to test the flip side?

We'll touch on this again with CORA DANIELS and our interview on her book Ghetto Nation tomorrow...

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - "Hot Ghetto Mess," a BET series that has provoked criticism and sent advertisers fleeing before it has even aired, will prove detractors wrong, BET entertainment head Reginald Hudlin said.
"It's unfortunate that people are making an erroneous presumption based on absolutely zero information," Hudlin told a meeting Sunday of the Television Critics Association.
"Hot Ghetto Mess," making its debut July 25, combines viewer-submitted home videos and BET-produced man-on-the-street interviews that the channel said are intended to challenge and inspire "viewers to improve themselves and their communities."
The six-episode series is hosted by comedian Charlie Murphy ("Chappelle's Show"). It is based on a Web site that features photos of men and women, mostly black, with extreme hairstyles and clothing typically linked to hip-hop fashion.
At least two companies, State Farm Insurance Cos. and Home Depot, asked BET to drop their ads from the series' debut. Sponsors had yet to see the show, Hudlin said Sunday
.
Observers including What About Our Daughters, a blog and audio podcast that focuses on how black women are depicted in popular culture, have accused the site and the show of demeaning blacks.
Hotghettomess.com was created by Jam Donaldson, 34, a black lawyer from Washington, D.C., who is an executive producer on the BET program. On her site, Donaldson calls for a "new era of self-examination." The show builds on the Web site's effort to take "a hard look at some dysfunctional elements of our community," Hudlin said.
"The intent of the show is no different than what Bill Cosby is doing as he's going across the country and lecturing as he talks about the problems of the (black) community that we need to address," he said. "Hot Ghetto Mess" approaches its goal in a lively way that will engage BET's young audience, Hudlin said.Donaldson told reporters that the series has "exceeded my expectations."
"Everyone that sees the show will be pleasantly surprised. ... I think they will learn something. There's black history. We go to the community and ask what their opinion of some of these images are," she said.
"The show is so much more than the name," Donaldson said. She started the site because of "images of black dysfunction" that were being distributed on the Internet without discussion of the need for change. With shows such as "Hot Ghetto Mess" and "Hip-Hop vs. America," Hudlin said, BET is trying to be part of the solution.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was thinking the same thing. If they really wanted to create a debate then they should do a news report. Nothings really changed since the rump-shakin' days of Bob Johnson. Maybe because their audience is nothing teenagers?

Anonymous said...

happy anniversary, by the way! One more year of your wife tolerating you, you lucky canine...

Pebbles Flintstone said...

That he is trying to cast this show as a sort of documentary is comical and offensive. We all know about VH-1, but thank you for the MTV analogy. My daughter watches the reality show My Super Sweet 16 with her friends and all they do is talk about each party like it was a soap opera. Of course they see it as "excess" but the aim is to tillate them for ratings and naturally some even want to emulate this brats on the show.

g-e-m2001 said...

Thanks for this post. I can't BELIEVE we are still dealing with this. This just seems like such an easy call to me.

Anonymous said...

Fuck BET. What use is it?