Okay, all the hatin’ over the BET Awards show is really getting silly. Don’t like BET? Then work on changing the culture FIRST. If you can change the culture, you will decrease demand for what you feel misrepresents Black folks. Do it the other way around, and more “BETs” will pop up.
Need an example? Some of y’all may remember back in the day when local churches would stage protests in front of local porn shops. Did they manage to get a few of them shut down? Sure did. But how did the porn industry respond to meet demand?
They moved most of their business online. Since then, the porn industry was able to drastically increase revenue.
In the meantime, you have a few church folks high-fivin’ themselves because they were able to shut down ONE shop.
BET is an easy and convenient devil to target. What entraps these children in a life of crime, thuggery, and low self-esteem is not encased in a television set. Instead, these kids are being shaped by forces starting from the home. The home is the foundation of any culture. Strengthen the home, strengthen the culture.
Putting BET on blast may help your ego, but it doesn’t do a thing to help the kids like the one featured in this video.
There are lots of bigger fish to fry than this scene. Haters really need to look at the bigger picture and realize it’s petty compared to more pressing and alarming issues. Once one looks behind the curtains, so to speak, of the corporate entertainment industry- and follow the money of course, then the picture becomes less dazzling and more transparent and blighted.
I wish these kids were absorbing obnoxious, dulling media, I really do! I wish these kids, *anybody, anywhere* weren’t flashing wads of play money like it meant anything. The sad irony considering the REAL economy!
James Brown’s funeral LIVE all over CNN, but not a glimpse or a live anything on BET! James Brown gets no love but the late defector (didn’t he leave the country and change his name?!) gets lavished with attention. This nonsense is why I wash my hands of anything BET.
S. Cain
I meant “weren’t absorbing”.
The kids in this video are five and two. Some of the folks in the background I will say are at least 20 or 25. A child is gonna respond to its ambient environment. If all he hears are the same songs at a fairly loud level (come on) you gotta expect that the kids are gonna just sop it up like a fresh sponge. See it on video? Mimic the little gestures. It doesn’t matter that these kids don’t know the definition of the word money, or how money works on a fundamental level…
I have two nieces, 3 years age difference. They are both strong willed -like Mom and Grammie- but the younger is especially spirited. They both watch a lot of the kid networks. I have my concerns with the younger as she has a bit of a tendency to emulate the snotty, snarky, pompous idiosyncrasies on some of these shows (mainly Disney). I try to tell them about little things, like the laugh tracks(“now why is thaaat funny?”) or the attitude towards parents (things she wouldn’t nary dream of mouthin’ off to her elders). All I can do is plant seeds that I hope will make them think more critically in the future about their world. She also tries to ‘hang tough’ with the older, just as I imagine the 2 year old boy is doing.
It begins here
by Duane on July 3rd, 2009 at 9:20 amOkay, all the hatin’ over the BET Awards show is really getting silly. Don’t like BET? Then work on changing the culture FIRST. If you can change the culture, you will decrease demand for what you feel misrepresents Black folks. Do it the other way around, and more “BETs” will pop up.
Need an example? Some of y’all may remember back in the day when local churches would stage protests in front of local porn shops. Did they manage to get a few of them shut down? Sure did. But how did the porn industry respond to meet demand?
They moved most of their business online. Since then, the porn industry was able to drastically increase revenue.
In the meantime, you have a few church folks high-fivin’ themselves because they were able to shut down ONE shop.
BET is an easy and convenient devil to target. What entraps these children in a life of crime, thuggery, and low self-esteem is not encased in a television set. Instead, these kids are being shaped by forces starting from the home. The home is the foundation of any culture. Strengthen the home, strengthen the culture.
Putting BET on blast may help your ego, but it doesn’t do a thing to help the kids like the one featured in this video.
(some strong language)
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