Black Bloggers Are Sick of BET and ‘Gangsta Crap’ Music
[ClickPress, Wed Sep 19 2007] Black Bloggers have united to battle mainstream music and entertainment fat-cats who profit off the stereotypical, sexist, and racist exploitation of African American people. Their main targets are Black
Entertainment Television (BET), who they call ‘Black Exploitation Television’, and gangsta rappers such as 50cent, Snoop Dog, The Game, and Cam’ron.
These artists produce music bloggers have branded ‘gangsta crap’. Gangsta rap regularly glorifies sexism, the n-word, profanities, violence, drug use and dealing, sexism, and the dehumanization of Black men and women. Gangsta rap videos and stereotype-filled shows are the programming staples
of BET.
“BET and hip hop have gone down hill. They were once inspirations. Now they purvey some of the most harmful anti-Black sentiments you will ever see or hear, and this has become a representation of mainstream Black culture,” says Bronze Trinity of the Afrosphere Bloggers Association (ABA). ABA is coordinating the Afrosphere Accurate Images campaign against BET and gangsta rap.
[...]
The non-profit blogger group is battling media executives and multi-millionaire artists using internet activism in the form of blogs, message boards, email, and online petitions. On the ABA website http://solutionsforourpeople.wordpress.com, the group suggests taking a pledge against sexist and racist hip hop, buying conscious hip hop from artists like Common, Mos Def, and Talib Kweli, advertising conscious artists on blogs, and requesting more radio play time for these artists. They also provide anti-BET stickers, instructions to boycott radio, television, and website sponsors, and numerous petitions so bloggers can show their support. (more…)
Media outlets such as BET are driven by DEMAND. Convince the CUSTOMER that your gripe is just and BET will sink.
When I see folks go after Black folks who regularly post embarrassing and degrading videos of our women and young men on sites like YouTube where you will find plenty of videos of Black women shakin’ their stuff for the camera FOR FREE and young men encouraging it (I just saw this one video yesterday of a Black kid cussing out an Asian woman. He must have dropped “MF” about 25 times), then initiatives like this will get my full support. The simple fact here is that it is a lot easier to demonize a corporation that it is to hold your own to a much higher standard.
As I also pointed out in this post, Black bloggers typically do not represent the demographic that supports this form of entertainment (bloggers are made up largely of middle to upper-middle class folks–read the link).
The demographic that regularly listens and contributes to this type of entertainment largely (not solely–please get that) comes from a different class of individuals. Just listen to the lyrics. Holding them to a much higher standard is what it is going to take. But that is not going to happen anytime soon because society has defined them as ‘victims’, and you never expect more from a victim, right?
Lastly, here is a video that talks about the sex trade industry. I want to include it in this post because it addresses exactly what I have been saying regarding the need to go after the consumer. It’s 45 minutes long, but all you need is about 10 to get the point.
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