“Like any icon of the African-American community, and this is my personal opinion, we’re certainly subject to criticism,” Bowman said. “We’re mainly an entertainment network, but people expect us to be all things to all black people.
“So the criticism, whether I agree with it or not, is there.” (Black Entertainment Television vice president Quinton Bowman)
My point exactly!
This was taken from an article written by Ernest Hooper of the St. Petersburg Times (hat tip: www.blackelectorate.com) who was in attendence of a MLK breakfast where Bowman was the keynote speaker. Hooper then finishes his article by saying the following:
Yet given the legacy of the African-American struggle, those who cater to a black audience have a responsibility that goes beyond creative freedom and profit margins. I could never ask BET officials to censor hip-hop artists, but it could issue a challenge to the music industry to emphasize true artistry over stereotypical pandering.
The impact of the network’s programming is too great to dismiss it as kids being kids. Not only do the musical messages and visual themes influence the next generation, but they define how the world views African-Americans and how African-Americans view each other.
Until African-Americans become more prominent in all television programming, BET needs to toe the line and balance today’s questionable videos with home-grown values. All hip-hop all the time is not the answer (empahsis mine). (click here to read the entire article)
Although Hooper and I share the same distaste of the rump-shakah videos, I strongly differ with him on BET’s responsibility to the black race. Bowman is right. Anytime a black person reaches iconic status, he or she automatically becomes the official representative of the entire black race. Rump-shakah videos are not the source of what ails the black community, its our anemic family structure where the bulk of moral stability in many cases is not on the father, but grandma/memaw/ne ne/ nana. There is this fear we have as a people that white folk will turn to BET and say “You see, we were right! Those nigs are self -destructive”. They (whites) do not need BET to see black folks at their worse, no more than we need to use MTV as some sort of moral measuring stick for the entire white race. BET has become part of “the system” that we constantly blame for individual morality. If you don’t like it, block the channel from your TV and tell your kids to watch something else. Cultural change starts in the home, not “the system”.
BET represents only one facet of black culture. I wrote more about this recently in “Defending BET (well sorta)”
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