THIS IS THE OFFICIAL NEW BOYCOTT BET PAGE... THE OTHER ONE WILL REMAIN BUT I CANNOT RESPOND TO MESSAGES THERE.
Thanks for taking the time to come and see why I am calling for a boycott of B.E.T.
THIS BOYCOTT DOES NOT MEAN THAT WE WANT TO ELIMINATE B.E.T. ALTOGETHER. WE JUST WILL REFUSE TO WATCH AND PROTEST UNTIL THEY BEGIN SHOWING A MORE DIVERSE & ACCURATE INTERPRETATION OF WHO WE ARE AS A PEOPLE...
Now I actually grew up on B.E.T.... I was a big video soul fan in the late 80s. I was even in Love with Sherry Carter and thought Donnie Simpson asked my favorite artists all the right questions. I loved when the Mayor came and was the original host on Rap City! They showed all the hip hop videos that were seldom seen on Video soul. Krs-One organized the "stop the violence movement" and video. Queen Latifah was singing about U.N.I.T.Y. in her video... I would wake up on the weekends and love watching Ananda Lewis and the rest of the Teen Summit crew talk about issues in the community, and things that teens could do to change it for the better... I even had a subscription to YSB magazine, which was something BET put out for Young Sisters & Brothers... Man, wasnt BET great!?
Now as time passed, BET went through several changes and
somehow I seemed to grow out of it... As I grew older I noticed that they were promoting a lot of negativity that was once not a big deal on the station. Eventually I started to do research only to find that Bob Johnson had sold B.E.T. to Viacom. Viacom is a huge company that owns several TV stations including MTV, VH1, NICKELODEON COMEDY CENTRAL, CMT, and several others... They also own
Paramount Pictures, & Dreamworks! They are a huge company that I am sure is not Black owned!
Now with all of these changes in programming and ownership, you would think that BET would be losing its core audience.... NOPE! Its just the opposite. BET has seen 4 consecutive seasons of record setting ratings! What does that tell me? Its telling me that people either are not aware of the damage these negative images are causeing us, or they just dont care...
So what exactly do I see as negative imagery? Well... Thats a good question. Basically anything that glamorizes or sensationalizes activities that are criminal, degrading, sexist, stereotypical, or predjudice. Unfortunately thats almost any video you see on BET at this point...
People, dont get me wrong... Im not anti hip hop or even anti negativity for that matter. I just would like a balance... Not every black person likes to go to the club and party, not all of us are materialistic, Some of us do have the ability to love our men & women. We arent just entertainers. We arent only good at sports... Still we do not see this balance reflected on BET. This causes a problem because its mainly young people who watch the channel.
Where are their positive role models? Its sad that if you watch CBS, WB, FOX, etc... There are more positive black images there than on BET. Think about it. At least there you may see a black Doctor or a black lawyer, or a judge, a scientist, etc... There are more positive images... But why is it that we embrace the negative images?
Im begining to think that we believe that in order to be a "real" black man or woman in america you have to talk a certain way, and act a certain way... Those kinds of thoughts come from years and years of white people telling us that we are good for nothing, we are criminals, thugs, stupid, ignorant, ENTERTAINMENT! Then we take those same destructive stereotypes and actually incorporate them into our lives because we have begun to believe that that is who we really are....
I am loving the response this page is getting! This is an excellent way to get the message out. My point for this page is to actually make more young people aware of the situation. Changes can only be made when people are aware that a problem exists.
I have gotten several notes saying that boycotting BET sounds good in theory but that most black people love it so much that they would never agree to stop watching... My point is that a lot of them arent even aware that there is a problem. I have no time to even worry about it even if they are aware... Are you saying that I should give up? That its not worth the effort? What if Rosa Parks thought it wasnt worth it to sit in the "white" section of that bus? What if Martin Luther King didnt think it was worth it to have a dream? Where would you be then? Wake up my people...
Too many of us are
shutting our eyes to reality... Getting involved with false causes and movements like "Stop Snitching". Since when is it kool to let black people be victimized? Even if we are doing it to ourselves,
something still needs to be done. There needs to be some sort of punishment for wicked ways and actions... All of these movements are all in my line of fire... BET is guilty of the same thing that the Stop Snitching campaign is guilty of... They are both guilty of turning their backs on their own people... Seeing wrong being done and not doing a thing about it...
WAKE UP MY PEOPLE!! WAKE UP!!
Here are two articles that I have borrowed for your reading enjoyment.... I have decided to petition and boycott B.E.T. These two segments will tell you a bit about why i have decided to do so.... There are already several willing paricipants... We are coming up with things that we think should be changed before we move forward. Stay tuned...
From AKBAD.COM :
So many out there are looking for something positive and useful to rely on in this money-hungry and confused world. Even though this type of thing can be difficult to find and would be a big help if it was accessable to you when you needed it. Wouldn't it be nice to find this type of thing on television? You know what I mean?
Imagine turning on your television and not having to worry about what the kids are watching, knowing that the channel is positive and educational. Even better, the channel could be uplifting and even help you and that child learn a little about yourself and your culture. Wow, what a wish.
Eventually, someone thought of that very thing and created a TV network called BET (Black Entertainment Television) and while it was getting started, it was something to be proud of. It celebrated us as a people, educated us with talk forums and news geared toward what was relevant to us. Real talent was discovered and our movies were celebrated. Even our music was spotlighted as we watched shows like Video Soul and Video Vibrations hosted by talent that actually spoke in full and complete sentences.
Fast forward (from then) to about 10 years ago, when Johnson sold us out to Viacom Television for a couple of billion and now BET is programmed and headed by WHITE folks. That's right! Now BLACK ENTERTAINMENT TELEVISION is being guided by the same white folks that we were running from in the first place and true talent like Tavis Smiley went out like yesterdays news to be replaced with anything that these white corporate money-hungry idiots thought will make money for them. (chi_o_k note: BEEF The Series)
Fast forward to present time. Here we are now with the same network doing the same bullshit except, now the music videos are mostly saturated with the dumbest rap artists in the world endorsing nothing but butt naked booty, "hoes", money and obnoxiously unnecessary expensive jewelry ON BLACK FOLKS! The rap songs now have "elementary hooks and verses" and the message is the exact same in every video. That message is "sell your soul for money push drugs on the streets and treat these hoes like crap and you will get to live comfortable like me, you broke ass ***** fu***..." even though (in all actuality) those same rappers are really broke as hell showing girls that have been showing their asses in 20 other videos (just like his) while the platinum chain is borrowed (or fake) and posing next to rented cars.
Real Black Entertainment is gone, and so is BET News. I guess they felt that these "niggas" don't need (or want) news and the BET shows began to be saturated with "niggas" sleeping around with every "bitch", or is it "hoe"? Anyway... than they could get their hands on along with a barrage of BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP sounds taking the place of 1/4th of their song lyrics from the very folks BET loves to glamourize on the TV screen.
Then, we have BET's porno-filled BET UNCUT which consist of nothing but the most talentless rap music in existence with as many prostitutes they could find to pay to get naked, dance and spread their asses (literally) on the screen from beginning to end of every video. You see... BET UNCUT is, what they call, a "special program" because here, they can show all of the sex and promiscuous activity they felt they weren't already showing all day anyway.
Now, here's where it gets really retarded. Immediately after BET UNCUT(CHI_O_K Note: show was cancelled to make room for new programming or so BET stated)) comes the church and religious shows. That's right! I said that exactly like you thought I said it. This white guy comes on saying "Have you given your life to GOD?" Judging from the calibur of person who would be watching, I'd have to say HELL NAW these folks haven't given their lives to GOD! No kidding! I mean, the religion comes on immediately after BET UNCUT! What the hell kind of logic is that!?
BET is CRAP TV!
It takes absolutely no IQ what-so-ever to enjoy the idiot-filled programming shown all day everyday on BET and I truly think that they should seriously consider changing the name of the network to NIGGA TV as soon as possible.
This way, those people out there who have common sense would know right away to stay the hell away!
As posted at(thanks you CONSUMER RIGHTS NOW ) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BET :
Many prominent media critics, including Public Enemy rapper Chuck D, journalist George Curry, Howard University, writer Keith Boykin, comic book writer/artist/editor Christopher Priest, filmmaker Spike Lee and writer/cartoonist Aaron McGruder of The Boondocks, have protested BET's programming and actions. One of the most commonly-heard complaints is the fact that BET's programming is mostly music entertainment, particularly Hip-hop and rap music, and does not focus on the public affairs of the black community. This criticism expanded in the light of Viacom's cutbacks of BET's public affairs department, which resulted in the firing of BET Tonight talk show host and social commentator Tavis Smiley in March 2001, and the cancelations of the youth panel forum Teen Summit and morning news broadcast Lead Story in 2002.
Eminem was one of the first artists to have one of his videos banned on BET after protests from Michael Jackson, Steve Harvey and others after the release of "Just Lose It", a video that parodied and mocked Michael Jackson's numerous alleged plastic surgeries and sleepovers with children. The response backfired after critics stated that Eminem's video parody is far tamer than Nelly's "Tipdrill", a video that makes derogatory references as well as degrading images of women, although this video airs after-hours on BET Uncut along with more provocative videos. In 2005, BET banned Little Brother's video "Lovin' It" from the album The Minstrel Show. BET's program director commented that this was because the video was "too intelligent" for their target audience. However on the music section of their website BET decided to show the video as part of the group being a new and upcoming group.
The channel has been scrutinized by members of the Black community who feel that the channel perpetuates harmful Black stereotypes by primarily airing hip-hop videos that often have misogynistic, materialistic, and/or violent themes. As a result, BET heavily censors suggestive content from the videos that it airs, often with entire verses removed from certain rap videos. Detractors are also quick to point out the irony they see in the network's choice to also show strong religious programming once a week, although they fail to realize that religious programming actually airs Monday through Saturday on the network from 4 a.m. to 9 a.m. (EST) in addition to the Sunday programming. Not long ago people began referring to acronym BET standing for "Black Exploitation Television".
A 2004 incident on Fox News Channel noted BET only aired an increasing number of raunchy music videos played during a continuous time period on Saturdays, where more viewers of the younger generation are known to watch, and forced host Bill O'Reilly to discuss the issue with a host, who had been let go by MTV in its takeover of BET, in a debate with BET staff members.
BET has been criticized by some Christian evangelicals not for music videos, but for its morning religious lineup. Each morning, BET broadcasts evangelical TV shows, and hosts include Robert Tilton, Don Stewart, and Peter Popoff, who have been criticized for their money-brings-miracles theology and who have had spats with the law (Popoff's ministry's tax-exempt status was recently revoked in Canada).
BET was also criticized in 2005 for naming its "Man of the Year" Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam.
In 2005, BET allegedly released to employees a list of banned music videos and artists deemed "too intelligent" and not relevant to its intended audience of young black teenagers. This list included popular Hip-Hop acts such as Dead Prez, Little Brother, Talib Kweli, and others.
(Thanks again Crystal and Akbad for sharing this information with me...)
