The BET Fallacy

Ngugi wa Thiong’o: The Language of African Literature »

The BET Fallacy

Tue Dec 27th 2011 by abagond

The BET Fallacy is my name for the false idea that blacks in America are somehow in control of their image – on television, in Hollywood, in the news, in the history books and all the rest.

Whites, with a straight face, will quote Chris Rock or point to a music video by some rapper to prove something about black people. Even Mark Twain thought minstrel shows, the BET of his day, were true-to-life.

The fallacy achieves its clearest, most laughable form when BET (a “black” television channel in America) is used to prove something about black people. As if black people owned BET, as if BET were a 24-hour-a-day National Geographic documentary on Black America.

Meet the owners:

A white man, Sumner Redstone, owns most of BET:

As of 2011 six companies produce 90% of what Americans read, watch and listen to:

Viacom
CBS Corporation
News Corp
Time Warner
General Electric
Disney

Sumner Redstone owns the first two, thereby owning BET through Viacom. Here is who runs the other four companies:

Rupert Murdoch, Jeffrey Bewkes, Jeffrey Immelt and Bob Iger, in that order – white men all.

Meet the demographic:

Without a white audience it is hard to make it big:

Hip hop music did not make it big till it crossed over to white audiences. And when it did the image of blacks became far more stereotyped and degrading.
Alice Walker did not make it big till she was championed by white feminist professors. No accident that she says little about white people or racism in “The Color Purple”.
Rented Negroes: Most black talking heads you see on television are well to the right of ordinary black people.

What about blogs? Because of the low barriers to entry, they can present a truer picture of blacks: blacks can write for themselves and say almost anything they want. But their audiences are small and even they can present only part of the picture: to blog you need a computer, Internet service and, most precious of all, the time to write regularly. That means most bloggers are middle-class.

So most of what Americans read, watch or listen to is either:

Produced by white men (that is why most heroes in films are white men even though only a third of America is white and male) or it
Appeals to white people.

That means the image of black people becomes heavily stereotyped. Those stereotypes are not informed by the latest sociological studies but rather the needs of white people to feel good about themselves. Some of those stereotypes go way back to slave times.

And it gets worse:

For over 200 years White Americans have paid money to see blacks degraded. They find it entertaining for some reason. It started with blackface and the minstrel shows and continues down to this day.

For example: Some blacks say they want to reclaim the n-word, yet most black entertainers who use that word are mainly saying it to a white audience whose motives are very different.

See also:

Posted in stuff | 154 Comments

154 Responses

on Wed Dec 28th 2011 at 20:17:30 mochasister

No wonder it is so hard to find positive images of just regular everyday Black people. This is one of the reasons why I haven’t been watching t.v. much this past year. This and the fact that every other show seems to be a damn reality program.

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on Wed Dec 28th 2011 at 20:36:49 bruna

thats the way life goes

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on Wed Dec 28th 2011 at 20:47:46 sam

good post. Like they always say: follow the money. There is the answer usually.

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on Wed Dec 28th 2011 at 20:53:17 Ankhesen Mié

Brava!

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on Wed Dec 28th 2011 at 21:30:42 brothawolf

This is what I’ve been saying for years.

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on Wed Dec 28th 2011 at 22:02:46 Shady_Grady

Great post.

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on Wed Dec 28th 2011 at 22:28:25 The Janitor

Well said!

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on Wed Dec 28th 2011 at 23:18:25 Matari

“Sumner Redstone owns the first two, thereby owning BET through Viacom. Here is who runs the other four companies: Rupert Murdoch, Jeffrey Bewkes, Jeffrey Immelt and Bob Iger, in that order – white men all.”

***************************

This would largely explain why I seldom watch ANYTHING broadcast on that IDIOT box. There’s very little worth watching!

(Oh.. No offense to idiots..)

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on Wed Dec 28th 2011 at 23:32:08 Nom De Plume

I can think of many occasions where I have been stopped at a traffic light and heard some rap or hip hop song blaring, the bass turned up so high I could feel it vibrating in my chest. I look over not to see a black guy, but a young white one with his cap on backwards, leaning back in the driver’s seat with his wrist on the steering wheel. As far as hip hop and rap are concerned, young white males make up a huge percentage of the consumers of these genres. I think the age demographic is 18-24.

Some lurkers may be out there thinking, ‘Stop complaining and concentrate on making your own media better.’ The Black media cannot compete with the far-reaching white media because it lacks the MONEY and the POWER.

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on Wed Dec 28th 2011 at 23:59:49 Truthbetold

I’ve been saying this for years in the privacy of my home: Most whites have not changed since the days we were in chains. And in this country especially, they never will. Most whites need to see blacks degraded and kept in line as a desperate means to say to themselves, ” Even though times are rough and we have trouble paying the rent, it’s still better than being a n****r.”

This is nothing more than an ego trip to feel better about how miserable they really are. Phony lives with trophy wives, big mansions that are cold and devoid of love and family. Don’t forget the need to show off ones’ wealth while losing your soul. That’s why they can never have a real, heartfelt conversation about the past and what really happened. Fakeness and political correctness are traits that are usually white. We tend to say it like it is; take it or leave it.

I stopped watching TV since the days of Friends. I cannot stand one more white show showing nothing but simple minded socialites going shopping. Or a single gal trying to find love in a big city. Now I stick to PBS. Or just listen to Ella Fitzgerald.

As long as there is a need to feel better about ones’ life, there will always be a show depicting minorities as baboons.
It’s the white American way.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 00:09:46 eshowoman

I have to strongly disagree with your assessment of Zora Neale Hurston. Read her journalism and anthological studies. She was the only person to write about paramour rights, the practice of white men sexually exploiting black women no matter what their marital status. She died penniless because she refuse to write what her white patrons wanted to read.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 01:54:30 Robert

Whites, with a straight face, will quote Chris Rock or point to a music video by some rapper to prove something about black people.

So true.

The Chris Rock routine White people love to quote is the segment he did with Black people vs Nigg*ers – http://vodpod.com/watch/1756476-chris-rock-niggers-vs-black-people# They love that one and quote it all the time to defend and justify their anti-Black racism, “See even a Black man says Black people hate Nigg*rs too just like we do!”.

They love a Black man saying that there’s a segment of Black people that are just, anti-social, lazy, predatory, wild, crazy violent, and willfully ignorant (basically all the stereotypes White people believe about Black people) and ruin it for the good Black people (with no explanation on what created this nihilistic sub-culture and of course omitting White people’s role in creating it) while giving them ultimate titillation by calling the “bad” Black people their favourite derogatory dehumanizing word – Nigg*r.

Chris Rock made a major contribution to White supremacy with that routine.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 02:24:32 Nom De Plume

@eshowoman @Bulanik @proudchocolategirl:

I read ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God,’ ‘Jonah’s Gourd Vine’ and Seraph on the Suwanee’ years ago. I stopped there, unfortunately. You guys have rekindled my interest in Zora. Looks like I have a lot more reading to do.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 02:53:47 Nom De Plume

@truthbetold:

‘As long as there is a need to feel better about ones’ life, there will always be a show depicting minorities as baboons.’

—-

And buffoons.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 04:01:22 Healthy1

By far some of your best work yet Abagond. Thanks!

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 04:12:47 CJ-Canadian

Warner brothers(owned by time warner) one of the most racist entertainment company in Anglo-America is on a racist roll. recently they whitewashed Akira currently remaking a the novel “all you need is kill” which is a novel about a japanese man Keiji Kiriya fighting aliens in an international force the racist brothers company choose tom cruise and changed the name to Billy Cage. They are also doing Argo where ben affleck is playing tony mendez the latino CIA agent who help freed the Hostages in Iran. they also make the latest sherlock holmes movie where Robert Downey Jr is dressed in yellowface. and the racist brothers company will be remaking deathnote and most likely they will whitewash this one.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 04:18:58 leigh204

and the racist brothers company will be remaking deathnote and most likely they will whitewash this one.

Remaking Deathnote? And will likely be whitewashed? What? Noooooooo!

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 05:17:19 brothawolf

Deathnote?! Aw, hell Nawl! First, there was Dragonball! Then, The Last Airbender! And now Deathnote? What’s next??

White people in Hollywood seem to be extremely obsessed with white skin.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 07:48:43 commentarybyvalentina

The thing about TV is that if you are a person of color and watch enough of it then you will begin to think of African Americans in the same way that Whites do. You will begin to believe all the propaganda about African Americans. All the stereotypes.

But this brainwashing is so insidious that rather than you being able to attribute your negative thoughts of other African Americans to TV (and other White media) it will seem as though those thoughts are naturally occurring in you.

In other words; your mind will have been colonized by television.

And just think about it; most people, African Americans included, begin to watch TV as toddlers as soon as we can sit up on our own. And that watching continues throughout our lives.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 07:58:16 commentarybyvalentina

@Truthbetold

Actually I think PBS is worse than network TV. No media promotes White Supremacy like PBS. PBS worships all things European (Rick Steves Europe, British comedies, Masterpiece Theater). It pays homage to inherited White wealth (Antiques Roadshow). How many Black people have you seen on This Old House?

There are no national shows on PBS focused on African Americans. PBS is as racist as it gets. They just hide behind the Liberal label.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 08:34:49 The Cynic

I’ve never understood whitewash entertainment. Do these media guys really believe ppl will appreciate something more bc they actors are white?

Deathnote is my most favorite anime evr btw.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 08:53:15 teddy1975

I’m not sure, truthbetold, do you mean that minorities, are depicted as respectworthy, awe inspiring, grounddwelling primates, traditionally associated with the god of wisdom, science and measurement, respecting a guy’s right to go with the gal he’s going with, not walking around half-naked, forming collectively a fearsome defense organization against the enemies trying to kill them, but having gotten an undeserved reputation as merciless sexual predators, as result of being kept captive under inhuman conditions by white people?
Doesn’t sound that bad to me.
I guess you mean “as much worse than baboons”.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 09:26:10 anglesanddimensions

This is one.brilliant.post.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 12:25:14 Matari

@ Valentina

“PBS worships all things European (Rick Steves Europe, British comedies, Masterpiece Theater). It pays homage to inherited White wealth (Antiques Roadshow). How many Black people have you seen on This Old House?

There are no national shows on PBS focused on African Americans. PBS is as racist as it gets. They just hide behind the Liberal label.”

*******************

ALL VALID and Excellent Points Val!
You’re right.

However…

PBS is a white run organization privately funded by the super-rich, of whom are of course overwhelmingly white – as opposed to cable and regular TV which charges consumers directly, or indirectly, via advertising revenue paid for by us, the consumers

But – and this is a big but – PBS also presented Doug Blackmon’s Slavery By Another Name and other

(http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/banished/more.html)

shows/documentaries/series on RACE that no other network comes close to showing or exploring – in any way, shape or form.

So, regarding myself, I’d rather watch “some” shows on PBS, “NO” shows on regular network TV and “fewer” shows on the cable networks.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 12:27:24 dee

This is nothing new. BET has always bothered me; claiming to portray material that relates to my life, as it is “black entertainment”, when it’s just stupid stereotypes. It just makes me cringe.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 13:58:06 SarahW

This is really interesting, though not entirely surprising. It helps make sense of a lot of things, like why (as abagond pointed out before) it’s ridiculous of white people to think we can learn about African Americans from watching TV.

Are there any US TV shows you’d recommend, with African American leads which aren’t stereotyped?

In the UK, media ownership is a big issue at the moment, after the phone hacking scandal and all the news stories about the amount of political influence Murdoch has. We have, as far as I can find out:

Rupert Murdoch (Australian-American white man) – The Sun, The Times, The Sunday Times, The News of the World until it closed, 40% of BSkyB (he wants to buy the rest but has been blocked by government because of the phone hacking scandal)

Jonathan Harmsworth, Viscount Rothermere (White British man, but non-domiciled so doesn’t pay tax in Britain) -The Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, Ireland on Sunday, Metro, 20% share in ITN which makes ITV news

Richard Desmond (White (Jewish) British man) – Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star, Daily Star Sunday, OK! magazine, Channel 5

Alexander Lebedev (Russian) – Evening Standard, Independent, Independent on Sunday, i newspaper.

David and Frederick Barclay (white British men) The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph, The Spectator

The Guardian is owned by a trust which reinvests money in journalism rather than benefiting shareholders. The board are all white and about 1/3 women.

The BBC and Channel 4 are owned by the government.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 14:08:31 indigoblu

If it’s going to be done, it should be done in the right way.
Although I do agree with what you have posted, for the most part, I also think it’s up to individuals, especially those who are black, to reject supporting things, such as BET. I don’t remember the last time I watched it, maybe when I was 15? Black people need to control their own image. Easier said than done, right? Sure, but something as simple as NOT supporting certain things that I’m sure most would agree to is garbage is a start. Not all the programs/movies that air on BET are garbage, of course, but it’s the principle of it all.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 15:01:19 Linda

The sad part about BET was that it was founded by a black man, Robert L. Johnson, who sold it for about 3 billion dollars.

Many US black-owned business, like the hair companies, also sold out to white companies for huge amounts of money…as usual…

Abagond, you are spot on. What bothers me the most about the hip-hop culture is that it is promoted as being “authentically” black.

I remember being in Germany (in ’90) and listening to a group of teenage German boys listening to “Two Live Crew” and NWA (Nig_ers With Attitudes)–I was shocked that these kids had even heard of these bands and they were singing the words, even though they didn’t understand the meaning…

We don’t live in a bubble and these hip hop artists need to understand that what they do and say DOES impact black peoples images around the world.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 15:05:33 Truthbetold

Remember the Cosby show? That show was respectable. It showed a married couple, professionals, who are raising decent children.
I know the show was squeaky clean but it showed a point, that blacks can be decent, hardworkng, educated people.

White America trashed it as being “too unrealistic.” No way can those people be real. Notice they did not say that about Leave it to Beaver, Maude or the Partridge Family. Those shows were ” wholesome. ”

BET became nothing more than a modern day minstrel show.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 15:12:34 indigoblu

Lol@Truthbetold

You’re exactly on point. White America didn’t like that image of black people in their minds; it went against everything they “knew” black people to be. Cosby show, I loved it and watched it all the time growing up-our whole family did. The Cosby’s are plenty of black families in reality. They had issues, like any family would, but not all black people fit into the “loud, ghetto, sassy, kill, steal, gang banging” stereotype most people would have one to believe and, I think, most American white people see black people as.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 15:26:11 Dr. Grzlickson

These commenters are the sheep you just blasted a few posts back.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 15:51:00 sam

Like I’ve said before, I would love to see a movie about black americans living normal life doing normal things etc. instead of the usual: black woman = prostitute/junkie/both/singlemother/all of those, black man = pimp/junkie/both/prisoner, black teenager: gang member/school drop out/both/junkie/teenage mom/ all those.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 15:56:45 indigoblu

@Linda…
That’s not surprising to me, white people are the biggest money contributors to rap music.
…but what you said about rappers….that’s where people are going wrong, in thinking that these rappers that make all this money, actually give a crap about the youth. They don’t–not even a little bit. They only care about making money. It’s like asking a white person to give up their “white privilege” —not in this lifetime. That’s why I think it’s up to individuals and parents to stop supporting the crap. Those rappers do what they do bc they know it sells.
All hiphop is not bad, but the rap music that gets continuous play is the “crap rap” music, not the conscious rap music. Conscious rappers DO care, it’s clear in their message via music. Common, The Rootz, Lupe, and Ms Hill to name a few —we don’t really hear their music on the radio for a reason, but they have something meaningful to say.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 16:11:26 Nom De Plume

@SarahW:

Are there any US TV shows you’d recommend, with African American leads which aren’t stereotyped?

—-

None that I can think of, but if there are, they are few and far between. To my knowledge, there are two black-owned American television networks in existence – Oprah’s new cable network (OWN) and TV One. They do not do the trick for me. OWN, because of its programming, attracts a predominately white female audience. TV One’s black programming attracts a predominately black audience. As the post states, ‘Without a white audience, it’s hard to make it big.’ In both cases, positive black images are not being seen by the masses. Because of the money/power issue, there is no way OWN and TV One could ever compete with the huge white-owned networks. If Oprah included more black images in her programming, she’d probably lose a significant chunk of her dwindling white audience, and that truly would be the death of OWN.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 16:30:02 abagond

@ eshowoman, etc:

Thank you. Zora Neale Hurston, even from your own comment, is an excellent example of how white patronage affects black artists, but I took her out of the post since she is not as clear-cut and simple a case as the other examples I had.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 16:51:55 SarahW

Thanks Nom De Plume, I’ll have a look at the TV One website. The Cosby Show was before my time, maybe I’ll get it on DVD. I think I need to counteract all of the white american TV I’ve been watching, as well as learning not to trust it at all with regards to race.

To those of you in the UK, do you think British TV does a better job representing POC?

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 16:58:39 abagond

The government act that set up PBS in 1967 said it was to:

“provide a voice for groups in the community that may be otherwise unheard … help us see America whole, in all its diversity.”

But it left it without the business model to carry that out. So instead it has become the voice of its donors, who are mostly white and well-to-do:

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 17:25:32 Linda

indigoblu
“All hiphop is not bad, but the rap music that gets continuous play is the “crap rap” music, not the conscious rap music.”

totally agree…I like old rap music, like Dougie Fresh, it was fun back then, a band like Public Enemy was controversial but they had a message to send, unlike Two LIve Crew. I started to dislike hip hop when the “west coast-east coast” phenom came about…

I truly don’t expect hip hop to care about the youth because like their white American counterparts, it’s all about the money! it’s just sad…

“That’s why I think it’s up to individuals and parents to stop supporting the crap.”

makes sense but like I say, we don’t live in a bubble and these artists affect our image (as black people) all over the world…like with the dumb Dutch editor who thought she was complimenting Rhianna by call her style “ghetto bitch”

why would a Serbian or Korean parent care if their kids listen to a black group that call each other “nigga” and calls their own black women “bitches and hoes”…the parents might think the music is crap but the kid/parents are still exposed to the negative words and negative images of black people that the music introduced to them…

once again, reinforcing stereotypes…not uplifting.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 17:33:19 Robert

SarahW

To those of you in the UK, do you think British TV does a better job representing POC?

No. We get many of our shows from America and most of our films too which are full of anti-Black stereotypes. We seem to import most of the bad stuff from America and none of the good. Our domestic White supremacists look to America for inspiration. The Tories (our Republican party) are a good example. They are importing the most regressive policies and tactics from America and imitating the Republicans anti-poor language, for example how “benefits” became known as “welfare”. It’s only a matter of time before we have “food stamps” over here, we already have the food banks.

Our domestic shows are no different in my opinion. Ever noticed that when they want to show a white woman of what they consider low moral character they show her with a brood of mixed race children?

I feel that a lot of the things Abagond writes about Black people and White supremacy apply to us here in the U.K.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 17:45:06 Nom De Plume

I often watch a cable network called The Africa Channel (theafricachannel.com). It’s like a breath of fresh air. I ordered it through my cable provider. So often the media shows us the worst images of the African continent – wars, political unrest, corruption, squalor. The Africa Channel has travel and reality shows, soaps, concerts, documentaries, news, and so many other things.

Hlomla Damdala, an actor and reality show host who often appears on the network, said that when they tried to pitch a soap called “Jacob’s Cross” to some European countries, they were told something along the lines of, ‘We are not interested. That is not the Africa we are used to seeing.’ I’m not into soaps, but Jacob’s Cross shows well-rounded black characters who are not what we typically see…Africans who educated, wealthy and powerful.

Check this out:

and this:

http://www.theafricachannel.com/aboutus.php

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 18:19:01 Herneith

@Dr. Grzlickson:

Where have been? Were you on vacation? Another question, who put the lick in your grz?

On a serious note, i don’t really watch tv, too many commercials for one, and:

1. Most of the shows are trash.

2. Most of the shows are trash

3. Most of the shows are trash

It is a pretty sad commentary on todays’ ‘entertainment’ complex when the best programs are the cartoons. As for BET, that is a real minstrel show.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 18:25:23 sam

@nom de plume: The same line which they use everywhere. “We are not selling african products and brands because no one will buy them”. Yes, and that is because they are not available in our stores.

They used this same argument against organic food for decades: there are no customers for it. When they finally figured out how they can make more money out of it than the producers, organic food broke in. As long as they can make more money selling the negative image of blacks (sell commercials on those programs etc), they will do it and they will claim: nobody wants to see blacks as normal humanbeings.

All that is dodoo. Somewhere behind of all this is the core thing: they are affraid that we would begin to see blacks as normal, everyday humanbeings and individuals. The whole system would begin to slip and slide. They could no longer play us against each other. They could no longer point at the PoC and hint: “see, those people…” etcetc.

It is in their interest to keep us all apart. Conquer and divide, rule by division.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 19:05:56 indigoblu

@Linda
“makes sense but like I say, we don’t live in a bubble and these artists affect our image (as black people) all over the world…like with the dumb Dutch editor who thought she was complimenting Rhianna by call her style “ghetto bitch”

Sure. We definitely do not live in a bubble, but until black people can control their own image, there is little more that can be done except for what I suggested, but some of us are so strongly opposed to this idea (not supporting the crap) bc they look at it as not supporting one another. I won’t support anything that is going to cause further detriment, and I’ll never understand, be on the same book, let alone page of someone who argues otherwise.

Also, I’ve never quite understood why some black people give so much concern as to how “other people” look at them. People who want to spit on you and think of you as nothing are going to think so regardless of what you do.

Of course, the negative imagery of blacks throughout the media certainly does not help, but most of that (the positive imagery) has to start somewhere close to home, at least it did for me. I’m much more concern with how we see ourselves, especially how the youth see themselves–this stuff truly affects their minds, can even break their spirits, if this was all they had to go off of—and unfortunately for some, that is all they think they have.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 19:09:18 SarahW

@Robert: “Ever noticed that when they want to show a white woman of what they consider low moral character they show her with a brood of mixed race children?” I hadn’t noticed, but I’ll look out for it. I didn’t ever think about the pervasiveness of racism and privilege till a few months ago, so stuff like this would have just slid straight past me.

“I feel that a lot of the things Abagond writes about Black people and White supremacy apply to us here in the U.K.” That’s interesting to hear – most of the antiracist blogs I’ve been following are very US based. I often wonder when reading posts whether things are slightly better here, but this comes more from wishful thinking than from facts. Do you think that the different histories of the two countries makes a difference to the forms racism takes today? A lot of the discussion in the US seems to focus on reparations for slavery and on the continuing impacts of segregation. I don’t think the UK is any better, I know it was heavily involved in the slave trade and colonised a quarter of the world, but I wonder what effect these differences have on the forms racism takes today. (Sorry if this is getting too off-topic, I’ll ask in the open thread instead if people prefer.)

@Nom De Plume: That sounds good. I got an internet radio recently and I’ve been listening to african radio stations, particularly West Africa Democracy Radio. There are interesting, in-depth interviews with Africans who are experts on AIDS, irrigation, conservation, womens’ issues and so on. The fact that I find this striking is pretty worrying; it shows how much I’m accustomed to seeing Africans presented as helpless victims who need westerners to solve all their problems.

This video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDWlMX2ToSc (part of an essay by Binyavanga Wainaina) sums up the white perception of Africa really well.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 19:12:53 indigoblu

@Bulanik

I don’t know. That’s strange to me bc I’ve always thought the Cosbys were extremely down to the earth. Maybe my definition of what down to earth is…maybe it’s different. A lot of what “down to earth” means to someone just comes with individual life experience though.
My “down to earth” may very well be their “uppity”.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 19:27:09 indigoblu

Aba, what did I do? My comment is clean 😀

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 19:38:41 Nom De Plume

I am of the opinion that the majority of American whites have no interest in the lives of people of color. What we see (and don’t see) in the media reflect this. The mainstream media knows that the majority is primarily interested in their own lives, and it gives them want they want. Remember the post on The Missing White Woman Syndrome? The ugly truth is that missing American white women and girls are given massive media attention because the mainstream media KNOWS that the majority of viewers don’t really care when women and girls of color go missing. (They sure as heck don’t care when black men and boys go missing)! The majority places white females on really, really high pedestals. When is the last time you saw a missing white man or white boy covered to such an extent? (I don’t mean to digress. I’m just making a point). As far as the morning news and evening news shows are concerned, I read (and believe) that white anchors are put in these prime time slots because the majority of whites don’t want to get their news from a black person, and believe news coming from a white person is more credible. It’s all about ratings and money…and yes, racism.

https://abagond.wordpress.com/2007/12/27/the-missing-white-woman-syndrome/

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 19:42:20 Nom De Plume

@SarahW:

Yes, I saw that “How Not to Write About Africa” video on this blog. The Mr. Wainaina sums it up pretty well.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 19:56:58 lifelearner

@ Nom De Plume

Because of the money/power issue, there is no way OWN and TV One could ever compete with the huge white-owned networks. If Oprah included more black images in her programming, she’d probably lose a significant chunk of her dwindling white audience, and that truly would be the death of OWN.

Speaking of the OWN network, the white audience has already left and guess who is saving the day, a Black reality show called “Welcome home Sweetie Pies”. You know how we black folk love to watch TV. (*being sarcastic)

http://www.thegrio.com/entertainment/oprah-wants-her-black-audience-back-for-own.php

@Abagond-continue dropping the knowledge and Harambee Kwanaa 🙂

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 20:12:26 Nom De Plume

@Lifelearner:

Speaking of the OWN network, the white audience has already left and guess who is saving the day, a Black reality show called “Welcome home Sweetie Pies”.

—-

I caught an episode of Sweetie Pies. If I’m not mistaken, the matriarch of the show is a former Ike-ette (from the Ike and Tina Turner days). I wasn’t aware of the link you provided, but I heard the rumor that Ms. Winfrey is starting to focus more on black audiences in the hope of saving her….uhhh…network.

@Bulanik:

I watch it once in awhile not just for its serious message, but also to look at Djimon Hounsou

—–

I’ve watched the vid several times, too – and not just for the narration! LOL!

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 20:19:59 SarahW

@Nom de Plume and @Bulanik, sorry, didn’t realise it had already been posted here. It’s a great piece, in places it makes me laugh with embarrassed recognition of some of the common white failures.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 20:25:22 Linda

“Also, I’ve never quite understood why some black people give so much concern as to how “other people” look at them. People who want to spit on you and think of you as nothing are going to think so regardless of what you do.”

It’s not about changing anyones mind (non-black), it’s about image…

through out the world, black women are seen as unattractive, “loose” women who are highly sexual…when our young women start hearing/seeing these stereotypes, what positive image will they have of themselves…some will brush it off for the crap it is but some will not…

in US, asians are viewed as smart, in Jamaica, asians are viewed as prosperous, throughout the world, Spanish women are viewed as beautiful…these are all stereotypes that people buy into…whether it’s right or wrong…

In subtle ways, we, as black people, are affected by these negative images and like you say unfortunately, the negativity starts at home amongst ourselves

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 20:41:09 commentarybyvalentina

@Abagond and Matari

PBS is definitely controlled by corporate donors. But they also get a sizable portion of their funding from the government, which is our tax dollars. And that makes their blatant racism even worse. I think PBS should be de-funded.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 21:09:15 Sandra Tetnowski

I am in awe of most of what I read on this page! Thank you

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 21:09:26 abagond

@ indigoblu:

You used the word “bitch”, which is moderated.

https://abagond.wordpress.com/comment-policy/

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 21:17:13 John

…except of course, the programming on BET is chosen by an aggregate black audience. The need forAdvertising dollars guarantees that the programming on BET reflects what it’s viewers want to see. It doesn’t matter who owns it because shareholders only get paid if people watch. So like it or not the programming on bet reflects the interests of it viewers….who are black. (probably teenagers mostly)

Don’t feel to bad though, same rules apply to white television, or rather shows that feature
and are directed mainly at whites. Most white people are just as ignorant as most black people are. if there happens to be a larger percentage of the black population that is ignorant at this point in time it’s only because more whites can afford a good education.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 21:34:27 abagond

@ John:

BET was not always terrible. It went bad only AFTER it was sold to whites. It might as well have been sold to the Klan given what it has become.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 21:34:35 indigoblu

@Aba

After reading it again, I figured that’s what it was, but I was only quoting someone directly whose comment had already went through, but no problem.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 21:38:21 indigoblu

@Linda
I agree, but in all fairness, there are those who simply need to stop “taking the bait”, so to speak. Again, money talks, so there are those who will put it over principle no matter what.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 21:38:36 abagond

@ indigoblu

Their comment would have gone through moderation too.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 22:04:55 John

@Abagond

Yeah, it probably wasn’t profitable as it was. Old BET was to spike lee as new BET is to Tyler Perry. As I said, there is plenty of junk TV by and for whites. Only difference is, us whites don’t have anyone else to blame for our stupidity.

How do you explain the programming? occoms razor suggests that there are just a lot of ignorant black folks out there. otherwise BET would be different no matter who owned it. Cash rules.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 22:12:44 Robert

@ SarahW

That’s interesting to hear – most of the antiracist blogs I’ve been following are very US based. I often wonder when reading posts whether things are slightly better here, but this comes more from wishful thinking than from facts. Do you think that the different histories of the two countries makes a difference to the forms racism takes today? Do you think that the different histories of the two countries makes a difference to the forms racism takes today? A lot of the discussion in the US seems to focus on reparations for slavery and on the continuing impacts of segregation. I don’t think the UK is any better, I know it was heavily involved in the slave trade and colonised a quarter of the world, but I wonder what effect these differences have on the forms racism takes today.

In my opinion it’s no better. I would say it’s more hidden and underhand here the “polite racism” the British are famous for. What I read on U.S. based blogs like this sounds very similar to what I see here although for historical reasons there are slight differences.

Lee Jasper (LJ): The status of most Black youth in the UK is “young, drifting and Black.” Our sons and daughters suffer inordinately high levels of unemployment, locked out of opportunity and locked into a life of poverty and crime by a level of racism that is routinely denied by Government. These Black areas of deprivation are now producing the fourth and fifth generation of children born as third- class citizens in a so-called first-class democracy.

These historically deprived areas have been flooded with drugs and guns, they operate open drug markets. Add to this mix the cultural imperialism of America being forced fed to young people through MTV and a largely White-owned media rap industry that promotes the quintessential ghetto gangster lifestyle and you begin to see why we suffer the terror of “post code” wars. The continued escalation of youth violence in these areas is of serious concern. Post-code wars are created and maintained by post-code discrimination and racism.

FCN: What are the major concerns among young Black Britons today? Are they optimistic or pessimistic about their future? Why?

LJ: Major concerns of Black youth in Britain are the same concerns as all African youth living in Western nations. Concerns over lack of employment, no housing, poor education and police brutality, in particular, Black deaths in custody. Racism in the labour market ensure high rates of Black poverty and as a consequence of the cuts to public sector budgets, we are seeing Black workers being made unemployed and losing their jobs in big numbers.

Over 80 percent of the African and Caribbean community that are in work are employed in the public sector. They were the last in and the first to go. As a result we are seeing Black women and men being made redundant in droves, the consequent effects will be devastating. Poverty breeds crime and in the UK for every 1,000 White people, there are 1.2 people in jail, for Asians that figure is 2.4, for Black people the figure is seven. Put simply, British institutional racism is the most polite and insidious type of racism you will find anywhere in the world.

http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/Perspectives_1/article_8456.shtml

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 22:43:57 Truthbetold

Question to all:
When whites are no longer the majority in say…2050, do any of you think things will change in terms of perception?

I discuss this with my friends all the time. We’ve all come up with different answers.

I say no. Whites are crafty and sly by nature. They will try to “include” white-skinned hispanics and fair-skinned mulattoes/ mestizos to “up” their numbers.
Remember “passing” in the old south?
This will be no different.

As for BET, Aba is correct. Back in the day, BET was a good black network. It’s when whites took over, it changed for the worse.
Something to ponder folks:

Whites are more in tune to blacks as poor, downtrodden and animalistic. That’s why movies like Menace to Society, Baby Boy, et al are so fascinating. It portrays blacks as the lowest of the low.
Whites need this to feel go about their own racsim, it becomes justified.

Movies like How Stella got her Groove back, was ” shocking” to whites because they didn’t know that we deal with the same relationship issues that white women have.Plus all the women were smart, good-looking and decent natured.
Noooooo, we can’t have that. Whites can’t relate. So it’s a shocker.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 22:47:43 Nom De Plume

@SarahW:

Don’t worry about rementioning the “How not to write about Africa” video. Maybe those who haven’t seen it will check it out. The video is only a portion of the original piece. The original is much longer. Please see below.

http://www.granta.com/Magazine/92/How-to-Write-about-Africa/Page-1

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 23:47:28 brothawolf

@Indigoblu

“…but what you said about rappers….that’s where people are going wrong, in thinking that these rappers that make all this money, actually give a crap about the youth. They don’t–not even a little bit. They only care about making money. It’s like asking a white person to give up their “white privilege” —not in this lifetime. That’s why I think it’s up to individuals and parents to stop supporting the crap. Those rappers do what they do bc they know it sells.
All hiphop is not bad, but the rap music that gets continuous play is the “crap rap” music, not the conscious rap music. Conscious rappers DO care, it’s clear in their message via music. Common, The Rootz, Lupe, and Ms Hill to name a few —we don’t really hear their music on the radio for a reason, but they have something meaningful to say.”

I’d like to add on that just like most of the mainstream rappers out there their bosses and their cohorts in Hollywood generally don’t care about the youth either. It’s all about what sells even if it destroys, and this kind of entertainment that’s being put out is like fast food, the more you take it in, the unhealthier you become, especially in the mind.

There is a lot of hip-hop from very gifted artists from the grassroots level that includes thought provoking messages. Some of them do curse, but behind it all, you can hear lyrics that are relevant and important. You’ll find a lot of them online on several sites.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 23:50:09 brothawolf

@Truthbetold

“When whites are no longer the majority in say…2050, do any of you think things will change in terms of perception?

I discuss this with my friends all the time. We’ve all come up with different answers.

I say no. Whites are crafty and sly by nature. They will try to “include” white-skinned hispanics and fair-skinned mulattoes/ mestizos to “up” their numbers.
Remember “passing” in the old south?
This will be no different.”

I agree. The white mindset will still be there influencing what gets played and reported. It will hang around like a parasite to its host.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 23:55:57 brothawolf

@Non De Plume

“I am of the opinion that the majority of American whites have no interest in the lives of people of color. What we see (and don’t see) in the media reflect this. The mainstream media knows that the majority is primarily interested in their own lives, and it gives them want they want. Remember the post on The Missing White Woman Syndrome? The ugly truth is that missing American white women and girls are given massive media attention because the mainstream media KNOWS that the majority of viewers don’t really care when women and girls of color go missing. (They sure as heck don’t care when black men and boys go missing)! The majority places white females on really, really high pedestals. When is the last time you saw a missing white man or white boy covered to such an extent? (I don’t mean to digress. I’m just making a point). As far as the morning news and evening news shows are concerned, I read (and believe) that white anchors are put in these prime time slots because the majority of whites don’t want to get their news from a black person, and believe news coming from a white person is more credible. It’s all about ratings and money…and yes, racism.”

If a white woman gets killed by a person of color, particularly a black or brown person whether it’s true or not, the news media will have a field day covering it and circulating it from coast to coast no matter where it happened. It will give life to that myth about black and brown people invading white neighborhoods to commit crimes, and white people in all their superiority will have reason to fear us inferior beings.

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on Thu Dec 29th 2011 at 23:57:04 Nom De Plume

@Truthbetold:

Question to all:

When whites are no longer the majority in say…2050, do any of you think things will change in terms of perception?

—–

Not necessarily. Just because a group becomes smaller in number doesn’t mean it can’t hold a disproportionate amount of the money and power. As we’ve been discussing, money and power make it a lot easier to shape perception.

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on Fri Dec 30th 2011 at 00:16:55 indigoblu

@TruthBeTold
You know, I do think perception would have to change, at least to some extent, to mirror more of the majority. It’s inevitable, but to what lengths, only time will tell.

As crafty and sly as whites can be in their nature, I think they’ve done too much damage, at least in the US, to try damage control at any point from now, by including say……. lighter skinned Hispanic people as “white”….though I wouldn’t doubt they’d try. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and a lot of white people are terrified of the mere thought of what’s sure to come–becoming a minority.

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on Fri Dec 30th 2011 at 00:26:19 Demerera

@Robert

Our domestic shows are no different in my opinion. Ever noticed that when they want to show a white woman of what they consider low moral character they show her with a brood of mixed race children?

Brings to mind ‘Eastenders’ and Carol and Alan Jackson with their ‘mixed’ brood and how his character was portrayed as this barely literate and inarticulate individual. Of course, I am going back some years…I havent watched that show in that long.

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on Fri Dec 30th 2011 at 00:29:45 Demerera

Robert said:- Our domestic shows are no different in my opinion. Ever noticed that when they want to show a white woman of what they consider low moral character they show her with a brood of mixed race children?

I said:- Brings to mind ‘Eastenders’ and Carol and Alan Jackson with their ‘mixed’ brood and how his character was portrayed as this barely literate and inarticulate individual. Of course, I am going back some years…I havent watched that show in that long.

LOL Oh yes I forgot, same show but – even the black up and coming doctor couldnt hide his lust for the ‘tart’ with a heart or her illegitimate daughter.

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on Fri Dec 30th 2011 at 00:38:16 indigoblu

@brothawolf

You’re right, their bosses and hollywood don’t care either, but they’d have to care, including these rappers, if it started to hurt their cash flow–since that’s what they’re in it for anyway, but that’s asking for too much bc that would mean your average hiphop head’s “hunger” for this type of mess would have to change as well.

Sometimes I wonder though….obviously, the “crap rap” sells, but does that mean artist who are more conscious, if they got more play on the radio, wouldn’t be able to sell just as much? It seems more like a game. More like, we won’t give you much of a chance, if you aren’t rapping gangster, money, and “hoes” than it does “the things you rap about just won’t sell”.

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on Fri Dec 30th 2011 at 01:05:32 Robert

Demerera

Robert said:- Our domestic shows are no different in my opinion. Ever noticed that when they want to show a white woman of what they consider low moral character they show her with a brood of mixed race children?

I said:- Brings to mind ‘Eastenders’ and Carol and Alan Jackson with their ‘mixed’ brood and how his character was portrayed as this barely literate and inarticulate individual. Of course, I am going back some years…I havent watched that show in that long.

Well guess what lol? Her loud mouthed aggressive daughter Bianca now has a mixed brood too and has just come out of prison for assaulting a young muscular Black guy who was sleeping with her mother Carol and her stepdaughter.

LOL Oh yes I forgot, same show but – even the black up and coming doctor couldnt hide his lust for the ‘tart’ with a heart or her illegitimate daughter.

Yeah I remember that. The “tart with a heart” is back on the show now and her husband is a cuckold. He says “I’ll accept it just don’t tell me when you’ve slept with other men or tell me any of the details” *smh* lol.

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on Fri Dec 30th 2011 at 01:21:25 SarahW

@Nom de plume, thanks for the link. I got Wainaina’s autobiography for christmas, I really like it so far. He has a beautiful style of writing.

Btw, after seeing about a dozen posts from you here I finally realised what your penname means 😀

@Robert: It’s depressing to hear that it’s no better. I hadn’t heard of Lee Jasper before; I’m looking through his blog now. http://leejasper.blogspot.com/2011/11/lee-jasper-on-david-goodhart-and.html is really interesting. He talks about how black people are told they should assimilate into British culture which is problematic enough in itself (not that there even is one single British culture IMO), but then that the view of history in that culture completely glosses over colonialism.

He says:
“The reality is that the canon of formal British history refuses to acknowledge the scale of racism, oppression and exploitation that helped build modern Britain preferring to explain Britain’s economic ascendency in term of British ingenuity and entrepreneurship.

Developing an inclusive sense of British citizenship requires a proper acknowledgement of the historical crimes committed in the name of England and Empire.
This programme represents a new form of historical revisionism, one that seeks to airbrush racism from the face of British history. Not only do they deny the historical importance of racism and colonialism in the building of Empire, but also by extension they deny contemporary racism and its effects.

Stripped of their historical understanding they misunderstand the reality of racism today in terms of both its causes and effects. As such black disadvantage is seen as resulting from the personal moral and political failure of black people themselves. If you misunderstand the past you cant understand the present.”

This definitely rings true: as far as I can remember colonialism was barely mentioned in my school history lessons and it certainly wasn’t taught as being a terrible moral crime.

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on Fri Dec 30th 2011 at 01:21:55 SarahW

How do you all do those big quote things?

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on Fri Dec 30th 2011 at 01:38:15 Robert

@ SarahW

http://www.ehow.com/how_2054478_make-block-quote-html.html

Alligator brackets are these

outside of the word blockquote.

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on Fri Dec 30th 2011 at 01:38:52 Robert

oops

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on Fri Dec 30th 2011 at 02:11:01 abagond

@ Sarah:

It is like doing italics:

except you use “blockquote” in place of the “i”.

<blockquote> blah blah blah blah </blockquote>

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on Fri Dec 30th 2011 at 02:29:16 Nom De Plume

@SarahW:

Btw, after seeing about a dozen posts from you here I finally realised what your penname means.

—-

I love your play on words!

@Brothawolf:

If a white woman gets killed by a person of color, particularly a black or brown person whether it’s true or not, the news media will have a field day covering it and circulating it from coast to coast no matter where it happened. It will give life to that myth about black and brown people invading white neighborhoods to commit crimes, and white people in all their superiority will have reason to fear us inferior beings.

—-

Another unfortunate thing that gets widespread media attention is black men being falsely accused of crimes they didn’t commit. Remember that case in South Carolina where a white woman (I think her name is Susan Smith) drowned her kids? She put them in a car and let it roll into a lake, When the kids were reported missing, she and others in her small town said the kids had seen with a black man. An apology was later issued to the black community, but it was too late. The damage had been done.

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on Fri Dec 30th 2011 at 03:07:15 MaMu1977

As a native New Yorkers, I’ll say this: until NWA and 2 Live Crew became major label acts, rap music wasn’t even a money maker in NYC (the city that *birthed* hip hop!) 98.7 FM and 107.5 FM were the two radio stations that featured “black” music in the Eighties; despite the popularity of the first generation of performers, both stations gave hip hop a 3-6 PM play slot due to “lack of interest”(as a fringe form of music, there were far more paying fans/customers of R&B.) Rap’s status was relatively low; between the New Wave, funk and the embers of doo wop/mutation of boy bands, it (rap) was just another new thing in a city of reinvention. But when payola made hip hop profitable, all bets were off.

P.S.-as a child who was raised by immigrants in an all-black environment, I’ll also say that there was no end to the amount of scorn/dismissal given to hip hop due to its reliance on samples. Funny that in a world with Michael Jackson, Prince and Rock James, rap music was seen as “unoriginal”.

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on Fri Dec 30th 2011 at 03:19:19 Jera

In terms of films that greenlit and the type of films that get greenlit, see Relativity Media… Just google them, their CEO, a young white dude. Lots of BIG name directors have to go through his firm in order to even get funding for films. So therein lies another hand on the scope narrowing our representation on the big screen.

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on Fri Dec 30th 2011 at 03:39:41 MaMu1977

Or, to give a very accurate summation of NYC’s attitude toward rap music prior to the infusion of money from white record labels, rewatch Krush Groove, Breakin’, She’s Gotta Have It, etc… (Hell, watch some of Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories.) You’ll notice that a lot of the rap fans were young and nominally in interracial groups, with quite a few of them being non-American (Kurtis Blow, Doug E. Fresh, Whodini and the Fat Boys, for example, are all of Caribbean descent.) In comparison, the African-American actors/directors made sure to include more traditional forms of music to maintain interest (for example, Sheena Easton’s attempt to merge hip hop with funk in Krush Groove.) Breakin’s crews had plenty of Latinos (at a time in which Puerto Ricans rarely found allies among African-Americans) Spike Lee more or less ignored rap until “Fight the Power”(compare the amount of times that the song was played in “Do the Right Thing” to the presence of rap in “She’s Gotta Have It” or “Joe’s Barbershop”.) And Charlie Murphy, despite being a young man in NYC during the birth of rap, brags about his days hanging out with Prince, Rick James, etc. (even though he would have been in the prime demographic for rap fans at the time.)

Hip hop may have had a lot of underground buzz, but it wasn’t even the most popular form of music in its birthplace until white people started pouring money into the genre (and seeing as how groups like ATCQ and Main Source and Brand Nubian were quickly subsumed and more or less rendered defunct when gangsta rap became the “profitable” form of rap, abagond’s post rings truer than I can stand.) Salt and Pros were seen as outlandish (when promoted by black people), Lil Kim brags about fellatio with no complaints from Puffy’s white money men. Slick Rick was “too hot for radio” when he did his first album(again, produced and promoted by black men), yet Dr. dre’s backers didn’t say anything when Snoop Dogg’s first album was named for a sexual position. Do I need to go on…?

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on Fri Dec 30th 2011 at 03:57:23 abagond

@ MaMu

I think you mean Sheila E not Sheena Easton, but yeah, that is pretty much how I remember it and see it too.

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on Fri Dec 30th 2011 at 05:37:53 brothawolf

Another unfortunate thing that gets widespread media attention is black men being falsely accused of crimes they didn’t commit. Remember that case in South Carolina where a white woman (I think her name is Susan Smith) drowned her kids? She put them in a car and let it roll into a lake, When the kids were reported missing, she and others in her small town said the kids had seen with a black man. An apology was later issued to the black community, but it was too late. The damage had been done.

It was the talk of the school at that time…And it gets worse if the arrest, charge, trial, and verdict is reported. You know, white news outlets will cover the whole thing if there’s a black suspect and a white victim. Not to mention that they will paint white victims as saints and angels.

There’s a case in my state right now about a black dude arrested for the rape and murder of a white woman. You know that the media in South Carolina is in an uproar about this and will stay on it until a verdict is reached, and it will probably be national news. I know there are lots of hate responses to this article as expected.

As a side note, it’s no surprise that the prosecutor wants to pursue the death penalty on this dude.

But when it comes to this topic, this is all the white media cares about when it comes to black people, how goofy we act, how violent we act, and how insane we are without examining the causes behind it. This is what pisses me off everyday. Even though it’s because of the white media’s racism, it still doesn’t calm my frustrations. There is no excuse for this. None. And we have to tolerate this crap wherever we go. I’m getting a headache just thinking about it.

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on Fri Dec 30th 2011 at 08:37:32 sam

I remember seen Salt an Pepa on osme obscure cable channel in NYC back in the 80’s and wodering what this is all about. Melle Mel and Grandmaster Flash and all those guys did it on their own, Afrika Bambataa and those guys up in Bronx and yes, latinos were right there, after all, graffitti art is direct from their mural arts.

As for rap, or rappin, I don’t know how many kids today, black or white, even know what that was before hip hop and commercial break trough. There was a Black Panther named H. Rap Brown, even Muhammed Ali was rappin but the white media called those raps as poems. I know that is was going on on the streets back in the 60’s but I do not know how old it is.

I do know that in 1600’s Paris France they did rhyming for a while, it was a hot thing back then in some circles. Perhaps there is some historical roots that go all the way back to the deep south, New Orleans, Louisiana. French were rhyming, blacks looked at that and thoughed, well, thats not too good, and put in some african beats and stuff… Who knows? Interesting anyways.

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on Fri Dec 30th 2011 at 11:57:40 Demerera

@Robert

LOL. I am not surpised at the turn of events in this programme. Bianca is back in there is she? I briefly caught a glimpse of the programme some time ago and was dismayed to see the actor who was in Love Thy Neighbour (I forget his name now) who had become some charicature with his ‘Yeh Mon’ every few seconds.

@Sam

I first saw Salt and Pepa on a programme called The Tube (Robert may remember this one) and I was spellbound as this was the first time I had seen female rappers. Shortly after came Roxanne with Hitman Howie T and then Roxanne Shante. I would say that it wasnt until 85/86 that Hip Hop/Rap started to emerge when I was a kid.

Going back to a point Robert made earlier about shows from the US being broadcast in other territories, I cant say it was all bad when I think of programmes like Soul Train and the then inspired Solid Soul with Juliet Roberts and Chris Forbes 🙂

Prior to that, thank heavens for pirate radio stations otherwise I would have been oblivious to the fact that there was so many people making such a fusion of rich, and diverse music as the mainstream radio stations refused to play what they deemed to be black music. I guess this is why DJ’s such as David Rodigan (who I must confess, I thought was Black for many years) are respected amongst some for choosing to play Reggae and on Radio London back in the late 70’s.

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on Fri Dec 30th 2011 at 18:12:43 sepultura13

Here’s a prime example of what white people really thought The Cosby Show should portray:

Herneith said:
“It is a pretty sad commentary on todays’ ‘entertainment’ complex when the best programs are the cartoons. As for BET, that is a real minstrel show.”

Truth spoken – and even a lot of the cartoons are sucking bigtime…the new incarnation of Looney Tunes is horrid!

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on Fri Dec 30th 2011 at 18:21:53 sepultura13

From what I’ve seen of British TV, it’s just as bad with its racist portrayals of PoC. The League of Gentlemen, in one of its episodes, featured a caravan of Travellers, and the ringleader was some guy in horrible, old-time blackface – Papa Lazarou. There was also some incident on an Australian TV show, where five guys in blackface portrayed the Jackson 5 in a ‘reunion special’, except the one portraying Michael was ghost-white with powder…caricatures seem to be very popular.

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on Fri Dec 30th 2011 at 20:25:03 brothawolf

Sepultura13,

MadTV was on point with this skit just as much as it was with their “Nice White Lady” skit parodies of white female saviors.

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on Fri Dec 30th 2011 at 20:32:07 brothawolf

Come to think of it:

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on Fri Dec 30th 2011 at 22:08:03 Herneith

Separated at birth:

Sumner Redstone:

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSSG2UP-gNPXq6snqAaSJwzjYsxBtOIajp1WjfeSeIfxVq8T8Lb

Nancy Kulp:

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on Sat Dec 31st 2011 at 00:43:25 Happiness

Not only is it ridiculous that on these boards they are all white and male, where are the women…..Sexist and prejudiced.

On the board of Sky for example, they only have one woman as of last week….10-12 years ago, they had no women on their board, when you think about it that is just totally ridiculous….Talk about imbalanced.

And personally, I do not watch TV at all….

Cinema every so often and that is it.

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on Sat Dec 31st 2011 at 00:44:37 Nom De Plume

@brothawolf:

Your vid is hilarious! I’ve always disliked those types of movies, and there have been many over the years. A white teacher/savior goes to an inner city school where the kids have bad attitudes and failing grades. The kids resent the teacher at first but eventually grow to love him/her. By the end of the movie, the kids’ grades improve, and all is good in the neighborHOOD. These movies bring to mind a TV show from the 80s called “The White Shadow.” The savior on this show is a white guy who coaches mostly black basketball (yes, basketball) players who love to sing in the shower.

The media fallacy here is the idea that black kids need white authority figures to save them. If you think we’re making this up, just type ‘white savior movies’ into the search engine of your choice.

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on Sat Dec 31st 2011 at 04:40:11 Tia

I really enjoy this blog, and this is my first comment.

As someone of West Indian immigrant parents (I’m a native New Yorker, “first generation” kid), I’ve been thinking a lot lately about who truly represents me in the media.

I mean I can’t relate to BET, Tyler Perry, Spike Lee or such because they focus on Afro-American families with Afro-American history. The closest I came to seeing an Afro-Caribbean family was the film, “How She Move” with Rutina Wesley. I got a kick out of hearing the Caribbean accents of the mothers, because that is what I grew up with. I can’t relate to these country sounding accents I hear on Black shows, I’m a New Yorker. “Stomp the Yard” with its historically Black college thing does not appeal to me. I went to CUNY, a commuter school and never “stepped” (dancing) a day in my life. I never did Sunday dinner with “Big Mama”. I can’t speak on which Indian, let alone, African blood I have in me.

The only Caribbean people to get light are Jamaicans, and its always some cheesy stereotype with dreads, a rasta cap and “Hey, Mon.” My parents are Barbadian, my friend’s mom is Afro-Panamanian, there are Haitians, Trinidadians…so many islands and dialects that can be done.

I got a good laugh out of the In Living Color skit, “Hey, Mon” (despite the cliche-y title) only because immigrant families who aren’t wealthy have to hustle like crazy, I could relate because my parents were far from rich “back home” and are working class here in the US.

ALSO…

I’m an Atheist. As a Black Atheist, chritianity is the only option given in the media. I’m able to sit through Tyler Perry’s stuff, and I totally get that he’s appealing to a Christian audience. But rarely will I hear a Black character say ther is no “God.” I was not raised Atheist, but the only family member who shares that belief is my older brother, which is flattering because I view him as educated and decent.

Here in NY, its always (with the exception of this one old, Jewish guy) a Black (West-Indian to be exact) person preaching on public transportation about Jesus returning and such. Would people who agree enjoy it if I preached loudly in a public place that God does not exist. It would annoy the hell out of them, because no matter what I say, they have their own view.

BET dedicates most of Sunday to Gospel and shows about church. What if I’m Jewish? What will they show on Sabbath? I was raised Adventist, and they were big on “Saturday is the Lord’s day.”

So, yes Blacks aren’t truly being represented. Sure, my parents have no high school diploma and weren’t as educated, well to do or lovey-dovey as the Huxtables, but there ARE Black people lucky enough to have that upbringing. I may have a humble background, but it surely was not that series “South Central”! It may get rough in Brooklyn, but I never dealt with gangs or violence, nor was I forced in to it.

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on Sat Dec 31st 2011 at 10:50:12 JT

First off, great post!

Second off, i would ask: while the evidence is indeterminably large for why the media portrays people of color with a stereotyped & villified lens, isn’t it possible that the media is attempting to wreak the same sort of damage on white people in the process.

While this might not make sense altogether i would beg to pay attention to what types of whites actually stream content (rich, corporate, those that profit from division and separateness).

If they decide through content how we perceive one another, would it not profit to portray the prototypical person of color as irredeemable, stuck on welfare, criminal, primal etc. Moreover, would it not profit to train white people to remain ignorant of others sufferings’, inequalities, discontents, histories etc.? This is to say that the media will also play a part not only in white-washing history, degrading the black man/woman but ALSO in maintaining whites as ignorant of others (to the dismay and resentment of people of color).

As a result: white people stay ignorant, implicitly racist,
and
as a result: people of color understandably resent white people.

Seems like a corporate/bourgeois dream come true. Keep entire populations enslaved by maintaining the divisions that are so obvious and so determine our everyday dialogue.

My question: is there another way to go forward?

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on Sat Dec 31st 2011 at 12:18:34 JT

I think it is with constant challenge to the dominant representations as well as through social and historical education that Abagond and others provide that is needed now. But i would also add that SOMEONE needs to construct models for new ways of inter-ethnic interaction. People of color-whites CAN interact respectfully and CAN unify. We are not doomed to perpetual opposition UNLESS we resign ourselves to this future.

Thus It needs to be said that without painting a way forward we continue to perpetuate old forms of interaction. New ways of interaction do not mean ignoring the past. Candour is required. Education is required. Self-awareness is required. Giving credence to one another is required that we are capable of growing and being more than what the media tells us we are. For me enjoying one another and what each person has to offer is the way moving forward.

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on Sat Dec 31st 2011 at 14:56:20 Nom De Plume

@JT:

…the media will also play a part not only in white-washing history, degrading the black man/woman but ALSO in maintaining whites as ignorant of others (to the dismay and resentment of people of color. As a result: white people stay ignorant, implicitly racist, and as a result: people of color understandably resent white people

—-

It’s a vicious cycle, isn’t it?

@JT:

My question: is there another way to go forward?

But i would also add that SOMEONE needs to construct models for new ways of inter-ethnic interaction. People of color-whites CAN interact respectfully and CAN unify. We are not doomed to perpetual opposition UNLESS we resign ourselves to this future.

Candour is required. Education is required. Self-awareness is required. Giving credence to one another is required that we are capable of growing and being more than what the media tells us we are.

—-

Your words are beautiful. Others on this blog have mentioned solutions, and I agree that solutions are needed. Solutions, though, would involve upsetting a power structure that has been in place for centuries. Do you really believe that those in power (and those who enjoy white privilege) have a strong desire to give up their advantages, i.e, level the playing field, so that we can all live in a better world?

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on Sat Dec 31st 2011 at 16:35:03 JT

No. Those that guard white privilege will require it be pried from their cold, dead fingers before they give it up. I have no illusions for that from other white people. However, there are scenarios wherein they may not have such a choice. Other menaces to justice/truth throughout history have been vanquished. Why not today as well?

Despite the total power of the Catholic church in the 16th century, the protestant reformation occurred because Martin Luther drew upon the corruption of the Catholic church, and devised his 95 theses. Millions fought and died in the thirty years war for religious autonomy from the Holy Roman Empire. AND WON. We have secular states in large part because of their struggles in the 16th and 17th centuries and that founding document devised by ML.

Regardless, of the dictates of the white establishment, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his “I Have A Dream Speech…” the sit ins happened, Rosa Parks happened and Selma happened. Legally, (and admittedly from a social perspective, nominally) the structures of Jim Crowe were dismantled. We are under the eyes of the law equal in civil rights because of the struggles of those in the 50s and 60s. Do we think that they thought that they could overturn the system? I HIGHLY doubt it.

Yes these are exceptional and narrativized fragments of history. But yes they do inspire you and I to conceive that something better can come out of our society than that which exists today.

I am waiting for a contemporary 95 theses/”I Have a Dream…” speech from the next leader of black America to galvanize the rest of us whose fidelity is to justice.

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on Sat Dec 31st 2011 at 18:17:07 Nom De Plume

@JT:

One impediment among many:

https://abagond.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/just-world-doctrine/

I especially agree with the last five paragraphs.

@JT:

‘I am waiting for a contemporary 95 theses/”I Have a Dream…” speech from the next leader of black America to galvanize the rest of us whose fidelity is to justice.’

—-

Correct me if I’m wrong, but it sounds as though you are suggesting that things are not progressing because some unnamed, modern-day black leader has failed to emerge from the shadows and give a speech or write a thesis. Is that what you mean?

********

Side note for lurkers: I have read comments on this blog and on others where some believe that pointing out impediments equates to defeatism, and a desire to just ‘wallow” in endless complaining . Not so. This thing is huge, it’s twisted and it’s ugly. It’s more complex than just allowing someone to sit in the front seat of a bus or drink from a previously banned water fountain. There are no clean, easy, concise, bulleted, Power Point solutions that will slay THIS monster.

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on Sat Dec 31st 2011 at 19:39:28 JT

Well, after rereading my post, i think i realized that it sounds fairly simplified like there is a magic solution or individual that can resolve things. Clearly things are much more entangled than that.

What i would like to say is that (unfortunately) the burden of devising the terms for rapprochement are on the black population. This is not to say that things could ever disappear or that wrongs could be undone that were inflicted by whites if the terms set by blacks were met. But that ongoing education and vigilance to remind people of injustices present, past etc. be coupled with a 95 theses styled approach to outlining what would be considered acceptable terms for at least passing reconciliation between people of colour and whites. Afterall, as you and others have pointed out, how can individuals stop doing something that they themselves don’t realize is wrong and are unfamiliar with what the expectations are? Are the ignorant supposed to just wake up and suddenly understand what it means to be a person of color in America?

It is only when someone is able to make that articulation that people will start to be more cogniscent of what is really going on and what terms need to be met before things could even start to possibly be okay.

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on Sat Dec 31st 2011 at 19:41:49 JT

Which is why i think that setting the terms in some sort of widely received manifesto (including reparations, etc.) might facilitate a process of going forward so the white people actually understand what is wanted from them.

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on Sat Dec 31st 2011 at 20:57:52 Matari

@ JT

What are your thoughts regarding THIS MESSAGE TO WHITE PEOPLE??

**********************

White People Act as Agents of Racism

As a result of these hurts, all white people have been conditioned to accept the lies of racism and to carry racist feelings. Some white people stop questioning these feelings and act out these “beliefs” in hateful and oppressive ways. Other white people intellectually reject the content of racist messages and try to treat people targeted by racism respectfully and as equals. But even when those of us who are white act with goodwill toward people targeted by racism or actively engage in fighting racism, attitudes connected with racism (unjustified fears, the seeking of approval, feelings of superiority, etc.) surface from time to time and must be battled in order for us to act consistently according to our best thinking.

We white people are pulled to act on the basis of the racism we’ve heard and seen, acting sometimes subtly and unawarely and other times overtly and harshly.

Racism Hurts White People

Racism greatly damages the lives of people targeted by it. Racism also hurts those of us who are white. (This is true of any group that acts out oppression at another group.) This is far from the damage inflicted on the targets of racism, but it corrupts our humanity and compounds the ways we already feel bad about ourselves. Not standing up against racism erodes our integrity and undermines our sense of goodness and self-worth.

White people become separated from the majority of the world’s people, know little about them, and miss close involvement in the lives of a rich variety of people. Racism also erodes relationships between white people – we do not want to be associated with “that white racist” or “that white liberal.” Racism leaves us feeling hopeless about actually eliminating racism and creating a just and equitable society.

White People Ending Racism and Healing from the Hurts of White Racism

United to End Racism and Re-evaluation Counseling have valuable experience and tools for white people to use in ending racism. We have learned that any and all “oppressor roles” (the role played by a person who has been conditioned to be an agent of oppression) are installed by hurting people very deeply. White people’s oppressive behavior arises from deep emotional damage. Sustained emotional work is therefore required for those of us who are white people to free ourselves from racism. To create a just society, white people must not only inform ourselves fully about racism and take action to end it, but must also heal from the damage caused by being exposed to racism and by having participated in it.

United to End Racism has found that white people taking turns listening to each other in pairs and in groups is an effective way to do this emotional work. Those of us who are white need to remember and to tell our stories about the racism in our lives and assist one another to release the intense feelings that underlie these stories. These stories can include early experiences with racism, the racist lies we were told, the times we acted out racism, and the racist attitudes that were held by the people around us, as well as the successes we’ve had in fighting racism.

To do this work, we white people need settings in which we can be open about racism without being blamed or shamed, where we know we are cared about and respected. Under these conditions, we can remember and tell what happened to us with regard to racism and release the painful emotions from these experiences. And we need to learn to do this work with one another as white people. It is the job of white people, not people targeted by racism, to do the work to both stop white people from perpetuating racism and to help white people heal the damage we carry.

http://www.rc.org/uer/TheRoleofWhites.html

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on Sat Dec 31st 2011 at 21:01:16 Matari

More specifically JT, what are your thoughts concerning this:

“It is the job of white people, not people targeted by racism, to do the work to both stop white people from perpetuating racism and to help white people heal the damage we carry.”

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on Sat Dec 31st 2011 at 21:17:13 JT

I agree. But only to an extent. I (among other whites) will never know what it means to be a person of color in America. I can only come on here and speak with Matari, Nom De Plume, Abagond, Brothawolf etc. to have a glimpse into particular individuals experience of being a person of colour.

I cannot end racism because i do not know what constitutes racism in its entirety. Only those that have felt the blunt punch in the gut or the subtle sting of it can educate the rest of us what exactly it is comprised of and how those of us who are willing to commit themselves to making things better are able to.

If we acknowledge the crime that our forefathers committed as well as the advantages that catapulted us to where we are and show respect and interest in black history and culture then still we are not aware as to how something new can be constructed. How can we amend for things that lack amendments? I don’t know. But i know that i certainly know that I am not the one who can set the terms for that. It is PoC that have to write the contract and it is WP that should be compelled to sign. In my humble opinion.

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on Sat Dec 31st 2011 at 22:36:32 Matari

You should know JT, that blacks and other folks of color have been telling white people about their racism for HUNDREDS of years, and yet this vast disconnect (way of seeing THINGS) between people of color and non people of color still persists.

“Only those that have felt the blunt punch in the gut or the subtle sting of it can educate the rest of us what exactly it is comprised of ..”

The fact is JT that there’s so much accumulated “evidence” in existence regarding the intricacies and complexities of how racism harms people that if no person of color were to ever again utter a word on the topic of RACE, white people today would still have more than an abundance of “EDUCATION” in the form of studies, research, documentaries, experiments, statistics, blogs, books, college courses, anecdotal experiences, speeches, historical documents and more.

So what is it – specifically – that black people need to do that we haven’t yet done – in order to compel white people to abandon their racism and privilege?

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on Sat Dec 31st 2011 at 23:58:03 brothawolf

@Nom De Plume

These movies bring to mind a TV show from the 80s called “The White Shadow.” The savior on this show is a white guy who coaches mostly black basketball (yes, basketball) players who love to sing in the shower.

Oh, hell yea I remember the White Shadow, but I’ve never watched it lol. You’re right though, it is a white savior series. Montell Williams had his own series that is similar to Dangerous Minds called Matt Waters (I think that’s the name), and he was the main character as a Black Male teacher, but that show didn’t last but for a few episodes.

White savior movies is a reoccurring theme in Hollywhite. Dangerous Minds (they tried to turn that into a TV series, but it failed after one season lol), Freedom Writers, Avatar, The Last Samurai, The Blind Side, The Help, and probably other movies I can’t think of at the moment. If that wasn’t enough, most hero movies are white men. The only black male hero movies were bombs, comedies, or a white savior movie disguised as a black hero movie (Hancock).

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on Sun Jan 1st 2012 at 00:08:21 vanishing point.

“So what is it – specifically – that black people need to do that we haven’t yet done – in order to compel white people to abandon their racism and privilege?”

Change the narrative. It hasn’t worked. Using words like JT did, such as cold, dead fingers does nothing to move things along. Using Martin Luther, who hated Jewish people, as an example of change, is just not going to work either. When the white liberal continues to expect Black people to change white thinking,it just won’t work.
I personally don’t believe the concept of privilege is going to work either. People shouldn’t have to give up what should be universally good for all. Most white people do not buy the idea of privilege or that we have not earned our way.

Most people learn what they believe through experience, including education. I, like JT, can not always recognize or understand an alternative experience. But I am able to well enough to see that until we can manage to put this narrative into public schools at an early age, and teach our children to recognize and tease apart the messages they are receiving, we are not going to move forward by much.
Just my two cents for New Years:)

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on Sun Jan 1st 2012 at 00:32:04 JT

I can’t guarantee that whites will abandon racism and privilege (it would be misleading to ever make such a claim since a vast majority of whites are oriented in this way). i can just propose what i think would be efficacious to go forward and do my best to support this effort. I believe a list of demands that would serve as the framework for a reignited civil rights movement could work if this list/manifesto/theses spoke to the experience of enough people of colour and was relatively brief.

W.E.B Dubois/Booker T. Washington are impenetrable to a modern society. A short and sweet civil rights constitution drafted would not be. The more accessible a text is (in length), the more dialogue would be generated from it. Think of a literary equivalent to the soundbite. It might not do justice to the issue but it would at least captivate a wider audience and FORCE people to take a position on these ultimatums. As it stands now the discourse on people-of-colour/white is muffled at best. Or reaches a fever-pitch when current events throw negative stereotypes out and force people to inhale that bullshit. Putting terms together in a declaration would at least make people confront how racist they are and deal with that very uncomfortable truth.

I know i have when i was younger made racist comments in passing that i didnt fully understand the context to or the hurt i caused to friends that were of color. Probably 3-4 times in total. But I got a shocking awakening from the prevalence of it in my community and my family. So i took initiative and learned about black history around 11-12. I was aghast with what i learned then and what i continued to see within my own family and community. So much so that i held numerous seminars within my classes on the matter of Reconstruction, Jim Crowe, and contemporary forms of systemic oppression. Got jeered at by classmates and teachers (or they told me to wrap it up early). Fought with family members over my support for affirmative action and the fallacies of a meritocracy. Fought with my own mother about statements she made about being sucked into civil rights support and spat out thereafter by people wanting to take advantage of white people and their empathy. Fighting racist statements in my own family being said had me being blasted for standing up against the ugliness. My brother called me a fucking twit and threatened me when i called his beliefs racist.

There are innumerable grievances, many of which outlined in this very blog, other blogs and numerous academic works. If they were to be condensed into a readable list of testaments to the experience of black people i think that they could go some way to establishing the terms for which dialogue can continue. A sort of list of ultimatums. The more this list is distributed the more people are placed relative to how they stand on issues such as the war on the black male (i.e. incarceration over questionable charges, persistent racial profiling, severe sentences) or reparations. As people are forced to confront where they stand, people are “outed” in terms of how they are racist. The first step to changing a character flaw is acknowledging that it exists. Something which most white people will not even admit to. Thus i think this is a logical step forward.

JT

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on Sun Jan 1st 2012 at 00:44:53 Matari

“People shouldn’t have to give up what should be universally good for all. Most white people do not buy the idea of privilege or that we have not earned our way.

Most people learn what they believe through experience, including education. I, like JT, can not always recognize or understand an alternative experience. But I am able to well enough to see that until we can manage to put this narrative into public schools at an early age, and teach our children to recognize..”

*************************

Most white people don’t have first hand experience living and working directly with black people. And yet somehow, there are a few white folks who can see past the veil. How is it that they can see, but you and JT and most whites cannot?

It’s going to take a lot more than “public schools …”

This is why I continually insist that WHITENESS is a DEMONIC/evil plague!
Whiteness promotes a definite lack of spiritual connectivity with “other” humans that fuels this inability to give up/stop mistreating people on the basis of their color.

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on Sun Jan 1st 2012 at 00:47:33 teddy1975

“So what is it – specifically – that black people need to do that we haven’t yet done – in order to compel white people to abandon their racism and privilege?”

Becoming their in-laws at a large scale?

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on Sun Jan 1st 2012 at 01:04:54 vanishing point.

“Most white people don’t have first hand experience living and working directly with black people. ”

not where I live. And I can tell you, after all these years, and after raising two children, that what everybody wants is the same thing, a decent place to live, good schools, a job that pays enough to get by and enjoy some extras. Everybody wants police to protect not harm, stores to welcome our business, ect. Calling what everybody wants privilege is not going to work. Investing in the restructure of education in public schools is much better than continuing on and on and getting nowhere..
I used to think that things could change, but now I am feeling differently. So, I am trying to figure out a different narrative, for myself… don’t know if that makes sense, but for me, for now, it’s all I have.

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on Sun Jan 1st 2012 at 02:23:46 Nom De Plume

@vanishing point:

‘People shouldn’t have to give up what should be universally good for all. Most white people do not buy the idea of privilege or that we have not earned our way.’

****

I agree with you. I am of the opinion that many whites do not believe that white privilege exists, and that they have earned all the advantages they have. This, of course, supports the idea that those with fewer advantages have not worked as hard.

@vanishing point:

“…until we can manage to put this narrative into public schools at an early age, and teach our children to recognize and tease apart the messages they are receiving, we are not going to move forward by much.”

****

That would be great, but I can’t see that happening. There will be people who will object to their tax dollars being spent on a curriculum that casts white people in a less than favorable light, not to mention the possibility that kids may question the current power structure. Take Arizona’s recently passed Immigration Law for example. Governor Jan Brewer signed a bill into law that bans “ethnic studies” in her state. A school’s funding will be ‘withheld’ if it does not comply. The Arizona Legislature believes that ethnic studies:

“promote the overthrow of the U.S. government”
“promote resentment of a particular race or class of people”
“are designed primarily for students of a particular ethnic group”
“advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of people as individuals’

Apparently it’s okay for kids to be taught all things Euro-American, but teaching them anything else from a cultural standpoint is un-American and a threat. If people are not okay with kids learning about the contributions of people of other ethnicities and cultures, I doubt if they will be open to the kind of curriculum you are suggesting. ’ BTW, there are other states that are trying to follow Arizona’s lead.

IMO solutions involve the changing of hearts and minds and should start at home. Of course discussing these things in a forum such as this one can be helpful because it gets people thinking…and talking.

http://www.azleg.gov//FormatDocument.asp?inDoc=/legtext/49leg/2r/summary/h.hb2281_03-18-10_houseengrossed.doc.htm&Session_ID=93

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on Sun Jan 1st 2012 at 02:49:06 vanishing point.

Nom de plume, I want to thank you for that link, have to think of ways to throw it back at them,

“This, of course, supports the idea that those with fewer advantages have not worked as hard. ”

to me, it means that those with fewer advantages have had to work twice has hard or more.

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on Sun Jan 1st 2012 at 03:00:02 Nom De Plume

@vanishing point:

You’re welcome. Happy New Year to you…and to everyone!

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on Sun Jan 1st 2012 at 03:12:13 vanishing point.

Nom De Plume & all here tonight.

Happy New Year:)_to you… and to all the people who leave such thought provoking comments, you keep me alive!

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on Sun Jan 1st 2012 at 04:41:45 John

“For example: Some blacks say they want to reclaim the n-word, yet most black entertainers who use that word are mainly saying it to a white audience whose motives are very different.”

Redd fox, Pryor, Paul mooney, Katt Williams all use(d) the n-word to titillate white audiences then? Lol I don’t think so.

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on Sun Jan 1st 2012 at 05:37:45 abagond

There is a reason I said “most”. Clearly if their audience is mostly black the context is different. That follows from what I said.

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on Sun Jan 1st 2012 at 05:54:38 JT

Happy New Year to all and their loved ones. To a better world in 2012!!!

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on Sun Jan 1st 2012 at 16:31:16 jevioso

This article and most of the commentary on it, show that our intellectual elite still have a very solid stronghold on the youth today. Question: back when BET was good, when it had intellectually stimulating shows, how many of you had bought stock in the company? Few if any, as I suppose. As the intellectual elite have brainwashed black people into thinking; you’ve been brainwashed to dismiss and disregard individuality. Ben Johnson created B.E.T. as an individual! He didn’t go to the churches preaching to the congregation for money; he didn’t do public financing in the hood asking people for contributions; he convinced financiers to give him money, with the promise of profit and success as a return, and he created a network that many black people embraced…but that they never owned. If you’re not invested in something, meaning you’re not consistently putting your money/energy/power in it for it’s success, you’re a consumer; you have no say in the “ideology” that company chooses to pursue…you do have the power of the purse though and that’s the only weapon you have.

Returning back to individuality, the same thing goes for shows like Bill Cosby’s show. Bill Cosby, regardless of how the black intellectual elite have managed to drag his name through the mud, was a comedic genius, you can’t demand genius out of every black person on television (that’s almost a racist view of looking at a man, when you think he is easily duplicated based on race)…they’re rare, if they weren’t, genius wouldn’t be valuable to society. And to be honest, the reason why there aren’t more shows like the Cosby show, is because too many black people don’t respect the amount of energy and effort that Bill Cosby put into creating that show to begin with, people don’t understand how much “philosophy” was actually applied in the creation of the show. They just think it was something he was “supposed to do”, rather than it was something he “individually” had a passion for and yet these same people are mad about the passionless and cynical shows that are on B.E.T. today.

Every decade our respect for successful black individuals who don’t sound like Martin Luther King or Malcolm X goes up, whereas our black intellectual elite smile passive aggressively because they’re power is based on our intellectual stagnation as a race. It’s amazing some of the “illuminati” rumors I hear of successful people I hear in hip-hop. Do I like their music? Not as much as I like my older music from the 90’s, but hey, people thought Ray Charles sold out on his race and the black church culture, to entertain white people back in the day, this has more to do with historical trends, than an active approach by individual black people to stab their race in the back (if that’s even possible). If we want to change the condition of the black community, we have to teach black people to value their own individual lives, and the individual lives of others: a black boy shouldn’t harm another black boy/girl because it hurts the black community – he shouldn’t hurt a black boy/girl, because that black boy/girl’s individual life is valuable to himself and respects life.

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on Sun Jan 1st 2012 at 16:48:51 John

“There is a reason I said “most”. Clearly if their audience is mostly black the context is different. That follows from what I said.
”

Who makes up this “most” then? Care to name a few names? From what I’ve seen black entertainers who would court white mainstream acceptance tend to tone down their use of the n-word, Probably because they recognize (correctly) that it makes average whites uncomfortable.

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on Sun Jan 1st 2012 at 17:39:10 Jevioso

Wonder why I was moderated?

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on Sun Jan 1st 2012 at 18:43:06 Herneith

Maybe it’s your name.

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on Sun Jan 1st 2012 at 22:10:40 Mamzer HaKodesh

Abagond, in your article you wrote of Black stereotypes, “Those stereotypes are not informed by the latest sociological studies but rather the needs of white people to feel good about themselves.”

This sums it up for me. I became aware at some point in my mid-late teens that most of the film and television I watched dealing with racism, especially those with Black actors portraying characters dealing with racism, were not really about dealing with racism or portraying our struggles. These films and shows were about making Whites feel better about themselves. The exaggerated smiles and movements were about making Whites feel relieved and feeling comfort at seeing Blacks as two-dimensional, easily predictable and controllable.

This would be preferable to the discomfort they might feel when dealing with someone who is rightfully enraged and uneasily placated. These productions help bury feelings of guilt, shame, fear, uncertainty…and awkwardness. Awkwardness. I think what many Whites feel when interacting with Blacks is awkwardness. Perhaps even monstrousness. The awareness that like in all the most popular legends and tales, there is a big bad monster in this story, and it’s them. What’s more, this is a monster inside the psyche and heritage that can scarcely be detected, but they know it there. it must be quite uncanny.

I recently watched a chunk of the film Invictus, starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon; the film was about Nelson Mandela’s first years of office after his release from prison and subsequent election. Most of what I saw seemed to center on one South African White man learning to be a kinder, gentler white man and change his racist actions, and on Nelson Mandela traveling around getting Black Africans to be nice to White people and make them feel included. I must admit, I was deeply touched by the portrayal of Mandela’s kindness. I do believe that compassion and inclusion are central to anything worth building up, and this goes doubly for a country.

…but.

But, I could clearly see that this film was, as most other films I watch, not so much about South Africa’s struggles, or even Mandela’s struggles, but more about making whites living in any colonial land today, feel comfortable and soothed.

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on Mon Jan 2nd 2012 at 23:25:17 Mel

@Tia, I’m an Atheist. As a Black Atheist, chritianity is the only option given in the media. I’m able to sit through Tyler Perry’s stuff, and I totally get that he’s appealing to a Christian audience. But rarely will I hear a Black character say ther is no “God.” I was not raised Atheist, but the only family member who shares that belief is my older brother, which is flattering because I view him as educated and decent.

You are my twin. My brother is the only one I know who also share my atheistic views. I get tired of seeing the same, singing, dancing, church-going movies aimed at black ppl, too., Nothing intellectually stimulating. Tyler Perry’s movies always end with the “broken” character finding herself in church.

@Jevioso, you are correct. The most successful black people are the ones who act “individually.”

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on Tue Jan 3rd 2012 at 20:03:19 Tyrone

Abagond:

They call it “Idiot Box” for a reason. The vast majority of brainwashing that infects black people in this country and beyond comes thru television. All sane black people know that “media” is full of it, but, we don’t connect the dots. Black culture is loved by all races in this country, but, do we as black people have control over it? We see black faces on tv everyday, doesn’t mean anything. The folks who control the behind the scenes stuff have the power, not those in front of the camera. Madison Avenue in New York City controls advertising in this country. Not a lot of black folk on Madison Avenue, we see the results on a daily basis. Not a lot of black folk in charge at Walt Disney Corp, Viacom, NBC Universal, and News Corp, It Shows! In the past we only focused on the lack of positive black images in media, we never focused on the source of the problem, “Media.” So-called black leaders could never bite the hands that feed them, think Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Racism is rampant in network and cable news, yet, black leaders stay quiet. Time-Warner, Universal, and Sony distributed gangsta-rap for many years with no shame. Pimping lost black males who promoted black on black violence, hatred of blackwomen, drug usage and sell, criminality as cool and worthwhile, etc. Hollywood studios continually showing bulls**t images of black people as uneducated, welfare queens, hoodrats, dopeboys, rapist, awol fathers, prostitutes, dumb jocks, etc. Media matters black people, Think About It!!!

Tyrone
Black Eros Movement

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on Tue Jan 3rd 2012 at 20:14:55 Happiness

“Racism is rampant in network and cable news, yet, black leaders stay quiet.”

@Tyrone

Yes, that is because they are rented negroes….I saw that term coined here first though, but that’s why. They get paid so they say what they are paid to say. Bought and paid for.

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on Tue Jan 3rd 2012 at 20:39:19 Nom De Plume

@Tyrone:

Racism is rampant in network and cable news, yet, black leaders stay quiet.

@Happiness:

Yes, that is because they are rented negroes….I saw that term coined here first though, but that’s why. They get paid so they say what they are paid to say. Bought and paid for.

—-

Al Sharpton comes to mind. They gave him his own gig on MSNBC. Yes, he still speaks out against injustice on the show, but does it in a way that seems more like a performance than anything. I’ve even seen him do little skits. I haven’t seen any of the other talk show hosts “perform” in this way. Rev. Al still does a lot of good, but it seems as though he has sold (or rented) a part of himself.

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on Tue Jan 3rd 2012 at 20:52:42 Happiness

Nom De Plume,

Yes, I noticed that from commenting in certain blogs as well, you could tell that someone had been to them and said something because they would remove their posts, maybe someone threatened their job or something. Journalists are some of the most susceptible to this, they write what they are told to write.

I think the main thing wrong with the world today is these undercover people going around bribing and buying people and making trouble. Shameful.

Shameful because some people can’t or won’t say what they have to say for fear that their bread and butter gets taken away…..Invisible shackles.

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on Tue Jan 3rd 2012 at 21:05:43 Tyrone

Happiness:

MSNBC is the most liberal cable news outlet on the “Idiot Box.” The NABJ(National Association of Black Journalists) started complaining about the lack of black faces on the network, in comes Sharpton to the rescue. Instead of hiring real black journalists, they decide to give Rev. Al his own show to shut up black folk…Insulting! You would assume that MSNBC would have no problem with diversity in the newsroom…Wrong! They were forced to hire Al, if they didn’t buck, Protests! Liberals want blacks to continue voting for democrats knowing damn’ well they they don’t give a blank about us anyway. Liberals slap us in the face, and we keep coming back for more. Think about all of the bs that black folk support in this country because of media bias…corrupt public schools, illegal immigration, radical islam, sports plantation(ncaa, nfl, nba, mlb, espn, fox sports), and so forth. Black people are dying in Africa because of radical islam, yet, Jackson, Sharpton, and Farrakhan have the nerve to defend radical muslims in this country while members of their own race are being killed in Nigeria, Sudan, Somalia, and Kenya…Amazing! The same cast of fools support illegal immigrants from central and south america breaking the laws of this country because white democrats in DC say so. Meanwhile, black folks in Miami, DC, Los Angeles, and Chicago can’t get jobs because they’re not bilingual…Stealth Racism! Black folks in LA and other cities are killed by hispanic gang members, yet, rented negroes say nothing about it because they’re bought and paid for…Black Folk Suffer! Our own people are helping our enemies dig our grave…Shameful!!!

Tyrone
Black Eros Movement

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on Tue Jan 3rd 2012 at 22:29:09 Matari

“some people can’t or won’t say what they have to say for fear that their bread and butter gets taken away…..Invisible shackles.”

************************

Invisible shackles??

It could also be called SELF- interest.

It’s more like going along to get along, but the further down that road you travel, the more you’ll COMPROMISE your principles and your CONSCIENCE. You’re highly likely to wake up one day to find that you’ve sold your soul for bread and butter that wasn’t worth – anything.

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on Tue Jan 3rd 2012 at 23:03:20 brothawolf

They call it “Idiot Box” for a reason. The vast majority of brainwashing that infects black people in this country and beyond comes thru television. All sane black people know that “media” is full of it, but, we don’t connect the dots. Black culture is loved by all races in this country, but, do we as black people have control over it? We see black faces on tv everyday, doesn’t mean anything. The folks who control the behind the scenes stuff have the power, not those in front of the camera. Madison Avenue in New York City controls advertising in this country. Not a lot of black folk on Madison Avenue, we see the results on a daily basis. Not a lot of black folk in charge at Walt Disney Corp, Viacom, NBC Universal, and News Corp, It Shows! In the past we only focused on the lack of positive black images in media, we never focused on the source of the problem, “Media.” So-called black leaders could never bite the hands that feed them, think Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Racism is rampant in network and cable news, yet, black leaders stay quiet. Time-Warner, Universal, and Sony distributed gangsta-rap for many years with no shame. Pimping lost black males who promoted black on black violence, hatred of blackwomen, drug usage and sell, criminality as cool and worthwhile, etc. Hollywood studios continually showing bulls**t images of black people as uneducated, welfare queens, hoodrats, dopeboys, rapist, awol fathers, prostitutes, dumb jocks, etc. Media matters black people, Think About It!!!

Hollywood – the media in general is just another cog in the machine of institutional racism and white supremacy. It’s all connected. This is more than enough reason to create our own media and not try to change the mainstream. It is incorrigible because in the end they present what whites want to see, and they will continue to promote whiteness for profit.

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on Tue Jan 3rd 2012 at 23:12:25 Happiness

Matari

Well, I really don’t hold it against anyone, although it is sad when you have an opinion or view but you can’t voice it because you are afraid that someone is going to take away your livelihood or worse, kill you.

Anyway, I’m off to bed now.

Night night.

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on Wed Jan 4th 2012 at 03:32:57 Matari

“it is sad when you have an opinion or view but you can’t voice it because you are afraid that someone is going to take away your livelihood or worse, kill you.”

*******************************

It is sad indeed, Happiness. But perhaps more importantly it reveals that the so-called “freedom” & “patriotism” banner the West (white supremacy) loves to wave is just an illusion – one that the people seem to gravitate towards.

If one isn’t free to to say, “no thanks,” or follow their God given conscience without dire consequences, then one isn’t truly free.
In America, the Land of the Free, one is only free to march in lockstep with the prevailing views/laws. Marching counter to the State – or conventional wisdom – is bound to have some really negative consequences … as you’ve pointed out.

When or if the state mandates that all citizens must have a 2-way TV (ala George Orwell’s 1984) in their dwelling (of course for their security and safety from THE TERRORISTS), and an ID chip (your papers) ever present on one’s person, there will be little doubt among the masses regarding the reality of their vaunted “freedoms.”

BET and the media in general (in their controlling people’s thoughts and whatnot) illustrates a bit of the who and how of where things are headed.

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on Fri Jan 6th 2012 at 20:12:53 Tyrone

Matari:

If i was an actor in hollywood, i would be “Whitelisted.” I would be a modern day Nat Turner…Not Well Behaved! Conservatives like me in sports and entertainment can’t speak freely about our political bent to avoid being punished by the powers that be…Bulls**t! I don’t care what your political bent is, you have the right as a human being to be true to your beliefs. We can agree to disagree and still interact just the same. The fact that most americans are spoonfed one ideological bent by and large is dangerous. This is the greater threat that “media” brings to the table. Black people who aren’t hip to what’s going on are “Easy Marks” for the likes of MTV, ESPN, etc. LORA is our best defense…Listen…Observe…Remember…Analyze

Tyrone
Black Eros Movement

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on Sun Jan 8th 2012 at 04:48:45 abagond

good summary:

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on Fri Jan 13th 2012 at 02:42:33 Derrick Witherspoon

You should do a post on the new show “House of Lies” with Don Cheadle and talk about the white supremacy in it.

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on Sun Jun 3rd 2012 at 17:05:17 phoebeprunelle

Abagond, don’t let certain black BET supporters and black people who claim they worked for BET as interns hear you say any of this.

They will literally tear your head off and blatantly call you the nice n-word. They are going to get mad and say that a black man named Robert Johnson founded the company and that black people will believe anything other people tell them without researching it first.

What many of them fail to realize is that it matters not who founded the company if American black men and women look like whores, pimps, pushers etc. on that network to the rest of the world every day.

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on Sun Jun 24th 2012 at 13:14:55 Palmer

I have to somewhat disagree with this. I grew up with plenty of positive images of black Americans on TV. Shows I remember watching were Smart Guy, Sister,Sister, Moesha, Family Matters, etc. and more adult shows like Living Single and Martin.

The negative stereotypes tended to be focused specifically on BET. I think this is more a problem of the music industry than the television industry, because the television shows on BET tended to just be recycled sitcoms similar to the shows listed above.

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on Thu Aug 30th 2012 at 20:33:48 ThatDeborahGirl

I find your comments about Alice Walker and there being little to no mention of racism in “The Color Purple” absurd. It’s like people who read “To Kill a Mockingbird” and say there’s very little about racism in the whole book and focus on the ‘good’ white people vs. ‘the bad white people’ and the only “bad” white people are the Ewells to most white folks. They don’t realize that every white person in the book is guilty and racist as hell, even Atticus. Only Atticus has the guts to admit it.

Racism is darned near a character in the book because it’s palpable and shapes the entire world merely by the era it’s written in and the fact that the lynching of successful black man leaves his wife and daughters unprotected and alone in the world in a way that would never happen to white people. Racism isn’t explained It’s just assumed and I find, having read this again recently, that there’s not a page, especially towards the end, that doesn’t have some commentary on white folks, most of it negative.

I think the racism in “The Color Purple” gets by white people because it’s not obvious to them, but hell if you think about it, every day racism isn’t obvious to them so why they should be expected to get from a book what’s around them every day just isn’t likely.

White people see what they want to see but that’s not Alice Walker’s fault or Harper Lee’s either.

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on Wed Jan 23rd 2013 at 02:33:11 Tai

Why do you sound so racist the facts are bet was found and ran by a black man untill like 2008 then at witch point he sold 51% of the compant not all of it and by the way white people are not the only ones who like it the whole world does so any thing that is on bet is because black people want them there thank you

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on Thu Apr 11th 2013 at 23:56:31 Mainstream Music Movers | BROTHA WOLF

[…] does it matter who these people are? The people who control the largest media companies are all white males. They own at least 95% of the mainstream media networks. The content you see on the magic box are […]

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on Fri Apr 12th 2013 at 01:16:51 King of Trouble

At Tai, like the fish?
So if people have a compliant about something they should shut up because the majority is right? That is what your comment seems like it is saying. Please correct me if I am wrong.

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on Wed Jun 26th 2013 at 18:35:45 joeschmoe

I agree. lets make things equal. I can’t wait to see WET – White Entertainment Television, white Miss America, White History month, the NAAWP – National Association for the advancement of White People, college grants given only to white people, & maybe I’ll make a movie called “black men can’t skate”. Oh wait, those would all be horribly racist now wouldn’t they? I’m so sick & tired of the double standard & the black community blaming the white community for all of their problems. I totally, & completely support equality, true equality. It’s comments like I see on here, & the above mentioned “black only” things that PROMOTE racism. If somebody white uses the “N” word they are crucified, while blacks use it dozens of times per day in movies, in song lyrics, etc. Oh,wait…it must be the white man making these black folks use that word & put into their music. If a black celebrity called somebody “whitebread” or “honky” nobody would say a word. Somebody mentioned the lack of black journalists on MSNBC, but it would be fine if they were ALL black though right? Then it wouldn’t be racist, it would be justified. If there is ever going to be a hope for true equality in this country, then the double standard needs to be changed.

It’s entirely true that great injustices have been done to the black community in the past & we should be ashamed. But tipping the scales of racism & oppression in the other direction in an attempt to make up for sins of the past is still racism & if you don’t see it, then it’s not equality you seek but rather revenge.

In the words of the Great Dr. King “…..there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

Anything aimed at benefiting any one race, sex, sexual orientation, color, nationality, religion, or ethnic background is discrimination & is WRONG, PERIOD! To think other wise is only perpetuating & supporting the very thing you claim to hate so much.

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on Wed Jun 26th 2013 at 18:47:55 abagond

@ joeschmoe

You are the one with a racist double standard:

https://abagond.wordpress.com/2011/01/19/white-privilege-mindset/

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on Wed Jun 26th 2013 at 19:10:57 abagond

@ joeschmoe

“I agree. lets make things equal. I can’t wait to see WET – White Entertainment Television, white Miss America, White History month, the NAAWP – National Association for the advancement of White People, college grants given only to white people, & maybe I’ll make a movie called “black men can’t skate”. Oh wait, those would all be horribly racist now wouldn’t they? “

WET = ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, CNN, History Channel, etc

White History Month = history as taught at high school in September, October, November, December, January, March, April, May

NAAWP = The Supreme Court, which just overturned a key part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Its only black judge is more against affirmative action than even its conservative white judges.

college scholarships – 75.7% of merit-based grants went to whites in 2007-2008.

“Black Men Can’t Skate” = “Precious”, “The Blind Side”, “The Help”, Tyler Perry films, etc

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on Wed Jul 31st 2013 at 19:48:48 Titanium Dragon

BET was only purchased by Viacom in 2001. It was already garbage by then, so you can’t pretend like the fact that it is owned by white people means anything. Not to mention the fact that it has been run by black people – Robert L Johnson, followed by Debra L Lee, for its entire existence.

“Wah white people depict us negatively!” Ha! You wish. You know the #1 cause of the negative presentation of black people in culture? Black people.

“But but but! Whites love racist caricatures of black people!” Not really, no. While I know in your racist mindset (yes, you’re a racist) all white people must be racist, the truth is that most white people don’t live around racist caricatures of black people and really don’t have a huge amount of interest in them. You know who does?

Click to access 10BET.pdf

Black people.

Who watches BET?

African-Americans. They even note this to their advertisers, and tell their advertisers that they are an excellent venue for targeting black people.

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/12/21/2011-is-bets-most-watched-year-ever/114425/

BET knows its target audience.

So no, however much you might want to say white people are responsible for negative depictions of black people in popular culture, the fact of the matter is, blacks watch this trash and like it, and indeed, produce a great deal of it.

Much easier to blame someone other than yourselves for your problems. Everyone loves to do it, but it never fixes anything.

Maybe you should turn inwards and consider what is wrong with black people, rather than whining about everyone else. Consider what you, personally, can do. And no, whining about it isn’t what is going to fix things.

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on Wed Sep 18th 2013 at 20:36:16 Follow The Money! | African-American Culture 101

[…] https://abagond.wordpress.com/2011/12/27/the-bet-fallacy/ […]

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on Sun Sep 22nd 2013 at 23:17:37 DesiBjorn

Reblogged this on The Angriest Black Man in America and commented:
Excellent information.

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on Mon Sep 23rd 2013 at 00:36:18 Queen Ciara-Adira

Reblogged this on Black Supremacy Love and Unity and commented:
A Must Read

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on Fri Jan 31st 2014 at 22:05:12 LittleBabyBug Jones

not so sure about the part about reclamation of the n word. most poor black people wear the “n” word out. they see themselves as niggas and it flies outta their mouths effortlessly. most upper class or even working class blacks are extremely reticent to use it, and only use it (if they do at all) to refer to blacks who are totally lacking of class. kinda like how white people use “white trash” which always throws me when that term comes outta white peoples’ mouths. i hate the n-word, and i’m not too keen on saying white trash. to me it’s synonymous with redneck, but white people down south love associating themselves with the very non-too-flattering image of the redneck.

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on Sat Aug 30th 2014 at 19:37:47 Broken Records: Arguments About Race | Marmalade

[…] The BET Fallacy: Using BET, Chris Rock, Rented Negroes or hip hop videos to prove something about black people […]

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on Wed Mar 9th 2016 at 21:20:06 Jonathan

I love coming back to remind myself that TV is garbage for this exact reason. Worse than no representation is misrepresentation.

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on Mon Aug 7th 2017 at 01:15:04 Lynne

Great insight! Great points.

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on Sat Apr 24th 2021 at 23:30:03 Broken Records: Arguments About Race | Marmalade

[…] The BET Fallacy: Using BET, Rented Negroes, Black comedians or hip hop artists to prove something about black people […]

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