(New York): Black Bloggers have united to battle mainstream music and entertainment fat-cats who profit off the stereotypical, sexist, and racist exploitation of African American people. Their main targets are Black Entertainment Television (BET), who they call ‘Black Exploitation Television’, and gangsta rappers such as 50cent, Snoop Dog, The Game, and Cam’ron. These artists produce music bloggers have branded ‘gangsta crap’.
Gangsta rap regularly glorifies sexism, the n-word, profanities, violence, drug use and dealing, sexism, and the dehumanization of Black men and women. Gangsta rap videos and stereotype-filled shows are the programming staples
of BET. “BET and hip hop have gone down hill. They were once inspirations. Now they purvey some of the most harmful anti-Black sentiments you will ever see or hear, and this has become a representation of mainstream Black culture,” says Bronze Trinity of the Afrosphere Bloggers Association (ABA). ABA is coordinating the Afrosphere Accurate Images campaign against BET and gangsta rap.
ABA member, Wayne Hicks criticized, “BET was an inspirational idea when it was first created. Tremendous shows providing news and information for the Black community. Today, BET is an embarrassment for the Black community. It
is something that we hide from our children. Enough is enough”.
ABA bloggers want widespread changes in the television and music entertainment industries. They want BET to stop airing videos where half-naked women are objectified, Black men are shown as ‘thugs’ and ‘pimps’, and street violence, illegal drugs, and gang activity is glorified.
They want the n-word and sexist epithets to be be censored when children under 18 are likely to be watching. ABA also wants radio stations to stop playing racist, violent, and sexist music, for mainstream record labels and artists to stop producing such music, and for positive/conscious hip hop to become the mainstream. “It’s time to rise above the corrupted caricatures painted onto the Black community, and reach within ourselves with self love and respect”, says ABA blogger Daz Wilson.
However the bloggers understand the fine line between artistic expression and free speech. Carole took a pledge against racist and sexist hip hop on her blog but stated, “I believe that artists and performers are free to speak their own minds. I’m not against free speech. But honestly, I wish there are folks who were a bit more responsible in their speech to kids because most kids are pretty undiscerning”.
The non-profit blogger group is battling media executives and multi-millionaire artists using internet activism in the form of blogs, message boards, email, and online petitions. On the ABA website http://solutionsforourpeople.wordpress.com, the group suggests taking a pledge against sexist and racist hip hop, buying conscious hip hop from artists like Common, Mos Def, and Talib Kweli, advertising conscious artists on blogs, and requesting more radio play time for these artists. They also
provide anti-BET stickers, instructions to boycott radio, television, and website sponsors, and numerous petitions so bloggers can show their support.
This is not just an American concern according to ABA member Adrianne, “Living overseas allows one to see how influential American pop culture is. Even in Sweden I see the young kids listening to and emulating the hip hop performers. Black artists do not need to export negative images of Black women around the world”. Other international members have reported stereotypes and negative behaviors caused by gangsta hip hop and television programming that is broadcast around the world.
ABA strongly supports recent activism of other groups such as What About Our Daughters blog, the Enough is Enough Campaign, and the National Action Network’s Day of Outrage Against the Music Industry. “The time has come for
us to take back our image and for Black people to accept responsibility for the role they play in denigrating our own image,” proposed Bronze Trinity.
Contact Information: The Solutions Blog
http://solutionsforourpeople.wordpress.com
Bronze Trinity at bronzetrinity@hotmail.com
Adrianne at http://blackwomenineurope.blogspot.com/
Carole at http://www.darkparables.blogspot.com
Daz Wilson at http://www.ultravioletunderground.com
Wayne Hicks at http://electronicvillage.blogspot.com/
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afrospear.wordpress.com 
Folks consider Mos Def conscious, and maybe he is…I was abit bothered though when he said, to paraphrase, “they want me to take a stand against what’s going on (in rap), but I come from those same streets, drinking sugar water (or something).
Seems he redeemed himself somewhat on Bill Maher.
Ageorgegal
Glad see this article, because we in the UK despair listening to hate music pumping out of cars with shaven headed white youths flying the King George’s cross from the aerial.
All because they think they are tough too.
The hard-man image is easy to emulate and the groin grinding females on the gasta-crap videos only reinforce the age old concept of Black = Evil.
Frankly, I wouldn’t know MosDef if he sat next to me at a restaurant. And I wouldn’t know his music if it was playing on the radio, although I’d surely recognize the tune without knowing who played it.
I was very much negatively influenced by some rap music (and positively by others) when I was a young man, starting to date. I listened to songs that said things like,
“You’re the kinda man who gives her money to shop . . . I’m the kinda man who’s out stealing her heart. You’re the kind of man who has no idea that a sneaky freaky mother’s coming in from the rear!” 🙂
“Girls start shakin, goodness sakin’, she wants a man to bring home the bacon! Got no money, you got no car, then you got no woman and there you are!”
Well, these amoral and materialistic (although arguably somewhat realistic) lyrics tend to encourage young people to emulate the worst of values and human behavior rather than the best.
I prefer raps like the ones from my good friend, Chris:
“OUTSTANDING . . .
When you succeed at a goal that you pursue!
OUTSTANDING . . .
When you stand up and face all odds!
OUTSTANDING . . .
When you tell yourself, “I can do it if I put my mind to it!”
OUTSTANDING . . .
You know it feels good when you succeed
at a goal that you pursue,
just like Martin Luther King had a goal and a dream to bring PEACE to this world we live!
It all starts with the man in the mirror.
Take a look and see what you can change about you.
Then get on your knees and ask God, with sincerity,
TO HELP ME PLEASE
Expect the best so I can be the best . . .
You know…I wish the online (mostly white) feminists who’re so concerned with negative media & pop culture images of women would take a page from this and do the same thing more often: challenge the OUTLETS and the MAKERS of the stuff. take it to the top. hell, Bitch magazine does that; it was done recently wrt a Cosmopolitan article (“grey rape;”) it…yeah, sorry, don’t mean to derail. Just: interested in connections, there.
Winslie, great to hear a UK point of view. Black musicians have to realize that their music goes all around the world. When I was in Siem Reap in Cambodia at the magnificient Ankor Wat, a young Cambodian girl asked me to sing. I amsure it was because of the videos she watched. Now a days she would probably ask me to grind 😦
Bravo!
It must always be remembered that Afrikans don’t control the distribution of this music. Some rich executive who doesn’t give a hoot about our communities is okay with releasing this trash and marketing it as “hip”.
I personally boycotted BET ages ago when Robert Johnson let it be known loud and clear that he was presenting “black culture” (really?) and when he essentially showed no sense of community towards me whatsoever. We were just to be pawns in his marketing bonanza.
To hades with gangsta crap, Johnson, Black Exploitation TV, and anybody inside or outside of my community trying to pass this filth off as “music” or “art”.
Peace.
adrianne, you are so right that black artists need to know that their music is broadcast worldwide. they can’t complain about their image and being looked down on when they are basically shooting themselves in their feet.
mane yall hatin on b.e.t ,…..get off our nuts and for the jena six
This is my post on africanamerican opinion in repsonse to the video about read a book that aired on BET:
Who is in charge of our image? And are we sure we want to applaud folks for “Keeping it real” when in fact it isn’t? I am not sure who this video speaks to, what mythical Black community accepts this as a true and accurate representation of art, culture and talent. Are we so far removed from Lorraine Hansberry’s “To Be Young Gifted and Black” that we are so willing to accept cheap, and tired and certainly uninspiring messages about what is going on in some of our communities. I am not willing to accept this. I am not willing to embrace this. I am not willing to look my 4 beautiful Black children in the eyes and say this is your reality. I will be off to prison in a few weeks, I will check to see if folks are reading there or not. I will follow up on this later. In the meantime, I think we as people of Color, would do well to remember that our ancestors learned to read by the light of the moon against great odds, that so many fled north by the north star, that enslaved Black men so committed to keeping the ties of family strong that many would walk 10, 15, 20 miles each way to the next plantation to see children and loved ones. No, I am not accepting this as a representation of who we are, not while I know where we come from deserves so much more honor and reverance. Those of us who keep the faith need to remind those that do not.
Love,
Babz
http://www.lovebabz.blogspot.com
my journey. my life.
I’m very impressed with the work that is being done here. Please count me in! I’ve added AfroSpear as one of my links.
are black man really that stupid that people are still debating these “problems” that seem solvable, keep blogging away people it wont result in anything useful.
African Reparations for the Black Holocaust Petition:
http://www.gopetition.co.uk/online/10151.html
This is great afrospear. We need music that is uplifting. If you don’t mind I would like to put you on my blogroll.
Johnson sold BET years ago. But the main point I would like to make is that we as a community don’t offer our people any alternative in the way of television.
We don’t seem to be able to put our money where our hearts are.
There’s also a decline in creativity and taste. Both BET’s and gangster rap’s success illustrate this decline. Again we must look in our families for answers because we have to take a certain percentage of the blame for what is transpiring.
I have voted against BET by not subscribing to cable. I can find other more valuable information online and in the print media.
Instead of teachers and parents spending their time rationalizing hip hop culture, they must show young folks that there is more to life than sex, music, and drugs. They, the youth, need to be focused on and engaged in reality.
What the music calls reality is a trap for the unaware who lazily oppose struggle (self improvement) and fall mindlessly in step to the beat that leads nowhere. 4/4 and 6/8 beats delight, but limit what an illiterate person can say. Therefore, much of what I have sampled in that category of music, is infantile and does not communicate ideas. The music is pure emotions masked as ideas and sold to malleable minds and alienated minds. Strangely, most of this music is sold in white middle class suburbs where the emotions that lead to self-destruction are prevalent.
It is to bad that there are so many ignorant, non-productive blacks who view this dinigration as a way to justify their meaningless existence. Without a proper education this is the only way they see to make money and they are so shallow that they don’t care what message they are sending out. Plus, it is the only way they can make a dollar, which is really why they refuse to abdicate. without this hateful medium, all of them would regress to the nothingness they represent. Poor, ignorant and dissafiliated like the trash and garbage from whence they hail.
I am a strong proponent of the disintegration of BET, this corporation since its inception has been a vile disease in the spirits of our youth. It is a horrid represention of who we are as Africans, African-Americans, and African-Carribbean people!
BET is not “Black” owned; it’s Negro owned. Those so-called artists, really don’t express their right to speak. Thei owners are telling them, what to say. Telling these young dumb models, what to wear, and selling the youth, what they want us to see. It’s the continuing cycle from when, gangsta rap, once began. I t’s the early 90’s, repeating itself. There is nothing new here, in Hip Hop. There is nothing new in the destruction of Black people, here in amerikkka. We keep it going, because there is little of us to do something about it. The so-called artists are scared, they got to get paid. Models too. Money is the root of all evil.
A Boycott of all destructive music stations media and musical acts should join any boycott of BET. Buy only Jazz, gospel, rap, blues and contemporary Black music that do not spread toxic ghetto culture. I love Christian rap music jazz and gospel. These are the people who deserve your money. Don’t let your kids play the crap in your own house. If one complains abour BET videos and one listens to the radio stations wich costantly play strip club ganster rap music then the boycott is ineffective. Don’t let your kids listen or watch the bad stuff in your house. Boycott all media destructive to Black culture and promote the good stuff. Buy positive films and music by Black people.
BET should be one in a long list of lifetime boycotts.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. As an African American woman I find much of our music and so called freedom of expression to be demeaning rather than edifying. I have not watched BET since I first realized that Bob Johnson was just an
oreo profiting from the humiliation and degrading of our people.(where I am from that’s called a pimp)
I was so happy when I discovered we had a black owned cable station. I thought WOW..now we will have quality black entertainment where the world can see black people doing something other than performing for “masta”…. then I saw it was the same old cow dung. Cow Dung is still cow dung…it doesn’t matter if its a black cow or a white cow..it’s still dung. The man SOLD_OUT….period. Making millions was more important than being a responsible sentinel of our community at large. We are accustomed to being screwed by the white media but it is particularly painful when it’s done by one of our own.
While at Jury Duty one day day in New York I noticed a lot of black kids protesting on the courthouse steps. I went to see what all the commotion was about and was soo very pleased and proud to see a large group of kids from a church marching with signs and chanting “B E T DOESN”T REPRESENT ME”. They were from a church in Yonkers or Mt Vernon. There were several reporters and camera-men there from several TV stations. I was so happy and proud of these kids. Your post reminded me to search for the flyer and look up this church to find out who is leading and teaching these kids and make contact. This was in the Bronx..not sure why that day or that courthouse. (Does anyone else know anything about this?) I had to rush to court and could not get any further details.
Also… Didn’t Robert Johnson sell B.E.T. or am I confused???
Someone once said about the Holocaust… Evil persists not from those who do evil but from good men who stand by and do nothing…. (or something like that…you get the gist of it 🙂
I gave up on BET years ago.
Years ago when rap gangsta rap music burst onto the scene it was a way for the people that lived those hard lives to speak up. Even for as offensive and disgusting as it was that was the lives they lived. And that is why a lot of people, myself included, would be hesitative to just force them to shup up. But at the same time when those rappers told their stories the big record companies notice that their stories were popular and decided that they had to figure out how to make money off the image and not care if the story was real or how offensive it is.
And somewhere along the line those companies managed to convince people that the gangsta rap image was not only the accurate representation of black people but they managed to convince black people that in order to make it in the music business that was the image they had to put on whether it was accurate or not.
Been there heard dat. The world does not revolve around BET. At least for most of us. And if you want to boycott it, how you gonna be effective without a list of sponsors? I mean, like saying you just aint gonna watch that channel boils down to nothing. Talking about it boils down to nothing. If you want to get something done collect a list of sponsors and say we aint buying your products. Include the record labels. Start building institutions in our community which will direct youth not just away from the ish we don’t want them wrapped up in but into anti-imperialist groups.
You cant be part of the system and just criticize the parts you don’t like. If you want to be part of the system, you have to be out to make capitalism better. But in the end you really don’t have to do anything because somebody will do the work for you. If you don’t want to be part of it, you have to bring about its downfall. Which side are you on?
Or, you can do like I’ve done. My two daughters don’t watch BET BECAUSE I DON’T HAVE CABLE OR SATELLITE TV in my home.
I have a set up where they get to see any video or part of the American/world youth culture they want. But they have to use unconventional methods to do so.
In doing so, they are not subject to what I believe the owners (past and present) of BET are intent on doing; contributing to the delinquency of the black and brown mindset by dumbing down the programing the station offers so those who choose to just sit there and ASK to be spoon fed that crap, will become desensitized to the fact that ignorant behavior is not “a good thing”.
My unconventional method evolves around my use of broadband and a media center desktop pc hooked up to a projector beamed to a 100 inch screen, equipped with mini wireless key board that has a built in touchpad/scroll pad mouse.
I have not had cable or Sat in my home going on 6 years now. And I never plan on going back to it. Never.
My daughters are 12 and 17 years old. They use Yahoo music to view any video they want without some VJ telling them what’s hip, what’s hot or how they should be dressing.
They get enough of that at school. It’s the control that the marketing media has over EVERYONE that led me to get rid of satellite years ago. I rejected for myself. And I certainly did not want my daughters to grow up allowing the media marketing empire to control their minds.
We get essentially everything via broadband that any household gets via Sat/cable, and more. Except WE control where we go and what we get. After awhile, you get used to it and you KNOW where to find all of the Discovery Channels and network TV shows streams being offered all over the world!
We don’t allow the established, collusioned American Media empire to TELL us what we should be watching by being bombarded by deceptive Ad after Ad after Ad.
I do have an HDTV tuner hooked up to the set up so we get crystal clear 1080p high def local stations that allow us some normalcy.
There are options out there that saves money and allows for the vile intentions of BET to be filtered out of ones environment. You just gotta be willing to ‘cut the cord”.
As for boycotting BET, the fact of the matter is they have an outdated business model that is on it’s last legs. The future of broadband tv is just around the corner (actually, it’s already here, you just got to get the right setup to enter it’s world).
It’s a totally different concept. One that, right now, I see as being led by the efforts of Youtube. The beauty of this is that I expect there to be more offerings for blacks and other minorities under this format or the future format because the internet is so vast and it’s just difficult for collusion of the current main stream media sources to occur and in the age of internet tv.
You’ll see more independently produced black cinema and sitcom like offerings being available for your viewing due to the lowered cost of doing so and not having to bother with dealing with the networks who essentially have an agenda that details what they want you and I to see.
GARBAGE.
I agree with everyone here, I think that BET has served it’s purpose for black people and now needs to die. Yes there are some shows that give us some positive information but, for the most part it’s hurting us more than it helps. I actually think that the amount of positive programming by BET has decreased considerably in the last ten years. What’s funny is that many white people have been using BET as a term to say they aren’t racist,”WE don’t have a white entertainment television channel,” if they wanted one they could certainly have this one and its destuctive programming. Could you imagine a channel showing Irish folks getting drunk all day or Italians shooting each other? No other ethnic group does that except us. Remember according to BET all us black people want is too shake our buts, curse, and drink malt liquor.
I keep getting errors when I attempt to add your feed to my feed reading software. Am I doing something wrong, or is there a problem with your site?
Well, since nobody else has identified a problem with the feeds from this site and since we really have no idea what you might be doing, I’d have to guess that you might be doing something wrong. May I suggest you get some help from somebody who might be more technically savvy.
Peace