July 26, 2007 at 1:05 pm (African American, African American Images, BET)
Hot Ghetto mess premiered last night with much anticipation as many of us were prepared to watch a sequel of images and portrayals found on the infamous site, hotghettomess.com. But oddly, the show was a disjointed mess of Jay Leno type street interviews , short films and stale videos. It seems that BET erred on the side of caution and made some last minute modifications to the program after the wave of criticism sparked from the lone blogger over at What About Our Daughters. Her efforts to spread the word about this program and persuade advertisers to pull out demonstrates the power that we each hold in this technological age.
Although the goal of preventing HGM from airing was not realized – I think this was just the first shot over the bow.
Hopefully – those more articulate than myself can spearhead other social issues effecting our youth and communities using the power of the internet.
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July 18, 2007 at 5:02 pm (African American, African American Images, BET)
Since I’ve been following the controversy regarding the airing of the BET travesty “Hot Ghetto Mess”, I’m subconsciously awaiting the black clergy and local black leaders from across the country to step up and demand that this show be canceled. This is a moral and social issue that needs to be addressed in our country and who better than the ministers of our black churches and local leaders of our cities to lead the charge against the exploitation of the less powerful? I’m not saying that I think Reverend Al should lead the charge, but I do expect to see other ministers & leaders step up and make public statements denouncing BET’s – HGM and rally church members & other organizations to take action to oppose BET’s blaxplotation programming.
Why aren’t there investigations based on the images of young children possibly being abused? Where is Child Protective Services? Surely someone that works in these agencies is aware of the depictions of children on hotghettomess.com. Even if this is legal (which I doubt) , there is a moral code that has been broken.
What have we become when the powerful feed off of the weak rather than helping to lift them up and there is no public outcry from the very ones that teach us that “we are our brother’s keeper”……
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July 14, 2007 at 4:55 am (African American, African American Images, BET, Parenting, Teenagers)
BET is preparing to air what can only be described as a minstrel show depicting African-Americans in the poorest possible way. Apparently they are competing with VH1 to try and one-up the Flavor of Love programs. According to the blogoshere, BET was actively soliciting images and information of most unbecoming nature to depict on this show – some of which show disturbing images of children.
Home Depot and State Farm Insurance beat a hasty retreat from “Hot Ghetto Mess” following a growing din of complaints, mostly on the Internet, that the show – a collection of home videos and images sent in by viewers – depicts African Americans in the worst light possible.
The show evolved from an Internet site of the same name, which features photos of African Americans in various “ghetto” styles, including hair, clothing and jewelry.
At least one gallery of photos on the site shows toddlers and infants photographed holding bottles of beer or with cigars in their mouths. – New York Post
Hopefully BET will come to it’s senses and pull the plug on this nonsense.
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July 13, 2007 at 7:37 am (African American, African American Images)
What were they thinking? This is a photo-shoot of Mo’nique and contestants for the upcoming F.A.T. Chance competition. It’s intended to be artful, however, it looks like 6 naked overweight women with paint on their bodies, holding their “twins” while posing for a camera. I applaud them for being proud thick sisters…but this crosses the line. In all honesty Mo’nique looks tasteful, the others look awful.
Before you start going off on me – realize that I’m a big girl myself and I have always admired Mo’nique for promoting the beauty of us big sisters, however, we all must realize that different body shapes require different things.
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July 12, 2007 at 1:46 pm (African American, African American Images)
After watching “Charm School” on VH1 at the urging of my 15 year old, I was dumb-founded. I did not realize these type of shows existed. They bring to my mind a type of minstrel show created to demean and humiliate those portrayed – except in 2007 we have somehow been convinced to portray ourselves in a negative light for all the world to see. What is wrong with this picture – oh lest I forget, the show is meant to “help” the wayward young female participants.
It seems to me that if Mo’nique were really sincere in helping the girls from Charm School, she would have done so without the cameras rolling. How can you help these girls by exposing their flaws to the world. It would seem that you would take them in and “love on them” (as Mo said) without the world watching and then when they have learned to control undesirable behaviors – develop a reality program to showcase the positive changes they’ve made. Although I thought Larissa’s behavior was completely “out of order” with the cursing of an elder I did agree with her when she said Mo was full of it.
Hopefully some of our black stars in Hollywood will take a note from CeCe Winans – Always Sisters Conference and really try to do something positive to help our young people….without the cameras rolling.
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