2008 Woodie Awards
BET programming does more harm than good
Extremely simplified television
Filippo Goodman
Issue date: 2/18/05 Section: Opinion
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It sounded like a great idea.
Spawned during the post-civil rights malaise of the early-80's when Blacks were still searching hard for institutional hurdles to jump --- Black Entertainment
Television, a cable channel aimed specifically at African-American, supposed to rattle the mainstream cage. That social contract of providing a counterbalance to the unattractive stereotypes and "blackouts" that ran rampant in network television seems to be one that was written in ice.
Fast forwarding to the present day, BET has become to many a black-themed distillation of homogenized mindless entertainment., simply a harmless teenage pit stop, that has carved out little more than a reputation of gratuitous commercialism.
Just an after-school distraction of images that flicker in the background during science homework in suburbs across America.
February being the month designated for the celebration of Black history has always been a source of comedy, given the lack of outdoor activity options, and the way most people sleepwalk through the abbreviated month in preparation for spring. BET in many ways mirrors that sensibility of fools gold.
BET started on their road to irrelevance by their adoption of a conservative bourgeois mindset set forth by founder Robert Johnson, who created BET with the
Black Yuppie in mind.
Early on, BET capitalized on MTV's unspoken ban against showcasing Black artists. From safe popcorn acts like New Edition to sequin-adorned top 40 stars such as Luther Vandross, BET became a haven for black pop music.
Left out of the mix during BET's fledgling years were hip-hop videos which showed just where the channel drew the cultural line in the sand.
In a move that would manifest itself in the future, BET executives were clearly uncomfortable with a young black street-oriented culture that didn't fit their philosophy, or didn't come complete with a corporate seal of approval.
Ironically, BET didn't regularly begin showing rap videos until well after MTV established there was gold in the Bronx, by virtue of "Yo MTV Raps" becoming a ratings sensation. Only when the mainstream became less contemptuous of the culture, and record labels figured out they could mine a serious dollar out of it, did BET finally hop aboard the hip-hop train. That was the type of follow-the-suits thinking the channel was ostensibly supposed to reject.
Spawned during the post-civil rights malaise of the early-80's when Blacks were still searching hard for institutional hurdles to jump --- Black Entertainment
Television, a cable channel aimed specifically at African-American, supposed to rattle the mainstream cage. That social contract of providing a counterbalance to the unattractive stereotypes and "blackouts" that ran rampant in network television seems to be one that was written in ice.
Fast forwarding to the present day, BET has become to many a black-themed distillation of homogenized mindless entertainment., simply a harmless teenage pit stop, that has carved out little more than a reputation of gratuitous commercialism.
Just an after-school distraction of images that flicker in the background during science homework in suburbs across America.
February being the month designated for the celebration of Black history has always been a source of comedy, given the lack of outdoor activity options, and the way most people sleepwalk through the abbreviated month in preparation for spring. BET in many ways mirrors that sensibility of fools gold.
BET started on their road to irrelevance by their adoption of a conservative bourgeois mindset set forth by founder Robert Johnson, who created BET with the
Black Yuppie in mind.
Early on, BET capitalized on MTV's unspoken ban against showcasing Black artists. From safe popcorn acts like New Edition to sequin-adorned top 40 stars such as Luther Vandross, BET became a haven for black pop music.
Left out of the mix during BET's fledgling years were hip-hop videos which showed just where the channel drew the cultural line in the sand.
In a move that would manifest itself in the future, BET executives were clearly uncomfortable with a young black street-oriented culture that didn't fit their philosophy, or didn't come complete with a corporate seal of approval.
Ironically, BET didn't regularly begin showing rap videos until well after MTV established there was gold in the Bronx, by virtue of "Yo MTV Raps" becoming a ratings sensation. Only when the mainstream became less contemptuous of the culture, and record labels figured out they could mine a serious dollar out of it, did BET finally hop aboard the hip-hop train. That was the type of follow-the-suits thinking the channel was ostensibly supposed to reject.