BET: More Money, Less Booty

I hesitated to blog about this issue, but since it seems to have gone without comment in any TV-related media outlet, I decided to talk about it here.

Friday's Washington Post reported that changes are afoot for BET (Black Entertainment Television). The network's parent company, Viacom Inc., will increase BET's budget for original programming by 30 percent to 50 percent this year. The network has typically lacked original programming, instead filling airtime with hip-hop videos and syndicated repeats of such shows as The Parkers, Girlfriends, Soul Food, The Wire, The Jamie Foxx Show, and In Living Color.

BET plans to add "at least 10 new shows this year" and expand across multiple media platforms to reach its predominantly black audience.

I think these are welcome changes, long overdue. I have always had strong opinions about BET. As the first, and until the relatively recent launch of TV One, the only Black network, it has failed miserably to address the diverse culture of African-Americans. Instead the powers that be chose to promote ignorant, violent and hypersexual misogynistic stereotypes of Black America. That's why my friends and I commonly refer to BET as Black Exploitation Television.

At a time when Black America is suffering, BET is doing a disservice to the community.

• Black-on-black crime is at an all-time high (did anyone catch Paula Zhan's special last night on CNN about this very issue?)

• African-Americans account for half of all new HIV/AIDS diagnoses, and the disease is the leading cause of death for young Black women.

• More Black men are in jail than in college (if you don't believe me, check the New York Times archives).

• And just yesterday, we learned that about one-third of the people living in Washington D.C., the nation's capital, are functionally illiterate, compared with about one-fifth nationally. 60% of D.C.'s population is African-American. You do the math.

But, all is not lost. Change is afoot, not just at BET. For the first time in history, we have a real, viable Black candidate for U.S. President in Barack Obama.

Since BET has the eyes and ears of so many African-American youth, they need to accept the responsibility, step up to the plate, and as Spike Lee says, "do the right thing." Because the stakes are too high now for them to fail and turn the other (butt-)cheek.

For the full Post article, click here.