Comments

1. Wendi Muse wrote:

   omg…machiavelli would have a field day with this one…b.c it begs the age old question of whether or not the means to an end really matter…
   i mean the message is good: personal hygiene, literacy, land ownership, and positive parenting skills…but the method of conveying these points pretty much undermines the main message…

   i think the image that sticks with me the most is the “b-o-o-k” booty jiggling…nice touch
   maybe it will encourage people to read…or simply to pop lock and drop it while wearing Juicy Couture-esque sweat pants supporting reading…

   btw was the animation done by the same group that worked on the HBO fairytale series? (which was awesome btw)

   Posted 19 Jul 2007 at 12:24 pm ¶

2. Anonymous wrote:

   Whoa. I understand trying to reach our youth through music….but this is NOT the right way. I don’t understand how the sexist and racist messages in the video will help to combat illiteracy and other issues. I would be loathe to show this to anyone who is an impressionable youth.

   Posted 19 Jul 2007 at 1:12 pm ¶

3. gandalf mantooth wrote:

   It’s intended to make us laugh, not actually encourage anyone to read. His suggestions are rhetorical, made out of frustration. It’s a colloquial way of speaking.

   Did the artist say this song was on BET or another one?

   Posted 19 Jul 2007 at 1:37 pm ¶

4. Anonymous wrote:

   Okay….. why do we think this was shown on BET? It has a url in the corner for an urban poet in DC…… This is obviously a parody. An outrageous one, but an amusing one, none the less….

   Posted 19 Jul 2007 at 1:39 pm ¶

5. andrea wrote:

   “i mean the message is good: personal hygiene, literacy, land ownership, and positive parenting skills…but the method of conveying these points pretty much undermines the main message…”

   i agree. by the time i finished watching the video, i was insulted…not to mention that i think the whole thing is a bit elitist. and if this video is playing on BET, i think it’s a *tad* hypocritical. How do you condemn the ideals that your network is responsible for perpetuating? GTFOWTBS.

   Posted 19 Jul 2007 at 1:42 pm ¶

6. Carmen Van Kerckhove wrote:

   > Okay….. why do we think this was shown on BET? It has a url in the corner for an urban poet in DC…… This is obviously a parody. An outrageous one, but an amusing one, none the less….

   Because it says so in the description of the video on the YouTube page and on the director’s blog.

   Posted 19 Jul 2007 at 1:54 pm ¶

7. Latoya Peterson wrote:

   I can ask.

   I see the songwriter (Bomani “D’Mite” Armah) around U street, and this isn’t really consistent with his image. I love the song (been listening to it for almost a year) but I was a bit off put by the video.

   I guess they might have “BET-ified” it for that audience?

   I dunno, but I will investigate…

   Posted 19 Jul 2007 at 2:19 pm ¶

8. evita wrote:

   Reading a book is good message, but not at the expense of promoting stereotypes.

   It’s a great way to promote the hip hop stereotype, you know the one Oprah promotes…

   Posted 19 Jul 2007 at 3:17 pm ¶

9. ALLWORLD wrote:

   I’m torn this could be a parody and let’s face it some of our youth are so blind to what the powers that be are trying to do to them something like this could shake some of them awake but not enough i’m afraid to change most of them, it is better than most of the gangsta bling rap and they should read some MF books, if they are going to listen to garbage rap at least throw some positive messages in, check out my website and enjoy the knowledge
   PROUD TO BE BLACK NEWS http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeo9ewi/proudtobeblack1/

   Posted 19 Jul 2007 at 4:58 pm ¶

10. Anon Hip Hop Lover wrote:

    the video aired on BET’s new show called The 5ive. Even though the hostess credited Lil (don’t he wish he could make a song with a message) Jon as the artist, the real actual artist is poet/rapper/producer, Bomani Armah (www.notarapper.com). The song was made in complete satire and parody of the current “crunk” state of hip hop.

    Quote from the intro of the song:
    “See I usually do songs with like…
    hooks and concepts and sh*t, right?

    But, f*ck dat man I’m trynna go platinum!”

    Then, he kicks into the chant that has the world buzzing right now, “READ A BOOK!”

    It’s a message with that old proven formula for comedy where it kinda hurts but still makes you laugh because it has an inkling a truth to it.

    If rappers enjoy throwing N-bombs, killing 100 people per song, surviving with Ump-teen bullet wounds while simultaneously managing to copulate with enough prostitutes to over flood a Pimps Up and Hoes down convention…

    then, why not have one rapper that has enough balls to tell you to do something POSITIVE…

    All the images do is support the JOKE.
    Someone mentioned the Booty Scene.
    Rappers want you to buy their records…
    they throw a million girls in the video.
    Rapper wants you to read a book…
    there is BOOK on a girls butt.

    Shocking…

    but, I’d rather be shocked by something with a message than the bullsh#t I hear in mainstream media today.

    Posted 19 Jul 2007 at 6:12 pm ¶

11. michelle wrote:

    From the perspective of an artist, I think there is incredible value in exploding and playing with stereotypes. I think that this is the type of thing that almost no longer exists in our urban communities. There used to be a time when we had “art” and it sparked conversation and controversy. It is almost like we have forgotten that. There are so few artists who are willing to take risks in a larger arena (at least in my opinion). To me, it was that kind of daring that birthed blues, jazz and hip-hop. Sometimes you fail, but the trying is what is important. To my eye, this is what this is. To my eye, the booty shakin book girls are a take on what we see in videos all the time. He is using a very familiar image to convey a very layered message.

    If I may, I would like to ask Andrea what she feels is elistist about this video.

    Posted 19 Jul 2007 at 9:36 pm ¶

12. Hulk wrote:

    That video is terrible. What we need are positive images not negative images. We need positive roll models to look up to like Frederick Douglass and Paul Robeson, etc.

    Posted 19 Jul 2007 at 11:44 pm ¶

13. David Wynn wrote:

    The video was….. interesting to say the least. I interpreted it as satire, and in that regard I thought it was pretty funny.

    I was just waiting for “Respect Women” to appear during another booty shaking scene.

    Posted 20 Jul 2007 at 8:59 am ¶

14. Miss B wrote:

    I think that’s hilarious. I’d show it to my students in a heartbeat if it weren’t for the language - not that they’d be offended by it or anything, just to keep my ass covered. It would be another reinforcement ofmessages they heard from me every day: “read a book, brush your teeth, stop eating candy for breakfast, stop the damn checks on nikes,” and so on… And they’d understand it was a parody. I don’t think the creators of the video or trying to combat illiteracy with this video; I just think they’re calling out the ridiculous lifestyles BET and the like encourage people to lead.

    Posted 20 Jul 2007 at 9:02 am ¶

15. Anonymous wrote:

    I guess this goes to show that there is a thin line between what’s considered satire and duplicating stereotypes. After a lengthy discussion between various friends of mine, I am still not comfortable with it. Some of my friends contend that it is tongue-in-cheek satire that explores rather than perpetuates present paradigms of race and behavior.

    I understand taking our youth to task for not being personally responsible for their lives, but the problem with this is that once again, that line between satire and stereotypes gets blurred. In a more perfect world, most people would understand the socio-economic and historical concepts that have culminated in the day-to-day struggle of Black people everywhere. But it’s not a perfect world. Some people might look at that and say “See, it’s their own fault. They have to be told to read a book and be responsible for themselves.”

    Satire only works if people fully understand the underlying issues. In our not so perfect world, we are still debating on whether or not racism exists, with some people saying that racism doesn’t exist at all.

    Posted 20 Jul 2007 at 10:38 am ¶

16. Karen wrote:

    At first glace, it would be offensive, but when you think about it, I think it was clever. However, the people that really need to see this, probably wouldn’t get it and would see it as more of a joke than a message.

    Posted 20 Jul 2007 at 10:43 am ¶

17. LM wrote:

    It’s parody, satire, whatever you’d like to call it, and yes it’s offensive. It also gets the point across quite effectively. I echo michelle and Miss B.

    Anonymous (#15), you wrote: “that line between satire and stereotypes gets blurred…”

    In what satire isn’t the line blurred?

    And “…satire only works if people fully understand the underlying issues.”

    Why would someone use satire if “people” already got what was going on?

    Posted 20 Jul 2007 at 12:21 pm ¶

18. michelle wrote:

    I am sure that people aren’t intending this but some of you are assuming that there will be a large minority of Black viewers who will lack the intellectual skills to interpret this video as satire. If you guys are right, isn’t that a horrible comment on the state of Black of America? Perhaps some of us are really underestimating the BET audience.

    I think that there are probably only a small amount of Black people who don’t understand sarcasm, satire or even more simply, a joke.

    You know, we can’t take away the right of Black artists to create socially meaningful work. Some of you may think he crossed the line, but that is an important exercise that should be brought to the mediums of video, film and television. To LM’s point about what satire is….has anybody seen “The Colored Museum” by George Wolfe? I think that this video is very much in line with that type of work. We have to allow our artists the room to experiment with satire and stereotypes, and finding something socially relevant and progressive in the process. Can you imagine what our world would look like if artistic integrity and social awareness were brought to some film and television by and/or for Black people?

    Posted 20 Jul 2007 at 1:28 pm ¶

19. Wendi Muse wrote:

    so today i was in the barbershop down the street from my house (yes, the barber shop…i pulled a britney spears, y’al, and buzzed it off…my hair was driving me nuts) and sure enough this video came on BET’s 106 & park. i was like omg they DO really show it. the people in the shop were like “turn that shit off. that song is so stupid.” i asked my barber (yay for accidental reporting) what he thought about it, and he said that while he understood it was a joke, he thought it was dumb and kind of offensive.”

    so yeah…word on the street is the video sucks…

    Posted 20 Jul 2007 at 6:40 pm ¶

20. hoo_boy wrote:

    This was absolutely freakin’ hilarious when I first saw it on the tube– my friends and I got the joke and appreciate that someone could lay out all the double standards at work in such a clever subversive manner. Since the “butt” (!) of a joke won’t realize they’re the target, everything will go past them anyway, that makes satire sting that much more when it is realized.

    I kept thinking of the old cartoon and song “Basketball Jones” by Cheech & Chong when I saw this. Offensive and funny as hell, but it gets the point across. Gonna see if YouTube has it now! Thanks for this and Eastern Motors this week…

    Posted 21 Jul 2007 at 7:20 am ¶

21. FrancesM wrote:

    At first I thought the video was made by a bunch of white racists. Then I thought maybe the creators were Black and racist against other Blacks. After reading some other comments I’m beginning to wonder if the video was indeed a parody of hip hop culture perpetuated by capitalists who like to say things like “yes he’s ghetto but the man does read Chaucer and is therefore a good negro.” Those money hungry dudes/ettes love to perpetuate the thug myth because it makes money in areas of the music industry. I could see this film being a response to that. Hard to say.
    ~F

    Posted 22 Jul 2007 at 10:18 pm ¶

22. April wrote:

    Wow. Sad . . .

    Posted 23 Jul 2007 at 9:00 pm ¶

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