BET changes name, but doesn’t pull plug on “Hot Ghetto Mess”
by Carmen Van Kerckhove
The new BET show based on the web site HotGhettoMess.com (we first told you about it back in February) makes its premiere tonight. But because of the firestorm of criticism, BET has decided to change the title to “We Got to Do Better,” which is the web site’s tagline.
In this interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Jam Donaldson (pictured), the web site’s founder, still maintains that the show will be a positive force because it offers social commentary. I love activist Gina McCauley’s response to that:
Ms. McCauley said she is certainly all for social commentary on the state of the African-American community and examining some of its troubling aspects.
“However, if that food for thought is served on a maggot-covered trash can lid, we can’t digest it,” she said.
Ouch!
BET has refused to let anyone watch the show, so we are all making our assumptions based on the rather noxious web site. But here were some of my thoughts that I shared with the reporter:
Carmen Van Kerckhove, founder and president of anti-racism training company New Demographic and the blog Racialicious, said that the aforementioned reality shows may get more slack from the public because the “stars” of those programs “pretty much know what they get into.”
For that reason, people watch those shows with a healthy bit of skepticism, she said. But, Ms. Van Kerckhove added, there seems to be a “freak show quality” to the HGM Web site, on which the BET show is based. The Web site seems to mock people’s choices in hair and makeup, she said. “I don’t see what grooming habits have to do with social dysfunction.”
Ms. Van Kerckhove also raised the issue of classism. “It seems the Web site exists to make people feel good,” she said, “because we’re not like those people.”
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Reyshizz wrote:
This show looks like it’s going to be walking a thin line. I think it will do more harm than good… we’ll see…
Posted 25 Jul 2007 at 9:31 am ¶
Karen wrote:
It depends on how it’s done. I mean no idea is really dumb. It’s the way you go about it. If they were serious and really addressed issues besides “ghetto” clothing and hair or whatever, it might have some type of impact.
However it is still very ironic for BET of all channels to be trying to air this show.
Posted 25 Jul 2007 at 9:51 am ¶
Ron wrote:
This show is consistent with what BET has become for Black Americans. New Age Coon Show – so Hot Ghetto Mess or We Can Do Better – will continue to be a vehicle to reduce the dignity of AfricanAmericans while claiming that they are entertaining us. We should not support BET anymore. We should silently boycott the channel and sellout/court jesters who will take the easy route to get a dollar.
VH-1 is BET’s partner in crime but with a different sponsor.
Posted 25 Jul 2007 at 12:53 pm ¶
Kaywilz wrote:
I don’t understand how “we” have to do better when the point of the show is to make people feel better because they’re not like “them”. Why every time there’s discussion about African American-ness, there’s “community” and “we” involved? If there are class structures within this “community”, then is there really a “we”? Class structures are to separate – us vs. them – and this (as mentioned above) is a class issue. I understand the call for unity (sometimes), but really, what’s the creator’s point? I’m very lost here…
Posted 25 Jul 2007 at 12:56 pm ¶
Miss Profe wrote:
I call BET Black Minstrel Entertainment Television. It’s a disgrace.
Posted 25 Jul 2007 at 9:58 pm ¶
Karen wrote:
The show really wasn’t that much a a train reck…
Posted 25 Jul 2007 at 10:08 pm ¶
hoo_boy wrote:
I thought Paul Farhi nailed it in the Washington Post’s write up:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/24/AR2007072402342.html
Look Donaldson’s from DC and had been doing this for a few years, so she could have claimed street/shock artist cred like “Candid Camera” or something with an edge. Given BET’s hometown roots, they would have had some good community relations built in *if* they just screened a few episodes like a test in advance for a home crowd, and let the buzz flow in conjunction with the site.
But the site comes off as a preachy steamy pile of ****, with the show a reaction to the site. There’s no synergy, shared tone or purpose. Just like others said, it comes off as high handed and better than thou. More than that, Donaldson’s own thin-skinned response and failure to see how it would rub folks, the inability to see how it would be received, means her humor is too insular for it’s own good.
I’m all for the ridicule, but not the spite if your target’s too wide. You gots to have the funny too by being able to laugh *from* not simply *at* a shared experience…
Posted 25 Jul 2007 at 10:25 pm ¶
michelle wrote:
Look Donaldson is one woman in the world trying to get her hustle on. In this day and age I certaintly won’t be critical of a person’s website. I might not agree but it is her opinion, and while her execution may or may not be effective, it’s still her own brainshild.
BET, on the other hand, positions itself as one of the main outlets and voices for Black America. BET is a huge machine inside of a much larger corporation. And sadly enough, it is the only hope that Black America has for quality programming that has more than one or two Black folk. It deserves to draw our scorn and ire. The only hot ghetto mess I see is BET! People who have questionable hairstyles and fashion taste are not the problem with Black America. BET is a problem in Black America. Someone who wears a sequined basketball jersey to her prom is not the problem with Black America. The girl who goes to the prom pregnant, with no hope for a future for her or her child, that is a problem in Black America.
I didn’t see the show, and I am sure it wasn’t that bad. But instead of that hour or so of programming, BET really couldn’t have found anything better to put on TV? Something that really would make a difference in our communities? Really? Seriously?
Did you know that Who’s Your Caddy (I know, I keep coming back to it, sorry) was made under the banner of Our Stories? Our Stories, headed up by Tracy Edmonds, a Stanford educated Black woman focuses on urban comedies. If Who’s Your Caddy is any indication, again I ask, with all that money, couldn’t WE do better?
BET, whatever. If the station hadn’t squandered practically 20 years of opportunity on just videos, videos and more videos (with a FEW exceptions) then maybe we would have given them the benefit of the doubt.
Posted 26 Jul 2007 at 12:54 am ¶
Fiqah wrote:
Ahhh…Beyond Excessive Television. It never fails to disappoint!
Posted 26 Jul 2007 at 10:32 am ¶