Those outside the DC Urrrea might not have heard anything about this weekend's "Enough Is Enough" rally to take place here. This march, which is only, uhhmm, about seven years too late, is scheduled to convene downtown, then march to the front yard of BET CEO Debra L. Lee.
Peep the details...
Determined to stop the entertainment industry from portraying negative images of black men and women, the "Enough is Enough!" Campaign will hold its first rally and demonstration at the Washington DC residence of Debra L. Lee, Chairman and CEO, Black Entertainment Television Networks. The demonstration will take place this Saturday, September 15th, at 1:00 p.m.I knew McGill Terrace was in upper Northwest DC, but wasn't sure exactly where. A MapQuest search revealed that this joint is right near the National Zoo and Rock Creek Park. In other words, as expected, it's in a very nice neighborhood on "The Other Side Of The Park". These folks better watch their backs, cause despite DC's rep as Chocolate City, anyone familiar knows that anything west of 16th St. is lily white. The sight of hundreds of random Negros rolling up on the scene will not doubt have residents hitting that 911 speed dial button. This could get real ugly.
A press conference will be held at the site of the rally, 2800 McGill Terrace, NW, Washington, DC at 2:00 p.m.
Community leaders are fed up with derogatory media images of black men and women. Rev. Delman L. Coates, Ph.D., Organizer is championing this action. People of conscience and concern are encouraged to come out in support of this effort. The purpose of the campaign is to protest the commercialization and marketing of negative and derogatory images of black men and women in the entertainment industry. Weekly demonstrations will be held on Saturdays.
I'm not sayin' Rev. Coates and Co. don't have a valid point here. BET, despite cleaning up their act with slightly better shows this season, still traffics too much crap like Comic View, SOB, and Hell Date. But then again, it's called Black ENTERTAINMENT Television. Not Black EDUCATIONAL Television. When Bob Johnson and Co. accepted that check from Viacom, any semblance of "commitment to the black community" was a wrap, not that it already wasn't. Thus, while I admire the drive, this whole rally seems a proverbial "Day Late and Many Dollars Short" to me. Really, what's the point? Lee sure as hell won't be home. Her neighbors will call the cops, these folks are rallying in a residential neighborhood without permits. Again, it could, and probably will, end badly.
Lee is obviously no dummy. In addition to not being home on the 15th, she took the initiative to write "Enough Is Enough" a letter explaining her side of the story in hopes of stopping all those Negroes from stomping on her petunias and embarrassing her in front of her country club neighbors. I was forwarded this in a PDF (hit me on email if you want it), so excuse the lack of a web link. The letter basically defends BET by saying they have "quality shows" like Baldwin Hills, Bobby Jones Gospel, Keyshia Cole (WTH?), and Meet the Faith. It also states that "BET does not air programming that endorses or condones illegal drugs or gratuitous violence", they have a "list of words that are forbidden on our channel", and they "do not air music videos that contain graphic or excessive sexual activity or violence". Seems like Rev. Coates ain't the only one smokin' here.
Let's be real, BET is still full of trash, but they again, it ain't like I didn't already tell you that. The other night, flipping thru channels, I landed on a show called "American Gangsta". This shit is basically Eyes On The Prize for drug dealers. That new Kanye/T-Pain video with the girl's ass hanging out is all the "excessive sexual activity" you need for proof. The words "Bitch", "Ho", "Nigga", etc. can be heard anyday on "106th and Park". So, there's alot of delusion floating around here from both sides.
Still, I can't really see the point in boycotting Lee. BET, MTV, VH-1, etc. are all corporate behemoths that feed the mothership known as Viacom. You can't really expect anything to change, because all these stations are for-profit entities that have a proven formula of cheap, lowest common denominator programming that's virtually money in the bank. No protest can tame that corporate monster. Maybe, just maybe this approach woulda worked back before BET sold out, but I doubt it. I'm pretty sure Bob Johnson had security around his crib too.
If you want wholesome family entertainment, turn to TV One. If you want your kids to be educated, turn off the TV and take them to the library instead of sitting in the next room watching them "Crank Dat Soulja Boy".
But lame rallies and boycotts seven years after the fact ain't changin' a thing.
Enough Is Enough To Rally Outside Home of BET Executive
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Awesome post.
I could not have said it better. I got that PDF too. I don't think they realize that bloggers dont necessarily have the ability to post a pdf if they are using one of the free services. I thought about doing a screen capture.
"Eyes on the Prize for Gangsters" love it.
Good post. This move is better late than never. Many of us believe that this will make a difference.
I hope the next protest is in front of the home of Viacom's CEO and President. This is still a man's world. There is only but so much that Ms. Debra Lee can do with the program. She is an employee of Viacom. This is still a man's world.
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Ok. So instead of lodging any protest or campaign that we can, we should just let the entertainment industry portray us as they really see us, dumb ass darkies doing a minstrel show? I think not. That's why black America is dumbed down now because they have bought into this so called music crap and let the industry once again put us and keep us on the plantation, just where they want us, asking for nothing and getting nothing in return but some damn chitlin' music, you know the crap master don't want, but also consumes dressed up as "our culture". Yep, it just goes to show us dumb darkies that slavery never ended, it just took on another form. Who do you think owns all those wonderful "artists"? Sony, Universal, TimeWarner, Viacom, who made the head minstrel Robert Johnson, a billionaire. So, who's got all the money, you, Snoop pooper, 50 two cent, Kanye golddigger West? Nope. White man got the money, and "artists" are left holding a statue of that black lawn jockey they look like.
Debbie Lee and all the other black personnel over there ,rather it's MTV,VH1,Comedy Central,or BET,they're not concerned about the images of the black community.On the documentary Beyond Beats and Rhymes,they ask BET's Steven Hill about the negative images in the vidoes they put on the air,and he simply walked away.
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