For Immediate Release
The Solutions Blog
http://solutionsforourpeople.wordpress.com/
Black Bloggers Are Sick of BET and ‘Gangsta Crap’ Music
(New York): Black Bloggers have united to battle mainstream music and entertainment fat-cats who profit off the stereotypical, sexist, and racist exploitation of African American people. Their main targets are Black Entertainment Television (BET), who they call ‘Black Exploitation Television’, and gangsta rappers such as 50cent, Snoop Dog, The Game, and Cam’ron. These artists produce music bloggers have branded ‘gangsta crap’. Gangsta rap regularly glorifies sexism, the n-word, profanities, violence, drug use and dealing, sexism, and the dehumanization of Black men and women. Gangsta rap videos and stereotype-filled shows are the programming staples of BET.
“BET and hip hop have gone down hill. They were once inspirations. Now they purvey some of the most harmful anti-Black sentiments you will ever see or hear, and this has become a representation of mainstream Black culture,” says Bronze Trinity of the Afrosphere Bloggers Association (ABA). ABA is coordinating the Afrosphere Accurate Images campaign against BET and gangsta rap.
ABA member, Wayne Hicks criticized, “BET was an inspirational idea when it was first created. Tremendous shows providing news and information for the Black community. Today, BET is an embarrassment for the Black community. It is something that we hide from our children. Enough is enough”.
ABA bloggers want widespread changes in the television and music entertainment industries. They want BET to stop airing videos where half-naked women are objectified, Black men are shown as ‘thugs’ and ‘pimps’, and street violence, illegal drugs, and gang activity is glorified. The want the n-word and sexist epithets to be be censored when children under 18 are likely to be watching. ABA also wants radio stations to stop playing racist, violent, and sexist music, for mainstream record labels and artists to stop producing such music, and for positive/conscious hip hop to become the mainstream. “It’s time to rise above the corrupted caricatures painted onto the Black community, and reach within ourselves with self love and respect”, says ABA blogger Daz Wilson.
However the bloggers understand the fine line between artistic expression and free speech. Carole took a pledge against racist and sexist hip hop on her blog but stated, “I believe that artists and performers are free to speak their own minds. I’m not against free speech. But honestly, I wish there are folks who were a bit more responsible in their speech to kids because most kids are pretty undiscerning”.
The non-profit blogger group is battling media executives and multi-millionaire artists using internet activism in the form of blogs, message boards, email, and online petitions. On the ABA website http://solutionsforourpeople.wordpress.com, the group suggests taking a pledge against sexist and racist hip hop, buying conscious hip hop from artists like Common, Mos Def, and Talib Kweli, advertising conscious artists on blogs, and requesting more radio play time for these artists. They also provide anti-BET stickers, instructions to boycott radio, television, and website sponsors, and numerous petitions so bloggers can show their support.
This is not just an American concern according to ABA member Adrianne, “Living overseas allows one to see how influential American pop culture is. Even in Sweden I see the young kids listening to and emulating the hip hop performers. Black artists do not need to export negative images of Black women around the world”. Other international members have reported stereotypes and negative behaviors caused by gangsta hip hop and television programming that is broadcast around the world.
ABA strongly supports recent activism of other groups such as What About Our Daughters blog, the Enough is Enough Campaign, and the National Action Network’s Day of Outrage Against the Music Industry. “The time has come for us to take back our image and for Black people to accept responsibility for the role they play in denigrating our own image,” proposed Bronze Trinity.
Contact Information: The Solutions Blog http://solutionsforourpeople.wordpress.com
Bronze Trinity at bronzetrinity@hotmail.com
Adrianne at http://blackwomenineurope.blogspot.com/
Carole at http://www.darkparables.blogspot.com
Daz Wilson at http://www.ultravioletunderground.com
Wayne Hicks at http://electronicvillage.blogspot.com/
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There are things you can do to help fight BET and the racism and sexism in hip hop
1) Post My Hip-Hop Sexism and Racism Denunciation (see below) on your blog or website or create your own version. Email it to everyone you know and to the media. Contact the media contacts on this list and tell them your opinion and what you want changed.
2) Post an-anti BET sticker on your blog or website. You can even make one yourself.
3) Learn about positive/conscious artists on the web or on Wikipedia. Maybe you will prefer this type of hip hop and you can tell others that there is an alternative to gangsta crap. You can also learn about the history of hip hop from PBS.
4) You can promote positive/conscious hip hop artists on your blog by writing about their music or advertising their new album releases. For instance, you can post this slide show of positive artists on your blog:
View or Get this slide show
Or you can promote the choice of positive/conscious artists by posting this image.
5) Sign these petitions to show your support: Change BET, Transform BET, Mainstream Media and Hip Hop Petition, Stop the racism in hip hop, and Stop the ban of real and intelligent hip hop on BET.
6) Watch the commercials aired during offensive programs or advertised on offensive web sites. Contact the sponsors and inform them that they are supporting racist and sexist material so that they stop sponsoring the program.
7) Stop buying racist and sexist music and ask others to do the same.
8 ) Do whatever you can to stop the racism and sexism purveyed by the mainstream media and gangsta rap music. If you are doing something that isn’t on this list please tell us about it!
My Hip-Hop Sexism and Racism Denunciation
I hereby solemnly declare that I will no longer purchase, listen to, endorse, watch, or in any other way consume anything from musicians or comedians who continue to denigrate women of African descent by calling them hoe, slut, whore or any other misogynist epithet.
I also solemnly declare that I will no longer purchase, listen to, endorse, watch, or in any other way consume anything from musicians or comedians who continue to denigrate people of African descent by using the N-word or condoning Black-on-Black violence.
I believe with all my heart that artists and performers who engage in such business do not respect women, people of African descent, or themselves. Their minds have been corrupted to a point that they accept and further the history of oppression that has been enacted upon women and People of Color for centuries. These people are corrupting our minds and our culture and I WILL NOT BE A PART OF IT!
From this moment on I will ONLY purchase, listen to, endorse, watch, or in any other way consume the works of musicians and comedians who present positive, uplifting, humorous, romantic, silly, interesting, creative, emotional, groundbreaking, remarkable, unusual, thought-provoking, challenging, or in any other way enjoyable content that DOES NOT debase women or people of African descent.
