The 2009 BET Awards was retooled to be dedicated to Michael Jackson's memory. However, many viewers are outraged that the show did not give a proper tribute to the greatest entertainer that ever lived.
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The low point in the show was when rapper Lil Wayne took the stage with his song about all the girls he wanted to have sex with and serenaded a group of tween prepubescent little girls. Why did Lil Wayne choose these little girls to expose to his message?
Is Wayne trying to contribute to a new generation of eligible baby mamas and video hoochies? One viewer was so disappointed with the 2009 BET Awards show that he posted a youtube video review on his The Skorpion Show youtube channel.
The video has gone viral earning more than 160,000 views about how he hated the program.
2009 BET AWARDS REVIEW (Janet Jackson, Beyonce, Lil' Wayne, Drake, Jay-Z Ne-Yo)
Sunday night, June 28, at the BET Awards 2009, New Orleans rapper Lil Wayne set off a firestorm when he performed "Every Girl" with fellow rappers Drake and Young Money. Many viewers found not only the words offensive, but also the presence of what appeared to be pre-adolescent girls, tweens, onstage with the men. [source]
Drake Performing 'Best I Ever Had' + Lil Wayne, BirdMan & Cash Money Perform 'Always Strapped' & 'Every Girl'
Last night's BET Awards were rearranged at the last minute to serve as a celebration of Michael Jackson's life. For the finale, Lil Wayne sang that he wishes he could "f*** every girl in the world" while onstage with pre-teens.
His song "Every Girl" was an odd choice to close the show that was more of a tribute to Michael Jackson than an awards ceremony. Everyone had MJ on the brain, whether it was in their acceptance speeches or conveyed in their outfits. (Host Jamie Foxx wore a succession of Michael's most famous costumes.) Artists like Ne-Yo and Ciara sang Michael's songs, and Beyoncé performed "Ave Maria" and Sarah McLachlan's "Angel" in memory of the King of Pop. [source]
Byron Hurt director of the Sundance Film festival documentary "Hip Hop :Beyond the Beats and the Rhymes" wrote and sent a letter to BET which he urged viewers to forward to BET executives. Filmmaker Byron Hurt also sent us a letter by April Silvers about the BET Awards which we have reposted on the Binside TV website for our readers.
June 29, 2009 Dear Debra Lee, Sunday night's BET Awards show was a disgrace. It's sad and unfortunate that your network, owned by Viacom, continues to crank out mediocrity and perpetuate negative stereotypes of black men, women, and children. Although you likely received high ratings for the awards show, there is no honor in reinforcing the status quo's opinion of black people. Your tribute to Michael Jackson and the overall show had its great moments, however, BET failed to deliver a solid, quality show. Rather than "raising the bar" and presenting African-Americans as a creative, proud, dignified people, BET lowered the bar for the entire world to see. The BET Awards drew a huge audience to watch a tribute to Michael Jackson, but left millions of viewers feeling disappointed, embarrassed, and reduced to classic stereotypes. During the most blatantly sexist performances of the night, the executives at BET failed to act and display intelligence, courage, and leadership. Show executives watched, approved, and applauded as artists Lil' Wayne, Drake, and Cash Money brought young, under-aged girls onto the stage to dance and serve as window dressing while they performed "Every Girl," a song that reduces girls and women to sex objects. In a culture where one out of four girls and women are either raped or sexually assaulted - and where manipulative men routinely traffic vulnerable women into the sex industry - it is not okay that BET allowed this to happen. BET owes its entire audience - particularly girls and women around the world - an apology for its failure to intervene. BET should also take immediate steps to ensure that this kind of sexist performance does not happen again. Sunday night's show epitomizes why so many black people worldwide are fed up with BET and feel strongly that your network inaccurately represents black men and women. Please take my letter and criticism as one that represents millions. Sincerely,
Byron Hurt www.bhurt.com Byon Hurt Activism Byron Hurt | c/o AKILA WORKSONGS, Inc. | PO Box 250553 | Brooklyn, NY I wrote this letter and sent it to [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected]. Feel free to copy, paste, and customize this letter to adequately express your thoughts. If anyone has better ideas on where this letter should be sent, i.e. executives at Viacom (BET's owner), please let me know. I am open to ideas and suggestions.Be fearless, feel empowered, and raise your voice. |
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"Beneath Low: BET, Lil
Wayne Set the Stage for Child Pornography"
By April R. Silver (Monday,
June 29, 2009)
www.aprilsilver.com
Last night, live at the BET Awards in Los
Angeles, a room full of head-bobbing, consenting adults bounced to
Drake and Lil Wayne's back-to-back performances of the hit songs
"Best I Ever Had" and "Every Girl." I watched, underwhelmed. I
wanted more "Michael" in what was supposed to be this
award-show-turned-Michael-Jackson-tribute. I watched, ever puzzled
by the Lil Wayne phenomena that has captivated the music industry.
I watched, wondering when the set was going to end.
Then the little girls came onstage...literally
the little girls. "Are those children?" I asked
out loud, in disbelief. Then the camera panned the audience.
Everyone was still head-bobbing as the little Black girls huddled
around these superstars.
"Are those little girls on stage...for
this song?!?!" I, still in disbelief, lost breath and
forced myself to exhale. "Why are these little girls featured on
this performance? Is somebody going to stop this?" Again, the show
was live, though for a nano-second, I was hoping that a
hunched-over stage manager would bust through from back stage to
scoop up the children, rescuing them from harm's way...from being
associated from this song. But instead, what those girls witnessed
from the stage was hundreds and hundreds of adults (mostly Black
people) staring back at them, co-signing the performance. These
girls, who all appeared to be pre-teens, were having their 15
minutes of glam on one of the biggest nights in televised Black
entertainment history, with two of pop culture's biggest stars at
the moment, with millions of people watching. They must have been
bubbling with girlish excitement, shimmering like princesses all
night. Pure irony: one of them wore a red ballerina tutu for the
special occasion. And we applauded them.
But did no one care that Lil Wayne's song
Every Girl is about grown men and their sexual escapades
with women? Did the meaning and intent of the song matter to
anyone, this song whose hook and other lyrics required a re-write
in order to get air play? "I wish I could love every girl in
the world." That's the radio-friendly version of "I wish I
could f--k every girl in the world." But Lil Wayne's BET
performance was the clean edit of the song. Perhaps he (and the
show producers) thought that there was nothing wrong in featuring
the children in the clean version. Perhaps we were supposed to see
the whole bit as cute and innocent. Absolutely not. There's no
other way to cut it: in presenting little girls in a performance of
a song that is about sex, group sex, and more sex, BET and Lil
Wayne set the stage for child pornography. It doesn't matter what
version of the song was played, much like a man who batters women
is still an abusive man, even if uses flowery phrases while
battering.
In the song, Lil Wayne mentions superstar Miley
Cyrus, but Cyrus gets a pass on this lyrical sex escapade because,
as he acknowledges, she is a minor. Huh? Why, then, is he
comfortable with featuring four minors, these four little Black
girls, in the show? How deep exactly is this inability of some
men to respect women, and how deep is Lil Wayne's disregard for the
safety of little girls?
I'm told that one of the girls is Lil Wayne's
daughter. That doesn't matter. In fact that makes it worse. Last
night we were reminded that there are few safe spaces for our
little girls to be children; that some of us are willing to trade
their innocence for a good head nod. BET and Lil Wayne are beneath
low because, in effect, they have given premium assurance to these
and other little girls that their best value, their shining moment,
their gifts to display to the world, all lie within a context that
says they are f**kable.
- - - - - - - -
The programming at BET has been heavily
criticized by artists, concerned citizens, college students, parent
groups, social justice organizations, media reform activists, and
many others for over a decade now. Their programming seems hell
bent on broadcasting the worst pathologies in the Black community.
Some have joined the anti-BET movement by simply tuning out. Others
have been more pro-active. National letter-writing campaigns and
other activities designed to shame and/or pressure the network into
improving its programming have been in play for some time now.
Boycotts have been called as well. Two years ago, for example, the
network found itself in the line of fire as it planned to air the
very controversial series "Hot Ghetto Mess." Advertisers, such as
State Farm Insurance and Home Depot, responded to pressure and
requested that their ads be disassociated with the series (though,
their ads could be placed in other programming slots). None of this
has made a difference. In fact, it seems to have emboldened the
network, for it is now expanding. In the fall, BET is due to launch
another channel.
As a social entrepreneur and activist, my entire
life/work has been dedicated to standing up for what's right,
especially within the culture of hip hop. When identifying what
cancerous elements exist within the Black community, many fellow
activists agree with Chuck D (of Public Enemy), and even Aaron
McGruder (of The Boondocks), when they targeted BET as one
of those elements. That said, I didn't think that we would ever
have to take the network to task for what amounts to child
pornography.
But millions of Black people are not offended by
the network and welcome anything BET has to offer, no matter how
much it continues to unravel the fabric of our community. Imagine,
if you will, BET as a human being and the viewers as the community.
You would have to imagine BET as a drug dealer, with his swag
on...perhaps outside standing atop a truck, the community
crowded beneath him. Imagine him throwing nicely wrapped gifts into
the crowed, or giving away turkeys at Thanksgiving. Or maybe it's
Mother's Day and he buys dinner and teddy bears to all the single
moms and grandmothers around the way. Despite his best efforts and
despite the approval of his fans, he is still a drug dealer,
pimping death to the masses.
Proverbs is full of sacred text that teaches us
that there will always be fools amongst us. Some of them will be
highly paid, protected, and given world-wide platforms to show off
what they do best. And these fools (be they performers, corporate
executives, or others), will have fans and loyal supporters, and a
place to call home, like a BET.
But as long as there will be fools amongst us,
there will also be wise ones - a small group of people concerned
about the long term health and well being of the community. This
small group will often go unheard and they will be outmatched. They
will struggle over which problem to address first: the child
pornographer, the batterer, the pimp, the prostitute, the thief,
the slumlord, or the system that enables it all. They will get
tired and their defense will pale in comparison to the almost
crushing offense. And they will be betrayed from within.
Historically and universally, this is what happens in the struggle
for what is right. But eventually, with continued pressure,
something will shift. A radical new thinking will emerge, and the
fools will lose their stronghold.
The sure expectation of victory, however, can
not be understated. It is a concrete ingredient in the struggle
against the death that is being paraded in our community...as
necessary as letter writing campaigns, economic boycotts, symbolic
and actual protests, and other pressure-oriented activities. It is
indeed possible to bring more life into our community.
Copyright 2009, by April R. Silver
"April R.
Silver is a social entrepreneur, activist, and writer/editor. She
is also founder of the communications agency AKILA WORKSONGS, Inc.
Her first book is the critically acclaimed anthology "BE A FATHER
TO YOUR CHILD: REAL TALK FROM BLACK MEN ON FAMILY, LOVE, AND
FATHERHOOD." Contact Info: [email protected] or www.aprilsilver.com"
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