Sunday, July 05, 2009

BET's School for Nappy Headed Ho's: BET, Drake & Lil Wayne

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The jump @ 3:55 sec

"I like a long haired thick red bone."
~Lil Wayne

No nappy headed ho's allowed.

I have been having a conversation with Moya and Nuala about
BET, Drake, and Lil Wayne.


The conversation has been interesting in that I have been
pushing hard against being reactionary. Its challenging, because when
you react you feel empowered.

But, we, the masses, always have the power, whether or not we use
it is another question. We outnumber the executives and the politicians.


Always.

Black Women
It is important to note that there are Black women who
are only angry because Drake's video features light skinned
Latina's and White women. From the Sandra Rose website,

"Sandra as a woman I am offended that this is all Kanye West, the director, could come up with for one of the hottest songs of the summer. He should be ashamed of this depiction of females. This video in a nutshell basically says a woman’s beauty is defined by how big her boobs are and light her skin is. And Kanye being a black man raised by black parents and Drake being bi-raicial (half black and half white) why are they only showcasing ALL Hispanic girls in this video? I don’t get it, they couldn’t get ONE pretty chocolate sister up in the video like Lanisha Cole, Jessica White, or Natasha Ellie to be in the video alongside the Hispanic girls?..."
I read this, thought about it, read it again then realized that,
getting more Black women to care about rap videos, simply takes
only featuring Latina's and White women. Hmmmp.

In fact, on Tuesday. I tweeted that in some ways the the only
way for Black women to be upset about rap videos is if they
are excluded. I was surprised that five people responded. We
have allies after all.

What does it mean, and what does it say about Black women,
and the recognition of Black beauty in mainstream media,
if we are only mad because a clearly sexist video doesn't have
any brown skinned women in it?


Apologies and Boycott's
BET and Drake have both apologized.

An apology without an action is worthless.

Especially when the apology does nothing to materially impact
harm that has been done.

Lets review the facts.

BET has received its ad dollars.

Advertisers commercials were exposed to 10M viewers.

Some Black people have written letter and a petition and get an apology.

The first two points have to do with an exchange of money,
the last one doesn't.

One question for BET? What is your apology worth?

In my conversation with Moya, we are talking about boycott's
and how they are reactionary. The idea is that if we spend
all of our time reacting to what some one is doing to us,
then we will have no energy left to advance our own agenda's.

The advertisers for the Bet awards were,
Dodge, Procter & Gamble,
Target, CIROC Vodka, Ford, Coors, Pepsi, Verizon Wireless and Akademiks
.
You know, in case you were wondering.

According to Target Market News, In a recent mulitmedia engagement of 5,000 African American adults, Simmons market Research Bureay found that BET viewers are 21% more ad receptive when they watch ads on BET, and 31% more ad rece[tive when they see ads on Bet.com, versus other networks.
[Sidebar. Why do corporations cause harm and governments
stay taking forced free labor and or ad dollars, and giving
us apologies? It's rhetorical]

While there are many people who are angry about
what BET has done, just because folks are angry,
does't mean that they care enough to take
non-reactionary action.

Take Imus, he was censored temporarily,
there was a big hullaboo, and he is back on the air.

Capitalism stay eatin', nothing stops it.

Imus nor Wayne, nor Drake, are the problem. They
are symptoms of a larger one.

Moya astutely pointed out we often say that "Them rappers
ain't talking about me", she then noted that, Wayne just said he
"wish he could fuck every girl in the world", that includes all of us,
you too Love.

BET?

What do you think of the women being angry because
no brown skinned women were featured?

You see the awards?

Have you thought of alternatives to reactionary
boycotts?

Thoughts?

100 Visionaries? Yes!

11 comments:

Z.Kay Walker said...

My thoughts on this issue have really been all over the place. There are so many factors that need discussing in this matter. This week's events are simply symptomatic of a larger problem.

In the interest of full-disclosure ,I am a huge Wayne fan and I have totally fed into the Drake buzz. Having said that, the ills of both rappers & BET are not lost on me. It gets so difficult to defend this culture. I was pretty much done when I say those babies on stage during ' Every Girl'. I really don't know how to defend that. I can't. The problem with BET is that I'd hate to see it go. I have so many fond memories of Teen Summit & Video Soul...etc. I wish that they would take the time to develop quality programming. On the other hand, If we get that programming, will we watch? The reality of the situation is this is the type of programming that he current BET audience wants. Did BET cause this or are they just giving the people what they want? #FFF folks on MTV, VH1, We, an other channels act just as foolish. We are simply more aware of these events it b/c we are struggling with the identities of POC in the media.

As far as Drake's video, I am such a Kanye stan that I've attempted to convince myself that the video was supposed to be satire. I still sort of believe it and I think it missed the mark. I cannot explain away the interlude where he tells the girls to "take the 'd'". It troubles me in my spirit that the biggest criticism is that there are no "real" black girls.

What bothered me most is the HS setting. It sexualizes TEENAGE girls on a level that is disturbing. Especially considering that the "coach"is facilitating this level of exploitation & in light of the BET Awards performance.

Jason said...

The only people who could possibly be personally offended by this video: big-boobed light-skinned women. They're depicted as awful athletes with no shame. If we watch the video once instead of just taking a head count, we note the dark-skinned women win, having more to offer the world than being able to take lots of D.

So the video's problems (it's silly, we've seen the same thing 1,000 times -- though this one at least doesn't take itself seriously, Drake is an awful actor) really have nothing to do with race.

If it's supposed to be "Drake's personal fantasy" kind of thing... well, he's allowed to have preferences.

M.Dot. said...

@Z.kay

Wow. Thank you for your honesty.
Its a a bug out when women who care refuse to be honest about

Its like, we be so thirsty for the music that we are willing to ignore hella janky shit because we love the beat.

Something shifted in me when:
a. A young man said he wanted to put his dick in my butt (on the street last May).
b. When I say those Rihanna nude photos in May.

It became clear to me that Hip hop was a world Built on Black Pussy. Or Pussy in general, if you will, and whether or NOT we wanted to admit it is a whole different issue.

@Jason
Thank you for stopping by and commenting.
However, if we are going to engage, which I am willing to, check out these other posts as well:

http://modelminority.blogspot.com/2009/04/asher-roth-and-why-rappers-need-nappy.html

http://modelminority.blogspot.com/2009/04/asher-roth-x-don-imus-x-nappy-headed.html

Just so that you can get a sense that the issue ISN'T about one video but about Rappers and Nappy Headed Ho's, Capitalism, the white consumption of Black death etc.

If you want to continue to comment after reading these pieces, I look forward to it.
If not, its all G.

~m.

H.rw said...

I personally find most Hip-Hop that comes out these days to be mediocre... it just doesn't do the same thing for me anymore. I find myself not even being hip to a lot of things happening on the scene anymore, because it's just irrelevant. I recently lost a lot more respect for Lil Wayne after a friend of mine sent me a link to "Whip It Like A Slave," telling me that he heard his (white) step-brother singing along to it. So yeah, white folk are listening to a lot of Hip-Hop these days, but can I really blame them for the downfall? I don't think we can really blame it on white consumption of Black death, but rather the Americanization of Black art, and... Black people. Americans love Black death, the Western hemisphere is built on it. Niggas are exploiting other niggas, nobody seems to care about integrity anymore. I can't put my finger on this one either. Like Z.Kay, I see our own people supporting this utter nonsense, and it kind of leaves me hopeless. The only solution seems to be educating the masses to reject what's marketed to them and crafted to destroy them, but are we truly entitled to opinions anymore, or does it just make you a hater?

modest-goddess said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
M.Dot. said...

@H.rw

I don't think we can really blame it on white consumption of Black death, but rather the Americanization of Black art
=======
Nothing, is more American than Black Art.

I can't put my finger on this one either. Like Z.Kay, I see our own people supporting this utter nonsense, and it kind of leaves me hopeless.
=======
Rappers want Black kids respect and white kids money, its really quite simple.

Much of the problem, arises when we expect rappers to be more than they are, Black capitalist, willing to do anything to make a dollar.

@The Lady
I hear you, and your critique is unique, in that you take on the male gaze. However, I am going to push back and say that aren't all rap videos, to a greater or lesser extent about the male gaze.

This one was just overt in its intentions.

At the end of the day, a music video is a commercial for an album. The success of ones video can be measured by how much buzz it has.

Mission accomplished, no?

Thinking about the issue of femininity and beauty regarding the Williams sisters and the WNBA vs the notion of feminist in the Drake video.

Thinking...thinking...

the prisoner's wife said...

this video made me wonder, AGAIN, what all the hyper over Aubrey is really about?

i agree with one of the above commenters who said they've not been keeping an eye on things because hip hop (mainstream at least) has become irrelevant (at least to me).

i was offended because songs & videos like these are sending the absolute wrong messages to young boys (like my son) about how to view/treat women. it teaches young boys that women are expendable, little toys that aren't important. it teaches young girls that they need to always be half-clothed to get the eye of men (who are most likely not worth the it).

i saw the awards & i thought it was....another wack BET production.

re being reactionary: it's not always a bad thing. sometimes it takes an event to get people to ACT. sure, they probably should have acted in the first place, but to not act at all is a bigger problem.

Lorin T. Williams said...

Hypocrisy: You don't want women degraded in music videos; but you don't want any other woman outshining a sista? Hip-Hop's not the problem; we are.

Model Minority said...

re being reactionary: it's not always a bad thing. sometimes it takes an event to get people to ACT. sure, they probably should have acted in the first place, but to not act at all is a bigger problem.
========
Trust me.
Being reactionary is huge, cuz you always acting on someone else time/dime.
You are predictable. Easily stopped, working on a corporations terms, definitions.

If we are self defined with our own agenda's, we are unstoppable.

With regard to Movements and movement building,
reacting gets you nowhere, but running in place.

Take what happened to IMUS, for instance.

You are a teacher.

I am really thinking of taking the Tobacco/Truth campaign route.

If you had the cake, to teach the young bucks gender and sexuality awareness, what would you teach and why?

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