“Hot Ghetto Mess”, BET’s latest show, gains opposition

The News

“Hot Ghetto Mess”, BET’s latest show, gains opposition

One of cable’s most popular networks, Black Entertainment Television—BET— has been chastised over and over again for reflecting a narrow-scope of Black life, showing degrading rap videos, and cutting its news shows.

Some activists are protesting BET’s latest show, “Hot Ghetto Mess,” and its marketing which features a black-faced cartoon wearing a hat. WhatAboutOurDaughters.org has asked corporations to pull their ads from BET.com’s Hot Ghetto Mess promo. The site reported Saturday:

How long are large corporations going to subsidize degrading images of African Americans? This is just a latest in a prolonged and consistent pattern of BET profiting off of promoting images that malign and degrade African Americans.

By today, several corporations have claimed to cut their ads from the site:

The blog, What About Our Daughters?, and the National Congress of Black Women asked advertisers to remove advertising form BET’s ” Hot Ghetto Mess” promotional page. Less than twenty-four hours later, BET was forced to remove prominent banner ads which had flashed advertising for State Farm, The Home Depot, Yum Brand’s KFC, Target, AT&T, and Daimler Chrysler. Both State Farm and The Home Depot said that BET had erred by placing their company’s ads on the ” Hot Ghetto Mess” site without their knowledge or permission.

But while the use of a black-faced cartoon to market this show is bad, it’s still not clear if “Hot Ghetto Mess” is a complete stereotypical disaster. The show is actually based on a very popular website by the same name that captures in pics and commentary, images of Black ghetto life, under a banner-appeal to Black people that “we got to do better.” See site here.

Plus, publicity for the July 25 premier depicts the show as an extension of Comedy Central’s Dave Chappelle Show , and its subsequent culture of racial satire. And who didn’t love Chappelle’s ability to crack open our race taboos?

BET explains:

“Hot Ghetto Mess” is an entertaining, tongue-in-cheek examination of the good, the bad and the ugly of Black popular culture.
Utilizing comedy, man-on-the-street interviews, video clips, pictures and music, “Hot Ghetto Mess” aims to shine a spotlight on prevalent images in pop culture and examine what role they play in American lifestyle. “Hot Ghetto Mess” goes where most shows fear to tread.

As host Charlie Murphy guides viewers through shaking booties, thug life, baby-mama drama and pimped-out high schoolers, “Hot Ghetto Mess” will explore what these images really mean to all of us.

Cutting edge, original, relevant and irreverent, “Hot Ghetto Mess” is like the traffic accident you can’t look away from. Viewers will laugh. They’ll cry. They’ll think. They’ll learn, and hopefully they’ll recognize they’ve GOT to do better.”

Guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Meanwhile, word to Racialicious for the lede on this story. In February, it looked at the website “Hot Ghetto Mess” that the show is based on. Read “Hot Ghetto Mess: social critique or classist mockery?” here.

Posted at 1:13 PM, Jul 03, 2007 in Media Analysis | Permalink | View Comments

Comments

If this show is aired . . . Don Imus should have his job back and all benefits with the free will to say and do whatever he'd like to.

If WE AS BLACK PEOPLE can continue to make a mockery of our own, and get paid from it, so should every other race! IF WE AS B"LACK" people want the UNIVERSE TO "RESPECT" US THEN WE SHOULD SHOW THEM HOW BY "RESPECTING" OUR SELVES AND NOT SHOWING THE WORLD CONTINUOUS IMAGES OF NEGATIVE AND IGNORANT PEOPLE TO REPRESENT OUR RACE!!

...BECAUSE THESE FOLKS AND CHARACTERS ARE ALWAYS PUT INTO THE LIGHT VIA INTERNET OR TV . . . IT'S MAKING THINGS HARDER FOR OUR RACE AS A PEOPLE NOT EASIER FOLKS. RICH BLACK PEOPLE AND CORPORATIONS OWNED BY OTHERS, STOP MAKING PROFITS FROM THESE IGNORANT ENSLAVED PEOPLE!! SOME OF THESE PEOPLE REALLY DON'T KNOW ANY BETTER, SO WHY PROFIT FROM THAT AND THEN HAVE THE NERVES TO 'NOT' HELP THOSE PEOPLE TO BECOME BETTER INDIVIDUALS OR CITIZENS OR MORE CLASSY . . . OR GIVE TO THE AREAS THAT THEY COME FROM??.. YOU ARE DEFINITELY PART OF THE PROBLEM . . . NOT THE SOLUTION - TO A BETTER "BLACK AMERICA" . . .

AND WHY IS IT THAT THE ONLY WAY THAT WE CAN BE ‘ENTERTAINED ON T.V.’. -, i.e., BET--IS WITH GHETTO FABULOUS, MONEY&DIAMONDS, SHOES, HIGH END QUALITY NAME BRANDS, BIG BUTTS, CARS, etc . . . ? IS THIS ALL THERE IS TO BLACK FOLKS? EVEN COLLEGE IS TURNED INTO "A GHETTO MESS" . . . WHAT IS IT PEOPLE. ARE WE REALLY IGNORANT, STUPID PEOPLE WHO LOVE BIG BUTTS AND BOOTY SHAKIN'? IF NOT, THEN STOP TRYING TO PORTRAY US AS ONLY THAT. YOU ARE REALLY MAKING O.J. LOOK DARN GOOD! AND THAT'S BAD.

IF YOU CAN LEAD THE HORSE TO THE WATER, YET CAN'T MAKE HIM DRINK, THEN LEAVE IT ALONE!...PERIOD.

This show is probably gonna be pretty good! People of all races make a mockery of themselves and we call it comedy. John Waters did it all with an all white cast and it can be done with mixed or any type color casts.People take themselves so seriously that they miss the everyday humor that is a part of life!

What troubles me about this project is the phoney frame: WeGotTo Do Better. Says who?! As if it's producers are morally and culturally superior to their "exhibits". This isn't "tough love" - this is exploitation. It's shallow. Some images are of purely innocent expressions of style taken out of context or people who are clearly marginalized in the so-called ghetto. What intriques me more than the images are the image makers(the producers). It displays their own classicism, sexism and racism. It's dangerous because these attitudes come from people we should trust. There's an ethical difference between laughing with somebody and laughing at somebody.But if you get off on this kinda stuff - knock yourself out. Personally, I gotta take a pass.