Defending BET

Posted on July 27, 2009 by SGT McClain 2

Disclaimer:  This post is a little racially charged and while its words are not meant to offend anyone I know you can’t please everyone.  Please these words are my personal opinions and are loosely based on my interpresentation of facts.  Feel free to leave a comment if you disagree or would just like more clarification on where I am coming from!

 

It pains me to write this post because if you have read any of my other posts then you would see the distain I have for them but the other day I was forced to rise in defense of BET, and unfortunately its not the first time.

My roommate who just so happens to be a middle aged conservative white male, asked me why did they call it Black Entertainment Television and would I be offended if they created a White Entertainment Television.  

While this isn’t the first time that I have encountered this question this is the first time that I have actually sat down a thought out a really decent answer for it.  So here it goes and hopefully this explains it for everyone else out there who was wondering.

Black Entertainment Television (BET) was formed, at least to my understanding, during a time when blacks were under-represented on television.  BET was made to be the solution for that problem.  Now yes thanks to Brown v. The Board of Education we all know that separate but equal doesn’t work in the long run however there are occasions where for a group to be recognized you first have to ensure that there is a known demographic.  That’s where BET came in, to represent to other blacks as well as the rest of America that there was a growing population of black entertainers and that they had something positive to offer the world.  Now what easier way to draw attention to what you are representing than by calling the station exactly what you trying to represent?

Remember also that this was near the dawn of cable, a medium that we take for granted now, but look at the other stationed that were formed at the time, they were all called what they specified in.  CNN=Cable News Network, MTV=Music Television, HSN=Home Shopping Network.  Heck even back then the Disney channel showed almost nothing but Disney cartoons with the Mickey Mouse club sprinkled in for good measure.  So I feel that for the time period that BET was born in the name suited it well.

With that being said, a White Entertainment Television station would have been unnecessary because every other station on TV aired predominately white television shows and Entertainment Tonight focused on mainly white entertainers.  I’m not saying that this was because of race but it was because there were more of them than there were black entertainers.  This was just the way things were then and the BET was the solution.

Also to answer my roommates question: No the Cosby show was not enough when you consider that it was one show a week that sat in the midst of 20 to 30 other shows during the week that had predominately white casts.

It’s almost like saying that since there was the Negro League in baseball that Major League Baseball should have been called the Caucasian League (though I guess now you would have to call it the Hispanic League).

This argument is nearly pointless at this day and age but I hope that this post helps to clarify things for anyone who wanted to know.  Yes they could have called it something different but they didn’t, there isn’t really anything to contend at this point.

As all ways I look forward to your feedback!  Positive and Negative, no one is turned away!

 

Just for the record I still dislike BET in its current incarnation!

BET, Race ,
  • http://literarynobody.blogspot.com/ Literary Nobody

    Thanks for sharing this post. I too have been asked this dumb question and I always find it offensive because people know the answer. But it almost embarrasses me now that BET is called Black Entertainment Television because it’s neither entertaining nor is it what black people really want to see. SO when asked this I have a hard time defending it. I wish BET actually listened to their target audience and used it’s resources to create programming that we wouldn’t mind defending when asked.
    .-= Literary Nobody´s last blog ..<a href=\ =-.

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    SGT McClain Reply:
    July 27th, 2009 at 9:12 am

    See I could write a whole other post on what specifically is wrong with BET but I think the fact that they weren’t falling over themselves to air whatever show Tyler Perry was peddling before it got watered down into the House of Payne speaks volumes to me about what BET is really all about these days. Like you said it doesn’t represent us as a people at all.. only about 2% of the demographic, but to the rest of America (and in some cases the world) it makes it seem like we are all like that.

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