The Second Wave Begins -Combating Immoral Indifference to Dunbar Village

A multimedia onslaught is about to be unleashed. This foolishness is ridiculous! Enough already. Get Ready. Get Ready. Get Ready!

Dunbar Village Test Video

Letter to Governor of Florida

I and many people around the world were shocked, saddened, horrified and angry about the Dunbar Village gang rape that occurred in June in West Palm Beach, Florida. I am sure you are familiar with what may be one of the most horrific hate crimes committed against a person of color since the dragging death of James Byrd, but on June 18th a 35 year old woman was raped and sodomized by 10 African American men and boys for over three hours while her neighbors ignored her screams and the screams of her 12 year-old son who the gang rapists beat for three hours. They forced the mother to perform oral sex on her 12 year-old son at gun point and when they were through, poured cleaning solution on the mother and son as they lay naked in their bathtub, blinding the son and burning the mother’s skin. When the savage attack was over, not a single one of this neighbors lifted a pinky finger to help her and she and her son, now blinded, had to walk to the hospital.

In response, Mayor Lois Frankel has attempted to lay the blame for the horrific events at Dunbar Village at the feet of the federal government. Mayor Frankel has been on several national news outlets blaming the federal government for not approving a $165,000 grant for a security guard, four years ago. Mayor Frankel appears to not have bothered to obtain the funds to protect the citizens of Dunbar Village from other sources. In fact, she spent $164 MILLION on a city office building and furnishings. In a single year there were 717 police calls from Dunbar Village, a complex with only 334 residents. There were 15 murders and countless other crimes.

Now the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development appears poised to grant TWENTY MILLION DOLLARS to revitalize Dunbar Village housing projects and replace this blighted area with a mixed income housing development and Lois Frankel is balking at paying $100,000 for a consultant to complete the grant application. Did I mention that HUD appears embarrassed by what happened at Dunbar Village and has given public indications that they are more than willing to hand over the money? Did I mention that these new residents would be homeowners thus tax payers and possibly draw commercial businesses to a part of Florida that is currently a blight?

Throughout this entire debacle, Mayor Lois Frankel has exhibited callousness, delusions, and incompetence and I respectfully ask you to intervene. I want to remind you that the people who are unlucky enough to live in the Hell on Earth that is Dunbar Village are not just residents of West Palm Beach, but they are citizens of the State of Florida and they deserve your protection. Please have your team Google “Dunbar Village.” People all over the world are outraged and while the story has percolated just below the surface internationally, the story is not going away. If you would like to hear my interview on National Public Radio discussing the Dunbar Village gang rape and the subsequent attack on another Black woman in the same area weeks later, you can go to .http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12596351. This story is not going away. Please intervene. Mayor Frankel is clearly over her head. Therefore I ask you to consider:

A. Go to Dunbar Village and assure the residents that if Lois Frankel is unable to secure this section of the city that the State of Florida will.

B. If Ms. Frankel is unwilling to apply for the grant than arrange for some other political subdivision of the State of Florida to apply.

C. Although Ms. Frankel managed to scrape up 164 MILLION DOLLARS to build a new city hall and appoint it with the finest of furnishings and accoutrements, she is unable to hold a cat fish dinner, car wash, or telethon to come up with $100, 000 for a grant consultant.

D. Lend the City of West Palm Beach a State of Florida Employee who is well versed in applying for federal grants, thus having an opportunity to return 20 MILLION DOLLARS of Floridians federal tax contributions back to the State of Florida.

Just let the residents of Dunbar Village know that while their city may have abandoned them, the state of Florida has not.

Letter to Viacom Leadership

I am writing you to ask you to intervene to stop Viacom's Black Entertainment Television from airing a show called " Hot Ghetto Mess" on July 25, 2007. You should know that the show is based on a controversial website called HotGhettoMess.com. The logo for the show includes a racist blackface cartoon. I led a successful campaign to have advertisers pull out of the show, but BET executives appear unrelenting and seem determined to ram this program through despite defecting advertisers and widespread public outrage within the African American community. This news story is now within its second week.

By now I had hoped that reason would prevail, but BET's executive leadership is so arrogant, that they are willing to have their entire lineup of 27 new shows be overshadowed by one ill-conceived show that never should have been green-lighted in the first place. If you check the stories from the Television Critics Association events this weekend, "Hot Ghetto Mess" dominated the coverage. Just do a simple
news search online for "Hot Ghetto Mess."

BET's attempt to proceed with the show by any means necessary demonstrates poor judgment on the part of BET's executive leadership. BET executives exhibited poor judgment when they elected to call the show by the same title as a website featuring rampant nudity, photos of teenage girls partially clothed, and photographs of very young African American children in abusive and neglectful situations. BET's
executive leadership exhibited poor judgment when they allowed their client's logos and advertising to appear on the same page with a racist blackface cartoon.

The corporate logos for State Farm, the Home Depot, Yum Brands , Target, Daimler Chrysler, and AT&T ads were all captured displayed beside a racist blackface cartoon character and on the BET.com page that was promoting the show. The pages have been altered, but screen captures are available. Both the Home Depot and State Farm insurance have issued public statements repudiating BET for associating their
products and services with something called "Hot Ghetto Mess."

Not a single BET employee realized that their sponsors MIGHT have a problem with their products and services being associated with a blackface cartoon and something called "Hot Ghetto Mess." This indicates a problem with BET's corporate culture and infrastructure that can only be corrected with intervention from Viacom. BET could
be a valuable property in the future, but If you continue to allow BET to burn bridges and offend their target audience, the only likely outcome is a decrease in Viacom shareholder value as the network continues to flounder and its ratings stay flat. What use is paying tens of millions of dollars for new programming if the public perception of the network is so poor within its target audience that
they stop watching in disgust.

Although I loath to ask you to endure this, I encourage you to go to the site HotGhettoMess.com and ask your self if this is the kind of content that you want your client's products and brands associated with directly or indirectly.

You can follow my concerns with BET's "Hot Ghetto Mess" on my blog What About Our Daughters? located at whataboutourdaughters.blogspot.com. I long for the days when BET becomes a channel we can all be proud of. I thank you for your consideration.

--
Gina
What About Our Daughters
"Combating negative portrayals of African American women in popular culture."
whataboutourdaughters.blogspot.com

Open Letter to Chairman Martin of the FCC in Favor of Cable Choice / A La Carte Cable

Cross posted at What About Our Daughters.

I am aware that members of the Alliance for Diversity in Programming have recently sent you letters regarding a la carte cable pricing indicating that a la carte cable pricing might somehow strike a blow to programming diversity. I wanted to offer a different perspective.

As an African American woman I question their definition of programming diversity. I would submit that s Nickelodeon’s “ Nick at Nite” offers far more “diverse” programming featuring African Americans than Viacom’s BET ( Black Entertainment Television). I believe that BET’s current and past programming choices are not worthy of receiving subsidies from cable subscribers who don’t watch BET.

At every turn, the concerns of the negative portrayals of African Americans promoted by Viacom’s networks has been ignored. In response to a public outcry from students at Spelman Collgege, BET CEO Debra Lee said that in her eyes BET was better than ever because BET was making more money than ever. Viacom and BET are not concerned with diversity, only collecting as many cable subscriber fees as possible. This business model is aided by compulsory consumer subscriber fees.

Black Entertainment Television is Not Diverse

Just because a cable channel is called Black Entertainment Television does not mean that it is diverse. In fact , BET is far from diverse. BET has relatively no public affairs programming and offers very few programming options that are not available elsewhere. Its main offerings are soft porn in the afternoon, disguised as music videos which air in the after school hours when parents are hard at work to pay for the cable that is streaming misogynist, pro-prison, pro-pimp, pro-drug, pro-violence, anti-education, anti- authority messages into their homes. Please don’t let these executives fool you into believing that because they are people of color, their programming is diverse or that their programming in some way provides a service to African Americans.

“Cable Choice” Would Force Networks to be More Responsive to Subscriber’s Concerns

Viacom and BET have selected a business model premised on the idea that there is nothing too abusive to be aired on its networks. There is no gutter too dirty, no pit too dark, no cultural cesspool too toxic that BET won’t crawl into. Requiring cable consumers to subsidize BET whether those viewers watch BET or not allows BET’s executives to continue to arrogantly dismiss serious concerns about the effect of BET’s programming choices on African American children. BET is a parasite which has profited off of African Americans while holding their own target audience in contempt.

BET’s Programming is Morally Repugnant
For years BET aired a music television show called Uncut, which contained highly sexualized and drug use imagery. Uncut featured such cultural gems as “No Panties (On the Dance Floor)” by Wax-a-million, “Shake That S**t” by Preacha, “P****y Poppin'“ by Ludacris feat. Shawnna and Lil Fate, Lil' Flip , “You'ze A Trick - I Don't Give A F*ck” by Lil' Jon & The Eastside Boyz, “Smoke With Me” by The Firemen(unlike other videos, this one focused on smoking marijuana), “I Got That Drank” (this one focused on the rising trend of the drug codeine cough syrup ) by Frayser Boy feat. Mike Jones and Paul Wall, and perhaps most famous of all “Tip Drill” by Nelly.

I don’t expect you to know how vile and pornographic these videos are, but I am sure your staffers can pull them up on YouTube so that you can see the level of depravity within the ranks of Viacom and Black Entertainment Television. Why should a cable subscriber have to subsidize this type of programming just to have access to cable? If one of the main arguments against a la carte cable is a decrease in programming diversity, my question is diversity for the sake of what? What are these cable networks putting out in our names?

BET Holds Its Own Audience in Contempt

BET’s most recent example of why cable subscribers should not be forced to subsidize BET’s programming will debut on July 25, 2007. The show is called “ Hot Ghetto Mess.” That is not a typo. The show is called HOT.GHETTO.MESS! BET describes the show as “ a car wreck you can’t look away from.”

The logo for the show is a blackface cartoon character. The logo indicates that the creators of the show believe that African Americans deemed “ghetto” are “Sambos“, “Golliwoggs” or “Picaninnies.” No other cable channel could get away with this.

BET encourages viewers to take photographs and videotapes of African American subjects who those viewers hold in contempt. The more humiliating and embarrassing the better. BET will in turn collect the pictures and broadcast them for the whole wide world. The African American poor, mentally ill, emotionally unstable, and delusional, all packaged in a neat bundle for all the world to laugh at. Is this what the Alliance for Diversity in Programming believes African Americans will be robbed of if Congress allows consumers to chose which television programming will enter their homes? Good riddance!

When he became aware of protests regarding the show “Hot Ghetto Mess,” BET’s programming chief, Reginald Hudlin, cast aside complaints, saying “ Hot Ghetto Mess” was “ so doggone good.” The creator of “Hot Ghetto Mess” has said “to all of you who are angry at me for airing our dirty laundry—good I’m glad you’re angry.” This level of contempt is possible because under the current pricing scheme, no matter how many African Americans boycott BET, the network still gets paid. Thus, the arrogance and contempt from BET’s top decision-makers. What BET knows is that it has burned so many bridges in the African American community that the thought of actually asking us to pay them directly for their programming is terrifying.

Most of the African Americans who visit my site indicate that they gave up on BET years ago. Those African American cable subscribers shouldn’t have to subsidize “Hot Ghetto Mess” with their cable subscriptions. The next time you receive a letter claiming that a la carte pricing would decimate minority programmers who air programming focused on African Americans, I urge you to actually REVIEW what these programmers are airing. I then ask you to decide if the “diversity” that these programmers are offering is worthy of receiving a subsidy from cable subscribers. In the case of BET, the answer must be a resounding “No!” If people want to pay for crack cocaine of the multimedia variety, let them pay for it…. a la carte.

If you have any questions, you can visit my site What About Our Daughters at whataboutourdaughters.blogspot.com .

Open Letter to Rainbow Push and the National Congress of Black Women

I publicized your protests of the Viacom annual meeting and when one of the visitors to my blog asked me what happened following the protest, my research indicates nothing happened . In fact Ron Allen of NBC said that you were “drowned out.” I call on your organizations to approach the top five advertisers for Viacom and appeal to those advertisers to pull their advertising from all Viacom networks, including BET. Viacom has no incentive to change its policies and programming until they have an economic reason for doing so. Imus isn't off the air because MSNBC and CBS Radio were good corporate citizens, but because his advertisers bailed. How long do you think it would take for Viacom to see the error of its ways if Proctor & Gamble pulled all of the ads on Viacom networks?

I publicized your effort despite the fact that a month ago, I e-mailed both of your organizations to alert you to disparaging comments that the comedian DL Hughley made about the women of Rutgers during his appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. I provided you with links to the video clips of Mr. Hughley’s comments. I didn’t receive any response from either of your organizations, not even an automated e-mail indicating my e-mail was received. The only organization to respond was the National Action Network, and that was only after serious prodding from readers of my blog, What About Our Daughters, where we ran “Sharpton Watch” until he responded. I didn’t bestow one of my blog “watches” on your organizations at the time, but I am going to rethink that decision in light of the Mr. Allen’s description of your protests at the Viacom meeting.

We don’t want to start our own organization. We don’t need another organization when there are perfectly good organizations with the resources and institutional knowledge to be effective in combating negative portrayals of African American women in popular culture. Multiple organizations would be wasteful. Therefore, I am content to publicize the efforts of organizations already in existence, however, I have to wonder if the National Congress of Black Women and Rainbow Push aren’t merely exploiting the current attention on the issue of the degradation of Black women for additional exposure and increased membership dues and corporate donations.

If you are going to hold yourselves out as championing the cause of combating negative portrayals of African American women in popular culture, I think you have an obligation to do so in an efficient and effective ways. The assault on the images of Black women is far to damaging to engage vanity protests when what we need is meaningful activism. We hope you will aim your efforts towards advertisers instead of media companies. After two decades of going after Time Warner and Viacom, isn’t it time to change tactics?

Terribly disappointed,

Gina
WhatAboutOurDaughters.Org
“Combating negative portrayals of African American women in popular culture.”

A Call For Meaningful Activism

I have been loathed to write this post. I’m trying to be polite and respectful. I’m trying to be deferential. I realize I am new at this and my new fangled views might sound radical. I actually wrote most of this post before I learned that the NAACP is doing some major overhead reduction and closing seven regional offices and 40 percent of the national staff. So either I am clairvoyant, or I have an amazing ability o state the obvious.

I previously posted on the silliness of the NAACP burying the “N” word. I though that it was foolishness to have a symbolic burial of a word when African Americans are failing to graduate from high school at alarming numbers and AIDs, a preventable disease is the largest killer of Black women between the ages of 21 and 34.

Held to a Higher Standard - NAACP, NAN, Rainbow Push, NCBW are NOT Grassroots Organizations
Now some might find it heresy that I am even criticizing these civil rights organizations. These are well meaning folks after all. Not so fast my friend. Yes, I have featured grassroots organization on this blog. I consider grassroots groups separate from these large organizations with permanent paid staff, brick and mortar headquarters and huge budgets. These are hardly organizations selling fried catfish dinners to keep the doors open. Most of these organizations take in millions of dollars from dues, corporate sponsorships, and tax payers in the name of addressing the needs of people of color. So we as Black folks have a right to expect competent leadership and effective advocacy from organizations that are taking in money IN OUR NAME.

A week ago on this blog, I featured a post about the Rainbow Push organization and National Congress of Black Women attending a Viacom shareholders meeting to protest the degradation of African American women on the Viacom networks, this includes BET, VH1, and MTV. I try to highlight everyone making an effort and try not to be judgmental, but one of the comments left on the post asked a very simple question, “What Happened After the Meeting?” Well folks, I did some research to find out what happened after the protests at the meeting… ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! Mean while, our favorite preacher is collecting soap in Detroit in the name of combating indecency in Hip Hop.

Intentionally Tanking the Match?
All of this has made me wonder; do “civil rights” organizations really want to end the degradation of African American women in popular culture, or are they merely exploiting the War on Black Women to garner attention and additional corporate donations. Based on recent actions by Rainbow Push, the National Congress of Black Women, and Rev. Al’s National Action Network, I can’t tell if they are deliberately tanking the fight or just inept and inefficient. This article from Mother Jones, which I did not read before my initial draft of this post, confirms my suspicions. If it is true then maybe it is time to shutter their doors.

Barking Up the Wrong Tree
The year is now 2008 and traditional civil rights organizations continue to cement the idea among many from younger generations that they are dinosaurs whose time has passed. I would be saddened if this is true. I still believe that many of the institutions created and birthed by our parents and grandparents still carry significant clout, connections and organizational structure that dwarfs anything subsequent generations have yet to amass. However, we’re being slaughtered and slandered here . Sentiment and symbolism isn’t enough. Serious, effective action is required.

The truth is that 40 years ago, African Americans used protests in the streets because that is what they had available to them. Protesting continues to be an effect change agent. However, through the power of interactive media and economic advancement, African Americans are uniquely positioned to demand that advertisers discontinue subsidizing Viacom’s networks and enforce economic sanctions on those advertiser refuse. My question is why haven’t these traditional civil rights organizations aimed their resources at the entities that are in the position to bring about the greatest change?

I am going to give these organizations the benefit of the doubt and believe that it never occurred to them that the reason Don Imus is no longer on the air is not because MSNBC and CBS Radio were good corporate citizens, but because advertisers stopped subsidizing his show. WhatAboutOurDaughters.Org calls on traditional “civil rights” organizations to abandon seeking redress from media companies and speak directly to advertisers. We call on them to approach the top five advertisers for Viacom and appeal to those advertisers to pull their advertising from all Viacom networks. Viacom has no incentive to change its policies and programming until they have an economic reason for doing so.

Conflict of Interest?
The only explanation I can come up with for why these organizations haven’t focused on the likes of Proctor and Gamble, State Farm, T-Mobile, and other large advertisers on BET and VH1 is that it isn’t in these organization’s financial best interest to do so. Are they afraid of approaching advertisers for fear of losing
Reluctance to Create a New Organization

In my very first post to this blog, I said that I did not want to create a new organization to combat the War on Black Women. Organizations require overhead. Creating multiple organizations is wasteful and unnecessary when we already have organizations in place who just need to operate in a more responsible and effective manner.

A Call for Meaningful Activism
I’m willing to work with them to come up with strategies that might be more effective today, but I am not going to sit by and say nothing while they exploit the degradation of African American women to garner headlines and corporate donations while doing absolutely nothing that helps the situation. I’m willing to put the hustle on BLAST!

To this day the ONLY organization that has issued a statement about DL Hughley’s slur against the women of Rutgers has been Sharpton’s National Action Network. The response was tepid at best and only the result of the readers of this blog raising hell about it. Sharpton’s defense was that he didn’t know, but how can you not know when you set yourself up to be the guardian of decency. How hard is it to set up a news feed with for posts about “Black Women” or better yet, posts about “Al Sharpton.” The fact that they say they didn’t know is another example of incompetence.

What should we do if we can’t trust these organizations? Should we start our own? SPEAK ON IT!