Super Tuesday Live Blog

"Janjaweed in America" By Gem2001"Dunbar Village" By Symphony "How Do We Keep a Social Movement Alive"- By Fallon

LATEST ON DUNBAR VILLAGE

RECENT POSTS ON WAOD

Registration For "Bloggin While Brown" Conference Begins

Make sure you read Symphony's report from the most recent meeting between the bureaucrats in West Palm Beach, Florida. They are still inept. Our national leaders are still indifferent to one of the most heinous attacks on a Black mother and child in our lifetimes. CALL THEM ON THEIR CRAP!

How to Help Dunbar Village Victims

Checks can be made payable to the Dunbar Village Victim Assistance Fund-St. Ann. They can be dropped off at any Wachovia branch or mailed to: St. Ann Catholic Church, 310 N. Olive Ave., West Palm Beach, FL 33401. The church’s phone number is (561) 832-3757. If you want to read about my experience donating at my local Wachovia branch, you can read about it here

Live Blogging from Washington,DC - From Imus to Industry Hearing

Dunbar Village Posts

Party on BET CEO's Lawn

Jesse Jackson is "Acting White"

How Long Could You Go Without Cable? 381 Days?

The "Concubine Conspiracy"

PLEASE PARDON OUR MESS. WE'RE MAKING SOME CHANGES

Join us in Atlanta, July 25-27,2008 for the Blogging While Brown Conference. The first international conference for bloggers of color and the readers who love and comment on them!

Early registration ends November 1, 2007!

Blogging While Brown is the first international conference for, by, and about Bloggers of Color AND the readers who love and comment on them. The purpose of the event is to give Bloggers of Color an opportunity to meet each other for the first time, discuss current issues affecting Bloggers of Color, and learn about the latest technology that will assist them with publishing their work. Blogging While Brown was created in response to widespread dissatisfaction with the amount of diversity in some of the largest blogging conferences.

Nailah Franklin Tribute

Born in Highland Park, Illinois and raised in south suburban Chicago, Nailah--whose name means "one who succeeds"--is a 1997 graduate of Homewood-Flossmoor High School and a 2001 graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she earned a bachelors degree in advertising. After graduation, she began her career at Leo Burnett, earning promotions, gaining experience and developing relationships during her five-year tenure there. While she was successful in her work, Nailah wanted to take on a new challenge and set her sights on a job in the pharmaceutical sales industry. She has worked as a sales rep for Eli Lilly & Co. since 2006. Always creating new challenges for herself, Nailah recently took on organizing events at a Chicago art gallery while simultaneously managing interior decorating projects for friends. Her care and concern for others is reflected in her volunteer efforts with the Chicago Urban League Metroboard, the Glass Slipper Project and other local non-profit organizations. Nailah is a force to be reckoned with. A presence. Someone who isn't afraid to speak her mind, try new things and set the bar high for herself and those around her. She is strong, resilient, vivacious, opinionated and above all, fashionable. A "girlie-girl", she loves her family and friends, fashion, spa visits, music and anything and everything related to Oprah.

Simply put, Nailah is our star.

Courtesy of BringNailahFranklinhome.com

WAOD FEATURES

LATEST ON DUNBAR VILLAGE

DO YOU LIVE IN SOUTH FLORIDA?

Help Us Keep Us With the Shenanigans in West Palm Beach Next Week

LATEST PODCAST
Make sure you read Symphony's report from the most recent meeting between the bureaucrats in West Palm Beach, Florida. They are still inept. Our national leaders are still indifferent to one of the most heinous attacks on a Black mother and child in our lifetimes. CALL THEM ON THEIR CRAP!

How to Help Dunbar Village Victims

Checks can be made payable to the Dunbar Village Victim Assistance Fund-St. Ann. They can be dropped off at any Wachovia branch or mailed to: St. Ann Catholic Church, 310 N. Olive Ave., West Palm Beach, FL 33401. The church’s phone number is (561) 832-3757. If you want to read about my experience donating at my local Wachovia branch, you can read about it here

 Now THIS is the meeting I needed to attend, but I had to decline the Commissioner's invitation to attend.

OKAY WHO IS GOING TO SPEAK UP? I KNOW SOME OF YOU LIVE IN SOUTH FLORIDA!!!!

 There will be another meeting with between the West Palm Beach Housing Authority (WPBHA) and the city commissioners. This time the Commissioners will take public comment at the meeting.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007 3:00pm City Commission Chambers at City Hall 200 2nd Street West Palm Beach, FL

Just remember: It doesn't take the majority to make a rebellion; it takes only a few determined leaders and a sound cause. Don't talk about the change, be the change. I want to see a room full of Black women and men in that chambers taking those 'leaders' to task. You can't demand people get on a plane to do what you aren't willing to get in your car and do...just sayin'. But you know I'm right. If you are interested in attending and would like to speak contact Symphony at symphonyep@gmail.com ; I will be happy to get you in contact with a few people down there including media. And for all you South Florida residents there is a benefit concert on behalf of the Dunbar Village victim and her son. It takes place Saturday at The World Famous Restaurant in West Palm Beach. $10/person.

Submitted by Symphony at Essential Presence

We just did our first Thursday show with special guest Shecodes and frequent commentators Tracey and Fal. The Black Women's Roundtable is BACK by popular demand. Really, please stop e-mailing. We're back each week at 8:00PM on Thursdays. We talked all about the Congressional Hearings on Tuesday. SheCodes, was also there. You can listen to the archived show in the player:

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

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
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