Sunday, July 22, 2007

The Power of Black Bloggers

Hot Ghetto Mess

Black bloggers have united against BET and Viacom and are gaining traction. Now one of the nations leading newspapers The Washington post is following black blogger conversations on the issue.

My Photo

African American Political Pundit says:
I agree with you Gina McCauley, creator of the blog What About Our Daughters?, "This is the POWER of Black bloggers in action. How many more of you need to be convinced that this is a new day in blogging activism in the African American community?"

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As Bloggers such as
Gina McCauley, creator of the blog What About Our Daughters?,
Electronic village, the Afrosphere,
Mirror on America, Bronze trinity, African American Political Pundit and hundreds of other black bloggers step up the effort to stop negative portrayals of blacks by the media, a recent media release provides more details:

Black Bloggers and Civil Rights Groups Unite to Topple BET's "Hot Ghetto Mess"

Austin, TX -July 19, 2007 - If Viacom's Black Entertainment Television goes through with its plans to air "Hot Ghetto Mess" next week, many people will be watching, but not for the reason BET wants. Realizing that mere online advocacy, was not going to be enough to topple "Hot Ghetto Mess" after she'd gotten advertisers to flee the show, Gina McCauley, creator of the blog What About Our Daughters? turned to a coalition of religious and women's groups including the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the National Coalition for Black Civic Participation, National Organization for Women, Rainbow PUSH, and the National Congress of Black Women.

The result is what may very well be the largest intergenerational collaboration between young online activists and their older offline counterparts in United States history. Their focus; to convince advertisers that buying ad time on BET's "Hot Ghetto Mess" just isn't worth it, despite the high ratings that the show is likely to bring if it airs.

On July 25, 2007, "Hot Ghetto Mess" watch parties are being scheduled in Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York, Austin, the District of Columbia and the list of locations keeps growing. Those attending the watch parties will be recording which companies purchase advertisements during the show. The coalition then plans to target those businesses with possible boycotts or demonstrations.


Help Hunt Down Hot Ghetto Mess

Hat Tip: Villager

Villagers, it is time to send the hunters into the jungle to bring down the jackal that has been stealing our dignity. The Electronic Village is joining What About Our Daughters blog, Eddie Griffin and other Black bloggers in the next phase of this quest to take Hot Ghetto Mess off the air.



Hot Ghetto' Leaves Some Blacks Cold

Ever since she started pumping her friends' snapshots of black people behaving badly onto her Web site, Jam Donaldson has been at the center of an uncomfortable cultural question:

Can African Americans publicly humiliate, satirize and otherwise shame other African Americans and not be called "race haters," "elitists" and "Uncle Toms"? More HERE



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is a great summary! Yes it does seem like most of us are against the show and most of us want BET either gone or transformed into a positive station. There are only some people who go back to the same old argument that we should be working on something else, this isn't the source of our problems, or we are trying to hide our dirty laundry. But I don't see it that way. This is one of many actions that we are attempting to clean up our images and the images and messages that we are exposed to. We are trying to change the negative public image of Black people because it fosters racism against us and self-hatred in Black people. Showing positive, accurate, and inspiring images would help us a lot. If we change everyone's ideas about Black people then that would help us a great deal.