B.E.T. cartoon

Okay, so my boy DaVinci Parks posts this bulletin on Myspace yesterday about this BET cartoon. I'm curious of the "Please Watch and Discuss" title, and proceed to check out the bulletin, which was actually a two part CNN video clip reporting on a 'satirical hip-hop parody' cartoon that has aired on BET. The clip included interviews with the creators of the cartoon, and interviews and responses from critics firing back at the airing of this cartoon on BET. If you haven't heard about this cartoon by now, you can divine that it is causing a lot of controversy, hence the aforementioned critics. I am one of them. If you've seen the 'video cartoon', you know how bad the execution is. But for those who have not seen yet, the video seems to want to push literacy(among other messages such as buy land/real estate, drink water, brush your teeth, and use deodarant) a la the read-a-book campaigns. You know those read-a-book campaigns? They're usually national campaigns, where they get celebrities like Shaquille O' Neal to help endorse. And generally, you can find posters from these various campaigns hanging in the average library of many grade schools. Here's my problem with the so called hip-hop cartoon satire. Though "...sends a message" (as stated by the director of the video) is the intention, it does nothing much to increase a positive black image. In fact, it may have worsened it. One strong visual image in the video, among others, is one of a black woman bent over moving her junk up and down as if it was on hydraulics. Across her God given gift, the word 'Juicy' has been replaced by 'book.' In another image, we see a gangster, thug, or whatever you want to call him, load up a semi-automatic with a book as the clip, and 'fire' knowledge at his intended target. These were a couple of the striking visual images, but there are more. I've even seen what I assume to be an unedited version of the cartoon, which has explicit lyrics (cussing) on it. There are so many ways to discuss what is wrong with this 'cartoon', which if I decided to write about, would take up an entire editorial section of a major newspaper. I'll just talk about what seems to matter most in my opinion. First, BET's(owned by Viacom) stance and official statement on this whole thing, was that their intended demographic for this cartoon was 18-34, and the video "...was NOT part of any literacy campaign..." Problem 1 - from what I understand, this cartoon played during BET's most popular, bread and butter shows like Rap City, and 106th an Park. If anyone has seen 106th and Park, you know that this is a teen demographic. I as an adult, could probably count on one hand how many times I've watched just an excerpt of the show. And even though Rap City may be watched by people in the 'intended demographic' stated by BET, you know that there are many school-aged children that know the various rappers, and their lyrics better than the people of the intended age group. This means that they too, are watching the videos and picking up the lyrics(as well as the images). It's scary that many of these children know these rap lyrics backwards and forwards, but are not reading on their own grade level. So to play the cartoon video for the intended demographic during a time when the intended demographic probably isn't the group primarily watching (the intended demographic is prime time or later), either means that someone in charge at BET/Viacom's cartoon division is a complete idiot, and understood nothing in marketing 101, or their official statement is a bunch of crap. I'm going to go with the latter. Obviously, the airing of the video while the wrong demographic was watching, was intentional. For what purpose/reason, I'm not sure, and don't really care. Though for the creator of the cartoon and the director, who are both black, their probable and primary motive in this whole thing, albeit selfish as it would be, is that they are plucked from obscurity, and get tremendous media attention from the controversy. The creator and director say that it was not their intention. What bothers me so much is that the video, which "sends a message" and is not being presented as a literacy campaign, bares itself as nothing more than that "reflection of hip hop culture today", as stated by the director. The problem - our kids see enough wrong images. They don't need to see a cartoon parody of those same wrong images. I, as an adult over 25 (and whose brain has reached that physiological/chemical maturity because of that age), can look at this video and see it for what it is worth. A cartoon parody that WANTS to provoke thought. I see it, I get some entertainment value out of it, but then...nothing. I move on. It's something requiring no more thought, contemplation or time. After all, anybody and anybody whose 25 or older, or knows anything about hip-hop, knows that most of what is considered 'hip-hop' today, is not true 'hip-hop.' Call it rap if you want, but don't call it hip-hop. As a matter of fact, much of what is called hip-hop is garbage, and has no contributory value to society. Part of what makes hip-hop, hip-hop, is that it is sublime. There are those artists out there that are positive hip-hop artists, and I give them their props, but I digress. Kids (and a lot of young adults) on the other hand, see these images, and accept these images as a representation of the way life is, or the way it has to be. They listen to rap lyrics, and treat them as scripture almost. In our community, especially for our kids, we do not need to see a garbage parody of garbage. At the same time, we must take some responsibility on ourselves, and decide to take a stand on what is acceptable for our children to see. If our children at two years of age, can recite the lyrics they see in videos by 50 cent or Ludacris, yet they can't recite the first line of their ABC's, or even put their shoes on the right foot, it's time to turn the TV off! OFF! (Hint hint to the parents). Problem 2 - and this is directed more at the creator and filmmaker (and those that will follow in that general career path of entertainment) of the video. There's got to be better social responsibility. If you're in the position to present images or words to the world, you're in a very powerful position. No one of color who has this position is exempt, and even I, as someone who is choosing this path, must exercise this responsibility. Unfortunately, the image of our color, the image of the black man, the black woman, and the state of our community, is obviously not seen in a favorable light. That is an understatement. And I'm not just talking about the United States, I'm talking the ENTIRE WORLD! I have yet to travel abroad, but from what I understand of blacks who have, our image is horrible. We can't demand respect from others when we don't give it to ourselves. And there are those ignorant black people that will say, "who cares about what other people think of us?!" My answer to that is, "you SHOULD care." Understand that these images of us are what cause people to be afraid when a black man is 'following' them down a street at night, because we are all thug rapper wannabe's looking to earn street credit. Understand that these images make it easy for people like Don Imus to even think he can refer to a female college basketball team as 'nappy headed hoes', because too many of us are accepting of hearing or saying the word 'hoe.' These are the images that help to propagate negative stereotypes of blacks roles in film and television (Can anyone say, "only black character with speaking role in Little Miss Sunshine?") We can't expect more from anybody, than what we are willing to give ourselves. For the filmmakers of the cartoon video, if you wanted to send a message, which I assume was to be thought provoking, fine. Do it! But not like this. Execution is important, and as any woman will attest, presentation is everything. And this was just packaged and presented wrong. I mean, I know Viacom wrote the check, but how you going to let them punk you like Ashton Kutcher? There is one statement by the cartoon's director that I will agree with though, remarking "...the problem is bigger than just the cartoon. Fix the problem." That's very good advice and a very good point. Now here's my question. There's a song off this little 1987 album that suggests how to address fixing problems. The song is Michael Jackson's "Man In The Mirror." Have you listened to it lately?