The Brian Lehrer Show
The "Mess" at BET
William Jelani Cobb, associate professor of history at Spelman College, contributing writer for Essence Magazine and the author of The Devil and Dave Chappelle: And Other Essays (Avalon, 2007) and Cora Daniels, journalist and the author of Ghetto Nation: A Journey into the Land of Bling and the Home of the Shameless (Doubleday, 2007), react to the controversy over the new BET television show “We Got to Do Better” based on the website "Hot Ghetto Mess.”
William Jelani Cobb's website
Cora Daniels' website
Posted by: wanda July 27, 2007 - 10:55AM
so now blacks (of which i am one) get to have our own version of "STREET SMARTS" with a broader social comment
I just went to this website, hotghettomess, and spent an hour surfing around. The info seems to be old and may date back to the 2005 publish date of the site.
The photos have no attributions so they are out of context. I was able to race a screen shot from Corpus Christi showing two african americam women holding pickit sign reading I have a dream. In both Dream is mispelled, deram and draem. Upon investigation I discovered it was a news story about a protest against illiteracy.
The feedback forum is obviously fake, lacks post names except for the 55 year old white guy who not only points out his being white but continues to describe how rude black teens are.
Everything on this site is there to provoke a response through manipulation of random pictures.
Several of their links to other "Mess" don't work. The word everything on one of their own subcatagories is misspelled, not to make a point but because of poor spell checking. The "Mess of the Month" is an old story about MIke Tyson doing porn with Jenna Jameson, which is from August, 2005.
This site seems geared toward selling a DVD of the pictures, promoting the upcoming TV program.
It is strictly a promotional device that has no newswothiness so BET is simply participating in promoting an undesirable image of African Americans.
I bet that mostly white college students buy the DVD for its comic value, which is a part of the problem. Shame on BET.
That's sad that these women were photographed out of context (I have a draem). That makes me angry! Thank you for uncovering that.
Hilarious review of BET Summer Programming here: http://averagebro.blogspot.com/2007/07/better-programming-dont-bet-on-it.html
I believe this is totally fake. I fixed the spelling in Photoshop, took me about 3 minutes, and I am a total amateur. Visit my blogg to see the result. http://phfft.blogspot.com
Posted by: MO June 21, 2008 - 11:34AM
The misspellings are legit, and the protest was NOT a literacy campaign. See snopes:
www.snopes.com/photos/signs/mlkday.asp
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