Black Evil Television

Black Entertainment Television or BET is a well-known and in some households well-loved television network featuring programming aimed at African American viewers. The 24 hr. channel has been an important part of black culture since its national debut in 1983. There were BET sports, featuring black college football, BET news with political analysis from a black perspective, African American stand-up comedy, and of course music videos featuring black performers of nearly all kinds. It wasn’t perfect but at least it was ours. But like all things in life, it had to change.

I think I was still in high school the first time I saw BET. They were showing reruns of the classic sit-com Amos and Andy. I wasn’t that impressed, but even I had sense enough to realize something important was going on here, the birth of a totally black owned and operated national television enterprise.

So for a while black ownership was one of the channel’s main selling points. I for one felt good about watching BET. It was something the rest of America for the most part had never even heard of, something all our own. The channel did at some point actually represent black America in all its diversity, but like I said this didn’t last and things got downright embarrassing.

My problem with BET began when corporate (commercial) hip hop took over their entire programming. Don’t get me wrong, I love hip hop, but as a TV network that supposedly represents black people you should be ashamed to air certain videos. While this was going on BET was overall still watchable, and the raunchiest videos were aired only late at night.

It wasn’t long before all the redeeming factors about BET went away. The news division was the first casualty, then the sports, then the comedy, well they do still air gospel music on Sundays, which I admit I never watch, but at least it’s there.

But still I understand why these changes had to happen. They were facing stiff competition from various other sources and the black audience changed also. MTV, a channel which at first refused to play any black artists, including Michael Jackson, came up with Yo MTV Raps. ESPN came on with 24/7 sports. VH1 debuted to capture some of the older audience. So BET went for youth and raunchiness in order to stay competitive.

In my mind BET at some point became the channel for modern day minstrel show entertainment. This is what I tried to capture in BET, the painting shown above. I wanted the viewer to get a sense of what is really going on in these music videos, which have become a very important distributor of African American culture around the globe.

I think it’s important that a media company claiming to represent us should present our best image, at least most of the time. Of course they can’t get away from showing all content that might be controversial and they have to compete to stay on the air. This doesn’t give BET a pass, and I’m calling them out for their lack of awareness and sensitivity. I would hold any media company to the same standard.

I truly feel that many a non – African American have learned how to look at black folks from exposure to how we are portrayed in the media. That’s why the main character in my painting is a young white male wearing black face, in imitation of the only black men he knows, the ones on TV. Blackface is of course an old racist symbol used to make fun of African skin and features.

The media has helped to perpetuate many long held distortions and misconceptions about black men. They say we are violent, so I show the gun as a symbol. They say our culture objectifies women, so I put my main character in a room full of strippers. They love to make fun or our clothing and fashions while imitating at the same time, thus my character’s love of FUBU and large gold chains.

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