An interesting thing happened this past week during the BET Awards \u2026 the world was reminded that the B in BET stands for Black.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sure we knew the network had Black programing and Black faces but let\u2019s be real here, for a time what it was presenting was a caricature of Blackness and not a full depiction of the culture and condition of a people. Now some would \u2013 and rightfully so \u2013 argue that no singular network could fully present an accurate picture of a people so diverse. But for a few years \u2013 again, let\u2019s be real \u2013 since the network was sold to Viacom and Debra Lee took over, BET has been a shell of its former self and a cultural joke, opting to focus on the E in BET \u2013 pure mindless entertainment. Gone is all news programing. Gone are the Ed Gordons, Tavis Smileys, Cousin Jeffs, Shelia Banks and so on. Twerking reigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For years the BET Awards (and BET Hip-Hop Awards) have been three hour montages of buffoonery, plain and simple. BET and its shows were heavy on entertainment and light on Black \u2013 to be more to the point, light on Blackness. BET was being made palatable to the masses. It was so palatable in fact that this year\u2019s awards show was also broadcast on Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, VH-1, Logo and Spike. But following what happened this year, I\u2019m not so sure Nickelodeon and the likes will be inviting the neighbors over for dinner again any time soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For years, many in the Black community had quit checking for the BET Awards \u2026 and really for BET in general, but this year was different. As hip-hop artist and activist Nick \u201cMastermind\u201d Muhammad noted in a recent conversation, this year Black folks could hardly wait for the BET awards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWith how (Billboard) did (the tribute to) Prince and being left out of the Grammys and \u2018Oscars So White\u2019 we were really ready to be able to honor our people in our<\/em> space,\u201d said Muhammad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n BET is our<\/em> space, and in case anyone forgot that, Beyonc\u00e9 and Kendrick Lamar reminded us from the very start of the program. What struck me most about Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s performance was the song choice. Beyonc\u00e9 could have chosen to sing any song, but she chose \u201cFreedom\u201d \u2013 a soul-stirring anthem of Black struggle, Black pride and Black power<\/em>. The megastar that has a legion of fans from all ethnicities opened with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.\u2019s words from his iconic \u201cI Have a Dream\u201d speech, but Bey didn\u2019t pull from the warm and fuzzy text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She pulled from the part that most of us don\u2019t know \u2026 the part some in white America would rather us never know. She pulled from the \u201cWhen the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, Black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of \u2018Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.\u2019 It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked \u2018insufficient funds.\u2019 \u2026 We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we\u2019ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah, that<\/em> text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At any awards show in the past, that performance alone would have been the next day\u2019s conversation. So too would have been the wonderfully done tributes to Prince \u2013 actually done by relevant<\/em> artists who worked with or who were directly influenced and inspired by the icon. But the in the scheme of things they were just blips compared to what happened when Jesse Williams took the stage to accept his award for his humanitarian works in the wake of the proliferation of police killings of Black men, women and children.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m not sure if the powers at Viacom and white America as a whole \u2026 hell, Black America too \u2026 were ready for Williams to say what he said, but thank you Brother Williams for saying it. What he said was far more powerful than any line he could have ever delivered on \u201cGrey\u2019s Anatomy.\u201d Someone must have been asleep at the switch when they allowed Williams\u2019 mic to remain on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey would have cut his mic off and ushered him off the stage had he said it at the Oscars,\u201d said Muhammad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The \u201cit\u201d that he said is \u2013 and allow me to paraphrase \u2013 no longer will Blacks in entertainment be content with just entertaining. In 658 words he singlehandedly changed the E in BET from entertainment to enlightenment<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, more so than in the past few years, we\u2019re seeing a blending of arts and activism. In the 1960s Harry Belafonte and Dick Gregory locked arms with Malcolm X. Similarly, today we have brothers and sisters such as Williams, Beyonc\u00e9 and Lamar aligning with the brothers and sisters in movements such as Black Lives Matter calling for \u2026 demanding \u2026 structural change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now the conversation has gone on and will continue of for quite some time, but it\u2019s a worthy conversation to be had. Artists (and athletes) have a platform. The question is how they use that platform. And more and more fans are demanding cultural accountability from the artists they support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNow with social media and the internet people can have direct contact with artists and they can ask: \u2018why are you not talking about Freddie Gray (killed by Baltimore police), or Sandra Bland (dead after a police stop for failing to signal),\u201d said hip-hop artist and cultural activist, Toki Wright.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s be clear. The number one job for an entertainer is to entertain. If an artist doesn\u2019t entertain there is no platform \u2026 period. And not all artists should be required or obligated to speak on social issues. What Beyonc\u00e9, Kendrick and Williams did was out of choice, not obligation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Entertaining is how the artist earns a living and speaking out can cost an artist dearly. And like Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s husband once said, \u201cI can\u2019t help the poor if I\u2019m one of them.\u201d So when an artist does speak out and risks his or her standing among the Hollywood elite and major record labels, let\u2019s make sure we are there to support that artist \u2026 even if he is \u201clight skinned.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But that\u2019s a conversation to be had in a forthcoming commentary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An interesting thing happened this past week during the BET Awards \u2026 the world was reminded that the B in BET stands for Black. Sure we knew the network had Black programing and Black faces but let\u2019s be real here, for a time what it was presenting was a caricature of Blackness and not a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4705,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[2889,2891,2890],"class_list":["post-4704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-bet-awards","tag-debra-lee","tag-viacom","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Insight-News-Website-Images-12-4.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4704"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4706,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4704\/revisions\/4706"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}