June 29, 2009 Dear BET: Comment about the “Tribute”
Dear BET,
You’ve done it again. You have once given the rest of the world ammunition that black people can not put together anything of quality. I struggled through what was supposed to be a tribute to the late great Michael Jackson but turned out to be several hours of disorganized “shuckin’ and jivin” and coonery to say the least. I’m not sure why I’m surprised at this, BET, we have come to expect this type of crap from you particularly with your awards shows, but we thought this time would be different and we gave you a chance. In fact, we all thought that we would come together despite our differences because you told us that this would be a tribute to our beloved Michael Jackson. We didn’t see a tribute. Maybe you honored him at that moment I turned the channel so I wouldn’t have to watch Lil’ Wayne tell us how he wanted to “screw every girl in the world” while his daughter and other jailbait danced around on stage. But I digress.
I was particularly embarrassed and felt horrible when Lil’ Wayne’s awful displayed was followed by Janet Jackson. Great transition by the way. (pause to recognize the sarcasm.) She came out visibly distraught and hurt. I’m sure she looked that way because of the trying couple days that she’s endured, but I am pretty sure that the “tribute” that you put on in honor of her brother did not help ease anything. She looked and spoke with anger in my estimation. She said that she was the one “elected” by the family to have to come out and speak. And that to everyone else he was an icon, but to them he was family. This was particularly crushing to hear because many of us felt like he was family, and BET you should have done a better job to treat him like he was family on this tribute.
The saddest part of it all was the post show where all the celebrities clammored and high-fived each other thinking they had done a good job. Whatever helps you sleep at night. If you want to know how the viewing population felt, do a Twitter search on BET Awards. I saw two tweets that summed it up best saying:
“I wish BET had died and MJ did a tribute to them”
“They should have cancelled this sh*t and did a 3 hour moment of silence’
Don’t lie to us again BET. You should have kept with your regular scheduled awards show and took time to put together something that you could be proud of… not throw something together like a backyard BBQ. Please don’t perpetuate the stereotype. Do better. Guess we’ll have to wait until the Grammys in February to get a real tribute to the King of Pop.
Tags: BET, BET Awards, coonery, Debra Lee, Lil Wayne, Michael Jackson, shuck and jive, Tribute
- 15 comments
- Posted under Rant
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Cynthia
said
No…It was a great show! What a way to honor MJ
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Chuck
said
David you are so on point with your post. BET stands for Bootleg Entertainment Television. They do not represent progressive Black folks and have not in a while to be honest. I’m amazed that they could offer a MJ tribute and have some clown like Soulja Boy rap about he was “getting money” then turn around and have Mary Mary rap about the God In Me. I think the real tribute will come from MTV, since MJ made that video channel what it was. Funny to hear Jamie Foxx actually say that he was one of us, and then proceeded to host a sham of a tribute. “Family” is not treated like that at a wake. You talk about the good times, and leave the negative stuff outside, it wasn’t necessary. Lil Wayne and Baby should be ashamed of themselves for that performance and turning around and saying that was for Mike. Mike was not about that kind of stage performance. Tragic!
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Robbin Moore
said
I am an old head, so I (happily) know little about Lil Wayne’s “music.” I was appalled when those young girls got onstage during the performanace. I was sickened to learn that one of the girls was his daughter.
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Nicoma Narjett
said
Awesome. You summed up my feelings as well. I hope you sent this to BET. Someone needs to know how we TRULY felt. Thx, and well written.
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Sun
said
Well written and hilarious! Thank u!
(Respectful suggestion- do a quick copy edit on the first paragraph)
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Katherine
said
I am disgusted with the false advertising tribute to MJ and it was really a tribute to Jamie Fox/concert tour featuring Ne-yo. Why BET? I tried to find a reason to tune in, but you finally pushed me away for good. My mother taught me that if you are going to something – do it right or not at all.
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Naila
said
I was so disgusted with Lil Wayne and his awful, horrible deragatory lyrics. What a trashy song to perfom live and uncensored with little girls on the stage and during a “tribute” for a music great. BET should be shut down. The 1 million commercials for Tiny and Toya’s new show aka “Girls in the hood” just added to my disgust during the show. Thanks for the free concert Jamie!!! I agree with 120% and you said what everyone else is thinking.
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big ran
said
that show sucked. I would like to pay the postage for this letter.
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Tiffaney K. Draper
said
I am still very upset about the show. It quite simply did not represent me. As a mother of a young black man, I am reeling at the Lil’ Wayne performance as well as a majority of the Jamie Foxx performances. Where were the transitions, creativity, tribute???? I believe the show was a tacky, last-minute effort to trick us into watching them promote the tour and Tiny and Toya. I really believe that the moments that could have been golden were overshadowed by disrespect and as mentioned earlier, “coonery.” Foolishness!! I hope BET is saddened by the fact that we look to the Grammys for a proper tribute. Again, an opportunity for “us” to show that we have the ability to be civilized and orderely—#BET FAIL!
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Cliff
said
They used MJ’s name to get ratings point blank. Black people make me so upset, you try to support the things we do, but everything we do is so…BLACK. And it’s sad that “BLACK” has to be associated with bad, negative, ghetto, bootleg, unprofessional (shall I go on?), ignorant… you get the point. But we have worked hard to give ourselves a bad name. BET is not even run by US anymore. It’s run by people who know that we are all of those things I described, so they just give us what WE want. I never watch BET and only watched it because I thought just maybe they would do a real tribute since it was one of our own, but it was the same ol’ Ignorant TV I’ve come to expect from BET (BLACK EXPLOITATION TELEVISON). I really hope you sent this letter, I think I just wrote one…lol.
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Robbin Moore
said
You are absolutely on point. This is how they could have paid tribute…
1. Ditch the 3.25hour commercial – “My album drops on…”; “Come see me on tour.”
2. Get rid of that giant ad screen center stage.
3. The show could have been simply dedicated to the memory of Michael Jackson with a promise of a fitting memorial in the near future.
4. The planned musical acts (nee promotional acts) could have been replaced by the artists performing Michael Jackson/Jackson 5 songs
5. ONE EXCEPTION…Jay Z. DOA was fairly apropos considering the fact that Michael Jackson was not a “studio musician” in need of corrective action for pitch.
6. Where was Usher? Where was Justin Timberlake? Damn you, Chris Brown, you could have shone (pre guilty plea). These are some of the artists who could – no, WOULD have done justice to Michael’s music anad dance.
7. I could go on, but I don’t want to be labelled the “Angry Black Woman.”
P.S. The BET Awards is just one of the many reasons that I don’t watch the network.
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Naila
said
Robbin,
Amen!!! You were so on point with #5 and #6!!!
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Shay
said
I sincerly wish BET would change their channel name. This entertainment does not reflect what Black people want to see…thank you David for saying how so many of us feel!
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sesimag
said
I didn’t watch the entire show…probably won’t…but I completely agree with your comments on BET as a whole. It’s ridiculous, and have you seen Tiny and Toya??? Seriously…it’s like Spike Lee’s Bamboozled in real life…only nobody’s getting the point that they’re being well, bamboozled.
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flash
said
Gut!