What Will You Remember?

Photo by Tiffa130

Ok, Readers! This one may be a blatant no holds barred read, but I have to put it out there. What is BET doing with it's programming? The more I think I want to support their shows and sit down to some hip hop and R&B entertainment, I'm instead thrusted into the back of some hip hop or R&B artist's behind. I care very little about the tattoos I can hardly read on their bodies. I care even less about if their underwear are Calvin Klein or Hanes. I do, however, care about the tiny boys and girls I heard the other day reciting hip hop lines of rappers who, at some point, are going to refer to themselves and these kids as niggahs and bitches.

I've been an avid supporter of BET since Donnie Simpson used to host Video Soul. Back in the day, that was a show you couldn't wait to watch. Back then you'd sit and hear one on one interviews with people like Vesta or Guy or some other favorite performer of mine. Although I believe in progression and expansion, the way BET and some of these other networks have expanded their vision of entertainment just simply sucks!

When I listen to rappers like Rick Ross or Wiz Khalifa, I can tolerate all the cursing and what-not for the messages told behind the lyrics. But when I sit down to a meal and I see Rick Ross' (or any other representative) pants hanging so low I don't know why he even bothers to wear pants at all. What is he trying to prove? The problem to me as I see it, is not that people should be told what to wear or not wear-- that's censorship--but rather, that we, as people of color, have taken every aspect of self hatred from the misogynistic, racist, capitalistic perspective of the society from which our dignity was stripped, and claimed it as badges of pride. And we're not talking about it. We're playing with censorship in a way that we can't tell the difference between freedom of expression and decency. Our legacies are blurred by the attributions of titles like "the greatest" or the "richest" or the "hottest."

The get-it and who cares how you got-it attitude is deplorable. Simple and plain. No one in hip hop or R&B wants to say it for fear of retaliation. Well, I'm saying it! Get the courage to lead the masses to something greater than you, using the same platform and see what kind of difference you can really make. Because when they money is gone and it will go. And the women you've called "ho" more times than you've called them by their name leave, you'll be sitting there wondering what your legacy was. And by that time, if anyone cares, people will be saying things like, remember that cat...uhm, what's his name?

Asha...