Antoine Dodson. He is just another over the top, stereotypical, flamboyant Black guy giving Black people a bad name. First, he comes on the television with all this attitude and sassiness. “OBVIOUSSSSLLLY, we have a rapist in Lincoln Park.” That was the first thing out of Antoine’s mouth when the camera focused on him. Why did he have to do all that? As we say in the District of Columbia, he was “doing too much.” This was a battle Mr. Dodson had no business in fighting. I can understand him wanting to be the overprotective brother, but honestly, he just wanted camera time. Because of his new found fame, BET has endorsed him and offered him awards as if he was a REAL musical artist.
Then, BET: Black Embarrassing Television, disgusts me in a lot of ways. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy some of the shows and award shows. However, when I turned to the 2010 Hip Hop Awards and saw Antoine Dodson performing, a look of disgusts came over my face. What was he doing there? Antoine Dodson is NOT a hip hop artist and he has never released a hip hop song. But there he was on the stage, dancing and singing merrily: “He’s climbin’ in yo’ windows, he’s snatchin’ yo’ people up! So, hide yo’ kids, hide yo’ wives, hide yo’ kids, hide yo’ wives, and hide yo’ husbands too, cause they raping everybody out here.” BET obviously thought this was entertaining, but if you want to uplift and inspire the Black community, give the children more positive role models.
That leads into the discussion of Blacks in the media. Blacks are ridiculed in the media, and sometimes, it is because of themselves. Antoine Dodson is a prime example. If Blacks get on television and act like fools or if BET is only showcasing negative role models, other races will begin to categorize and stereotype all Blacks as the same. Antoine Dodson and BET have both disappointed me. While Antoine Dodson’s primary goal was not to be a representative for Blacks, BET believes that that is their job. BET, you are doing your job poorly. If you want to be the voice of the Black community, show the positive role models and let me people see there are other opportunities out there for them besides being an entertainer. BET has to do better.
The representation of Blacks in the media is fairly bad. I know that some news channels choose to omit information about Black families, but whenever there are Blacks on television, a majority of the time, what is shown is not a positive image. As a Black person, we have to do better so that the media gives us more opportunities to get our story told.
LOVE IT! I laughed out loud when i read the Antoine Dodson part. I was so shocked to know that BET gave him an award. First, because he wasn't even the one that put together the song, it was a group of white kids. Second, like you said he was joke not an artist. No offense to him but he was a hypocrite to have accepted the award. It is quite annoying to have people like him awarded for nothing when there are others who do something significant and they are not awarded. When you think about it though, the ones that present people like him are well quite frankly whites. BET might appear to be a black channel but it is owned by whites.
ReplyDeleteI 100% agree with you Nichelle. That kind of things like that what the media do to basically pick certain "crazy" things to put on TV so the other race can be influence on how black people really act and it's really not like that at all. I especially dislike how one of the only black television networks also influences that ignorances and then on top of that let Antione Dodson perform at a historic awards and not only he embarsses himself BET embarass themselves as well. I believe that it will take a long time for America to get over something like this, but all we can do is do something about and now we're starting on doing blog! Love the powerful words you have on this essay.
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