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Thursday, July 26, 2007
7/26: Hot Ghetto Mess a mixed bag
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In the end, “Hot Ghetto Mess,” inspired by the web site wasn’t quite the mess some African Americans anticipated. In fact, that wasn’t even the name of the BET show, which, at the last second, became “We Got To Do Better.”
At Fox Sports Grill in Atlantic Station Wednesday night, about 50 mostly African Americans invited by the national Rainbow/PUSH Coalition screened the debut hosted by comic Charlie Murphy. About half the folks liked the show, a few hated it and several were in the middle.
In recent weeks, several people online protested the show’s title and supposed intent, leading two advertisers — State Farm and Atlanta’s Home Depot — to request not to have their commercials on the show. While the executive producers and BET executives defended the show, the network didn’t provide a preview episode to TV reporters, a normal practice. The explanation: they weren’t finished with it until the last second.
“It’s really a social commentary show,” said co-executive producer James DuBose over lunch at the InterContinental Hotel in Buckhead Wednesday afternoon. (He’s in town shooting second season of “The Keyshia Cole Show.”) “We’re trying to take responsibility and become more accountable for our actions by putting up a mirror. The show is trying to start a dialogue.”
If anything, the network did change the title of the show at the last second to placate critics, though on the show, it’s clear they had not changed Murphy’s commentary because he references “hot ghetto mess” several times.
The show itself is a blend of Jay Leno’s “Man on the Street” segments and “America’s Funniest Home Videos.” It attempts to show people’s ignorance of black history facts.
This is “the show you never want to see your mama on,” Murphy said, opening the show. “I mean, whether, you are black, white or otherwise, we can’t continue to do this.” By showing idiotic behavior on screen, he added, or as he said, people, “acting like damn fools, you’ll be less likely to replicate the behavior.”
Among the videos including bad singers such as a bunch of blacks in a farm setting eating candied yams and watermelon with flies on them and a dude with missing teeth who botched the “Star Spangled Banner.”
The “man on the street” segments, some of which was shot in Atlanta, weren’t nearly as entertaining as those Leno does because the comic working with the people (who only went by Sidney) wasn’t as witty and the answers weren’t nearly as amusing. In fact, the first question, when he asked folks “Who is richer: Bill Gates or Jay Z?” mostly got the right answer: Bill Gates. He got a couple of folks to say, if Jay Z released another album, he’d be closer to Gates. That still wasn’t funny. Ditto with the question about which one came first: blacks fighting in the military or getting the vote. Almost everyone got it correct. Sadly, most folks couldn’t identify Clarence Thomas, the only black on the Supreme Court.
Later, the show asked people to identify the acronym to NAACP. Most folks did not know that, but does that really matter? The fact is, even the NAACP will admit the acronym itself survives because of the meaning behind it, not the actual words because people don’t use the phrase “colored people” anymore, as in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. As
The most interesting one was asking people what the unemployment rate was among blacks. It was 8.2 percent but folks would say 45 percent or 55 percent. Naturally, the unemployment rate itself is misleading because it only identifies people actively looking for jobs.
While a majority of the videos featured blacks, there were also white folks doing stupid things like a car salesman falling off some mattresses on top of a car onto the ground and a redneck blowing a condom off his head. In fact, there was video of white folks at the Redneck Games, held each year in East Dublin, Ga., plopping into mudpits.
Janice Mathis, vice president for legal affairs for Rainbow/PUSH, organized several viewing parties in cities such as Los Angeles, Detroit, New York and Washington D.C. She said before the show she would be happy to cheer the show if it was any good but also ready to contact advertisers if it was offensive. In the end, she wasn’t sure what to think.
“I thought the history lessons were intriguing,” she said. “It’s nice to get that in an entertainment format without being too preachy. On the other hand, some of the videos were disturbing — even the [white folks] mudflopping.”
Most of the attendees were outside the 18-34 demographic BET is going after.
Dexter Porter, a 38-year-old mortgage broker from Decatur, called it a “minstrel show.” And even with whites in the act, “white folks can be minstrel, too,” he said, citing MTV’s “Jackass” show. “The purpose of BET is to dumb down the population.” Some criticized the show for featuring buffoonery.
“This takes blacks who are at the bottom of the barrel and we laugh at them and make fun of them,” said Rodney Coleman, a 35-year-old real estate developer from Atlanta. “It’s revised Jerry Springer for the new millenium. It’s ludicrous to think intellgent black people will learn from this. Intelligent black people aren’t even going to watch this show.”
Shelley Wynter, an afternoon talk show host on WAOK-AM known to be more conservative than most on the station, said he thought the show had plenty of redeeming value. “The show is not designed for you. Don’t look at it from your eyes but BET’s viewers’ eyes. It’s brilliant for them. How many watched Tavis Smiley when he was on BET? It was the network’s lowest rated show.”
“What they’re doing is saying, ‘If you don’t know this, find out about it,’ ” he added. “If you won’t find out about it, we’ll tell you about it. That’s a positive message.”
“This is something that wakes up your consciousness to how far we’ve fallen,” said Samuel Mosteller, a 49-year-old minister in Atlanta at the Good Shephard Community Church.
“It’s not offensive content,” said Latron Price, a 32-year-old consulting marketing firm owner from Ellenwood. “I thought it was designed to be comedic. I think it had a realness to it.” (He was happy they did change the show’s name, though.)
“Let’s not overthink this,” said Rhea Posey, a 33-year-old who works for a nonprofit. “We must do better. I agree. This will provoke thought.”
Ironically, this morning, VH1 is expected to announce yet another season of “Flavor of Love,” a show featuring Flavor Flav in a “Bachelor” style show. It has been the network’s most popular show ever but has been criticized for showing women (mostly black) being gold-diggers. “This is the show that sets blacks back 10 years,” said Wynter.
