Letter to BET by Miss Janita Patrick

A friend of mine posted this on Facebook...It's a letter a very intelligent 15 yr old wrote to BET. Dear Debra Lee, I’m Janita Patrick, a 15-year-old African-American female from Cincinnati. Recently, I watched the 2009 BET Awards and felt the strongest urge to reach out to the program. My family is of the typical middle-class variety; both parents and four brothers. See, I’m a junior in high school (got skipped), so naturally EVERYBODY in my age group watches BET. I’m used to seeing the sagging pants, tattoos, lack of emphasis on reading and respecting women that makes up your videos. People in my class live this out everyday, while teachers tell us that we’re acting just like the people in your shows. In your shows. That struck me as odd, because I would think that with your show being the primary outlet for black entertainers and musicians, and considering the context of blacks in this country, there’s a social responsibility factor to consider. I would never blame BET alone for the way a great deal of my classmates act and talk and dress. Everybody makes their own choices. However, if anybody is aware the power of television on impressionable minds, it’s the people running the television operations. If you are not aware, then perhaps you shouldn’t be running the operations. Guess who watches your network the most? Not those who are intelligent enough to discern foolishness from substance, but those who are barely teenagers, impressionable and believing. It’s awfully cruel to plant seeds of ignorance in fertile minds. You know it’s really bad when the co-founder of BET, Sheila Johnson, said that she “really doesn’t watch it” anymore. I am constantly fighting against the images and messages put forth on your program. What made you think that it’s okay to bring my classmates on stage to dance behind Lil Wayne and Drake to a song talking about boffing “every girl in the world”? Why does reality train wrecks have to thrown in our faces? Are you aware of the achievement gap going in inner-city African-American communities? A report from America’s Promise Alliance, a non-profit group started by Colin Powell, recently stated that 47 percent of high school students in the nation’s top 50 cities don’t graduate. (Fifty-four percent of males of color in Ingham County graduated from high school, compared to 74 percent of white males). This isn’t because of BET per se, but I don’t see any episodes on your show doing anything to counteract this disturbing trend. In fact, your show is a part of this cycle of media depicting us at our worst. My older brother told me something about profit being the number one goal for every business. I’m not sure I understand what that means, but I do know that your shows have to be entertaining enough to generate viewers, which is how you make your money. But surely our culture is rich enough to entertain without anything extra to “boost” ratings; why the over-the-top foolery? I listen to classmates talk about Baldwin Hills like it’s the Manhattan Project. It doesn’t take much effort to produce a throng of degenerative reality shows, nor does it take much to eliminate socially conscious shows off the air. MTV isn’t much better, but since when does two wrongs ever make a right? It’s one thing for white television shows to depict us in a particular way, but for black television shows to do it is baffling. Why do you hate us? All of the values that my parents seek to instill in me and my brothers seems to be contradicted by a more powerful force from the media, and your show is at the forefront. Your network is the only network that features rap videos and shows exclusively to children of my color. I know that you have no control over the music that the artists put out, but you do have influence as to how you air these videos. I’m sure if a stand was taken to use the talent in your organization to actually crank out thought-provoking entertaining shows and videos, then artists will follow suit. Being that they need you as much as you need them. There was one awkward segment in the BET Awards when Jamie Foxx singled out three black doctors-turned-authors, but the introduction was so powerless that many of the viewers had no idea who they were. Had they been introduced as Sampson Davis, Rameck Hunt and George Jenkins, three brothers who overcame major obstacles to become a success without the use of lyrics that berate women, the sell of substance that destroy communities or through raps about loose gunplay, then maybe my classmates would have come to school talking about more than Beyonce, T-Pain’s BIG ASS CHAIN and Soulja Boy Tell Em’s hopping out the bed. But they weren’t introduced like that. It seemed like a throwaway obligatory tribute to appease some irritated fans. It missed the mark. Big time. Ask Michelle Obama if she watches BET or encourages Sasha and Malia to do so. Ask President Obama. It’s a reason he is the leader of the free world, and it isn’t because of Buffoonery Exists Today. You’d be surprised how smart young black children can be with the absence of Blacks Embarrassing Themselves. If your goal is to deter engaged, forward-thinking articulate black minds, then consider your goal fulfilled. It’s hard-pressed to think that your shows are working to promote cultural betterment. However, it’s quite easy to conclude that the destruction of black children through the glorification of immoral behavior and rushed production is by design. Poison is being swallowed by every viewer who adores your network, and the worse thing is, these viewers - my classmates - are not even aware what they’re swallowing. There is nothing edifying for black women on your show. I don’t judge people who do throng to your programs though; I mean, if a jet crashes in right in front of me, I’ll watch it too. That’s why I don’t flip by your channel…I don’t even want to be sucked in. I have aspirations of acquiring a law degree and possibly entering the public sphere, so I can counteract conditions in my community perpetuated by the images on your channel. So I should thank you, because in a weird sense, your shoddy programming is the wind behind my back. And it is my hope that I can accomplish my dreams despite BET’s pictorial messages, because Lord knows it won’t be because of them. Sincerely, Janita Patrick

Fabolous (Feat. Keri Hilson) - Everything, Everyday, Everywhere

The official music video for Fabolous' third official single "Everything, Everyday, Everywhere" featuring Keri Hilson, and prodcued by Ryan Leslie. It is featured on Fabolous' fifth studio album "Loso's Way" which hits stores today!

So I've been...

So I've been focusing a lot on getting my stuff out there for people to see it lately and it really has drained me. I mean the funny part is that people ask me for favors all the time and I usually oblige, I usually do what I can to make sure what they ask of me is done and beneficial to them but I haven't really been focusing on making everything beneficial to me. That has to change, I want to thank a few people right off the top though...My Mom, My sisters, Derek Vanez, My supportive family, and My Aunt Sonya (My auntie has showed up to more shows than anyone else in my family even when she was the only one I was related to that showed up or she had to ride out to Conyers alone she was there.) Also Chazzie Shepherd, I met Chazzie by chance last year and she shows me love and I love her, we going to get to where we need to be together, I promise. The others that support me I appreciate you...DJ Brooklyn, DJ Cee Money, LaSonya Cato, RoxC & everybody else that tries to show love and support. But to be totally honest there are people out there that would not hesitate to ask me to do them a favor or ask me to paint them something or draw them something then they are late paying me or even paying me at all...And all I ask is for a little support. It's funny to me but Know this, I will get to where I want to be because I am great! And I will remember who was there with me on my journey...remember if you wouldn't ask Van Gogh to do it for free, don't even inhale and waste that oxygen to ask me! I'm all out of Free work!

Really??

okay I tried not to speak on this but people get in an uproar about the wrong issues! This Henry Gates thing was a problem that we need to fix but for the president to speak about it?? I'm not in that boat because I have been through it, I cannot produce enough fingers and toes between me and my son to count the times in my 28 yrs where I have had to deal with the officer of the law simply because I'm young and black. Now we have teachers in Ga who are asked to not be paid for 3 days to save money for a states who's governor has repeatedly mismanaged funds and done things without the people that need it mosts interests in mind, and nobody is complaining but teachers?? How can you not complain about this? How can you have nothing to say about it? Why is this not on your facebook status? Why are you not wondering when Obama will mention this?? Teachers are underpaid and overworked in every part of this country but you gladly make sure that your kids are in their hands everyday. And many of them don't feel like I do...I would gladly do my job for free if I could afford it. and I'm being totally honest, if I became a billionaire tomorrow I could not see myself not continuing to teach! How many of you would even show up at your offices, let alone log work hours or punch the clock? Teachers shape this country and help your children to become who they are when they grow up. They spend around 7 hrs a day with their students for about 185 days a year...Let's complain people, Let's complain about the plight of people who give themselves to make this world a better place. Yes they were wrong to stop this man but Hell I never heard anybody complain about the time I had to look down the barrel of the gun cause that cop felt like putting it in my face. Or the 26 officers that said we were car jacking people when we were just walking to get some food two blocks from our hotel. So I'm sorry Mr. Henry Gates but you will never be just a man, just like Obama will never be just our president, and I will never be just one of the male teachers in the upper school...We are all going to have to be the Black Men that we are and it won't change. But what makes this one man a reason for you all to be upset?? Sorry I had to vent...Now back to having a wonderful evening!! HAHA I LOVE being me!!

Another Movie I'm waiting on...

Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" Posted by Moira Macdonald I saw these photos in Vanity Fair recently and it got me all anticipatory for Tim Burton's 3-D "Alice in Wonderland." Look at Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter, all red-eyed and scary-haired and holding a rabbit in a random way, and Helena Bonham Carter's purse-lipped, tomato-haired Red Queen -- don't you want to see the movie they're in? The cast also includes angelic blond Mia Wasikowska as Alice, and -- be still, my heart -- Alan Rickman as the Caterpillar, Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat, and Anne Hathaway as a platinum-tressed White Queen. Burton is incapable of making a movie that a) looks like anybody else could have made it, and b) isn't just a little bit scary, and I think his take on the familiar Lewis Carroll tale down the rabbit hole will be at least memorable and at best, unforgettably bizarre. It opens in theaters in March 2010. The trailer makes its debut this week at Comic-Con and has already been posted and removed from YouTube; stay tuned. Copyright © 2009 The Seattle Times Company

Two new Keri tracks I found...Enjoy

Keri Hilson- Crazy (Gnarls Barkley Cover) DOWNLOAD HERE Keri Hilson-The Ring DOWNLOAD HERE

Mary J. Blige's New Artist!

LaNeah is the first female artist on Mary J Blige's Matriarch Records. Her voice is crazy!! Love it...