July 11, 2007 @ 12:12 pm

Advertisers Pull from BET's "Hot Ghetto Mess"

Julianne Shepherd

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Just days after BET's "July Jump-Off" summer season of programming began, the channel yet again found itself in trouble from the public for its programming. Certain advertisers - including State Farm and Home Depot, according to the Hollywood Reporter - have pulled their backing from the Charlie Murphy-hosted "Hot Ghetto Mess," saying the show perpetuates racial stereotypes - echoing criticisms first made by bloggers and the Black Women's Roundtable podcast. "Hot Ghetto Mess" is based on the website of the same name, which shows photos and video of mostly black people in generally unflattering, overblown "ghetto-messy" situations and settings. While the photos are often disparaging, they are posted under the pretext of motivating black communities, all under the tagline "We GOT to do better." An editor's letter by site creator Jam Donaldson, a 24-year-old black lawyer, reads, "Back in the day, everyone lived together, the doctors and teachers and plumbers and lawyers and housewives and whinos all lived in the same community - so you had standard bearers - role models, people for the kids to look up to. But now, with our cities economically segregated, there are areas of concentrated poverty where kids have no idea what opportunity is - not because there are none, because there is no one to show them what it is. The black middle class has moved to the suburbs and too often don’t have time to tutor or mentor an underprivileged child because by the time they get off work and brave traffic back to their McMansion, where has the day gone. Now we all bear part of the blame, the middle class has moved up and out never looking back to help our less fortunate brothers and sisters, and some of our less fortunate brothers and sisters conduct their lives like idiots." The BET show, which debuts July 25, combines similar clips with social commentary and "tough love" meant to "inspire its viewers to improve themselves and their communities," according to a release from the channel. According to a statement from State Farm, "We have reviewed the content of this program, which we just heard about, and we will not be airing any State Farm advertising during this program on BET." The advertisers were, in part, responding to a boycott called by What About Our Daughters?, a blog dedicated to "organized action to combat the destructive portrayals of African American women in popular culture." Under a post titled "Hot Ghetto Mess = BET's Hottentot Venus 2007", she writes, "Don’t let them divide us by saying that because most of their subjects will be poor or uneducated African Americans, those Black folks DESERVE to be laughed at. I don’t have a problem with criticism. I throw my own share of jabs on this blog, but you can’t run around throwing images on international television and saying to hell with the consequences." According to the Hollywood Reporter, Reginald Hudlin, BET President, retorted, "Is my goal to discuss these issues in a format and context that makes people who don't watch the channel comfortable or do it in a way that engages the 18- to 34-year-old viewer and makes them really think about these things?"

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