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Dr. Boyce Watkins and Ed Gordon Discuss Kelley Williams-Bolar
Click to watch Dr. Boyce Watkins and Ed Gordon talk about the case of Kelley Williams-Bolar, the Ohio mother who was sent to jail for sending her kids to the wrong school district.
Oprah Winfrey Gets Criticized by BET Co-Founder for Lack of Racial Diversity
Sheila Johnson, co-founder of BET, had a few concerns about Oprah Winfrey’s net OWN network, citing the network’s lack of racial diversity. On NPR’s “Tell Me More,” Johnson had this to say:
"The only advice that I say, let’s open up your circle a little bit more. You know, we love the Dr. Phils. We love the Suze Ormans. Let’s open up. There are other people. And there’s also African-American experts out there that I think she should start bringing on her show that can reach even a wider audience."
At that point, host Michel Martin mentioned that the network’s whiteness might be confusing to some. Johnson then said this:
"No. Yes," replied Johnson. "And I think she really should do that and not be afraid to do it. There’s really a lot of great experts out there that really know the businesses at hand. And I’d like to see her open up her circle to do that."
Black News: An Insider Goes After BET
So Andreas Hale, former Executive Editor of Music at BET.com, has been let go.
But instead of simply gathering up his pencils, Rolodex and the favorite coffee mug, Hale took to the web to lay out many of his trials and tribulations during his time at BET.
Hale then hit ‘send’ on an explosive email that landed in our in-boxes Tuesday. The dysfunction that Hale describes is startling, but if we’re honest, I think Hale verifies what many of us have long suspected:
As someone who has been critical of BET for many years, it surprised many that I would leave my post at HipHopDX last year to take a position at BET. But it was an opportunity I absolutely had to take. I could no longer be critical of this company without accepting the opportunity to change it when given. …
Although I was hired to bring about change, I was systematically shut down. I wasn’t hired to make noise, I was hired to be silenced. The truth of the matter is that everything that you thought was wrong with BET is true.
Your Black World Headlines: 10/03/2008
Will Ethnic Print Media Outlast Bad Economy?
20 Children Die & 50 Injured In Tanzania Stampede
Haitians & Jamaicans Not Eligible For Green Card Lottery
Kansas Mayor Appears In Blackface Drag
Your Black Brothers: Brother, Can You Spare Some Class: Black Men In The Media
Brother, Can You Spare Some Class: Black Men in the Media
By: Tolu Olorunda
Staff Writer – YourBlackWorld.com
On October 15th, Comedy Central is slated to premier a “satirical fake news show” called, Chocolate News. David Alan Grier, most famous for his many characters in the ‘90s hit sketch comedy series In Living Color, will be the host. The show is reported to be a cultural spin-off of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report, but judging from the released trailers, Comedy Central is aiming for a much different objective. The scene is an all too familiar one. The trailers feature Grier, like past Black comics before him, dressed up in feminine outfits, yelling at the top of his voice, acting erratically, and operating in an incoherent shuffle. It is as though this long national nightmare, of which President Ford spoke, is far from over.
In early 2005, Chappelle’s Show, Comedy Central’s most popular series at the time, received a set-back from production because Dave Chappelle, star of the show, had come to a sobering conclusion that he did not wish for his soul to be purchased at the price of corporate America’s offer. As the legend tells itself, Dave Chappelle turned down $50 million – the allotted price for the third season – and escaped to South Africa for a “spiritual retreat.” Comedy Central, uneasy about the kind of message being sent to Black boys and girls across the globe, initially spun Chappelle’s departure into a battle with the flu, but subsequently reoriented it to suggest a meltdown of insanity and eccentricity.
Dave Chappelle, upon a return to The States, informed TV icon Oprah Winfrey, that he was motivated to halt production of his ultra successful show because it had grown increasingly “socially irresponsible.” In response to the growing concern from within the Black Community, vis-à-vis his many overtly stereotypical sketches, Chappelle remarked that he didn’t want “black people to be disappointed in me for putting that [message] out there. … It’s a complete moral dilemma.” What an unusual and unprecedented act of solidarity and candor…
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