Slave To The Ism

A few weeks ago  I sent many of my friends a confusing and embarrassing apology for leading them to tune into BET. Ostensibly  to watch ‘Hip Hop vs America 2′ , a highly anticipated critical discussion by about and for the criminally under-represented and over-eXXposed young black women  in mainstream/hip hop media.
A small group of us had gathered in my own loft to watch together. We’d been encouraged by the how well done the first episode was. Not to mention BET’s press release and online promo. That  had lead everyone to believe that articulate, diverse and fly women would finally get some say in a historically male dominated conversation about Hip Hop, women, responsibility and love.
When the last man’s words were heard on the all male panel and the last credits rolled we were stunned on several levels. A big gulp of an odd, bitter cocktail of irony, confusion, disbelief and profound disappointment consumed us. One of the beautiful and mighty things about being surrounded and supported by your girls however is that we don’t allow each other to trip too hard for too long.  With the quickness we got over those hurt feelings, got focused and got even more fiercely protective of the thousands of our young sisters we felt got cheated out of a much deserved, dignified discussion on BET.
Within hours the brilliant writer Esther Armah drafted a letter. DJ Beverly Bond (Black Girls Rock! Founder) and Moya Bailey (activist/educator) were standing by to add, subtract and cosign.  By the next morning this letter (along with an emotional note from me) was in the mailbox of all the top executives at BET demanding this crucial episode be aired. Note that this was the first time I had ever challenged or asked for dialog with BET executives!
So here’s the really good part:
In less than 24 hours I got a personal email from Debra Lee (she signed it Debi insuring us the episode would be aired within a weeks time.  In addition, the shows Executive Producer and    BET’s Head of News and VP of Communications and Public Affairs had all called me prior to Ms Lees’ response  insuring me that that the now infamous Episode 3 would indeed be aired. (It is currently online but pretty hard to find).
What a wild and nappy journey this has been.  A year earlier I was in Keith Brown’s office (Head of News) talking to he and Jeanine Liburd (VP Comm//PA) about how and if I could be of service to help bring more balance to the conversation at the network. I felt a ned especially because  last years highly successful Hiphop Vs America had lacked smart and dynamic women’s voices.  That meeting was partly inspired by yet another brave move from Moya Bailey (if you don’t know, Maya was a leader in the historic Spellman/Nelly dialogue). Moya  had circulated a letter expressing the same concern).  But  I was also motivated by how I’ve been burdened with years of guilt–wondering why had I never challenged BET  before? Why hadn’t I asked for direct dialog with  programmers and executives requesting more balance before now?  Why hadn’t I actively advocated  for “My Girls” before?   I love hip hop and I love urban media and culture and I so love my “Urbanistas”. How could this “wackness” have happened on my watch? If I had acted before, would they be so deep in the life threatening identity crisis we currently find them in?
What I learned is that “The Media” is not some vague monster in the sky  gobbling up the self esteem of our girls and spewing goo on their beauty.  ”The Media”,especially black media, is made up of people, mostly brothers and sisters who yes, have a board of directors and advertisers to answer to, but who also have a community, family, character and a conscience to answer to as well. So we are not victims or powerless. We just have to call them and call them on it more often (um, yes we can!). So it is with big juicy pleasure I am here to report that “AM I MY SISTERS KEEPER?” aired on BET, Saturday July 5th @ 8p and then again on Sunday,July 6th,  when the three-part series was shown in it’s entirety.  At the end of the day, the only way we can let folks know we want better and more balanced images and content for our girls and for our communities is to let our friends and colleagues in media know. Shining a little brighter now…M.A.D.”