What Is BET ?: What Is BET ?

What Is BET ?: What Is BET ?: "What is BET? What makes BET? What was BET? Do we have BET? These are questions that we have to ask ourselves when we begin to analyze the..."

What Is BET ?

What is BET? What makes BET? What was BET? Do we have BET? These are questions that we have to ask ourselves when we begin to analyze the station titled BE, an acronym for Black Entertainment Television. BET was a station that was initially developed, as a source for African Americans to have a network that catered towards their entertainment needs in the realms of music, media and film. Since the stations inception in 1980 there has been a drastic change in the infrastructure of the network that has led to the exploitation of a race of people, whether it’s intentional or not. Robert L. Johnson founded the network in 1980 and developed a format that brought him much success and eventually allowed him to become the first black billionaire. The community, good music, culture, religion and positive reinforcements within the black community were the points of emphasis for BET from the years of 1980 to 2001. A 21-year time span of productivity within the entertainment world from the viewpoint of blacks. There were many instances of a story that took place within the blacks community that never received the proper amount of publicity if any from the other major networks of the world, those networks being NBC, ABC, CBS and CNN. BET allowed the world to have a clear view of things that were going on within the black community not only musically, but also politically, economically and spiritually. "BET News" provided national news as well as community news that personally affected the black community. Statistics that greatly affected the black community were diverged upon the viewer. Statistics involving HIV infection rates, the percentage of blacks affected by high blood pressure, diabetes and hypertension were beat into the head of the viewers, thus stressing the importance of health and the importance of going to the doctor to prevent themselves from becoming a statistic. From this time period I can recall no memory of Video Soul, the music video show for the network ever having any performances or videos that displayed complete vulgarity, degrading of women and/or negative stereotypes of blacks. Fast forward to 2010 and there is not any many if any videos played on BET that doesn't have sometime of sexual overtone, violent overtone or that reinforces the negative stereotypes that have been made about black people that will not allow stereotypes to die. I feel that one of the most detrimental moves made by BET was the cancelling of the show "Teen Summit." "Teen Summit" was an avenue for the youth that watched BET to be reached. Shows were dedicated to discussing topics such as drug use, teen pregnancy, education and overcoming the stereotype. The fact that teenagers and young adults led the discussions on this show allowed the show to be a direct line of communication for kids that would not listen to the same things being said by their parents, guardians or teachers. The cancellation of this show flat lined an avenue for communication to the youth and spearhead an age of lost adolescent which eventually became the lost adults of today's society. The fact that BET no longer airs any of the shows correlates with the current state of the black community and the troubles that plague our youth. The network now seems to only display foolery that reinforces the negative stereotypes that those that try to be successful in their lives try to overcome everyday. So with that being said my question to you is BET really Black Entertainment Television?