Entertainment
BET should have died instead of Michael
By: Crystal P. Smith
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Tue, 06/30/2009 - 11:33
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With the death of Michael Jackson comes the opportunity to make a killing by appealing to people's sensitivities and their memories of the King of Pop. Both Amazon and iTunes reported a surge in the popularity of Michael's music, and other stars are receiving a lot of media attention by sharing their personal stories about him. So it's no surprise Sunday's BET Awards helped it draw in more viewers for its annual show.
News channels and other media outlets across the country that normally could care less about the BET Awards, covered it this time, knowing their audiences are interested in everything Michael Jackson right now and would be even more interested in seeing what BET would do to honor his memory.
And now we know the answer — not much.
When you talk about giving a tribute to arguably the most famous entertainer who ever lived, having Lil Wayne perform his song about how he wishes he could have sex with every girl in the world, then putting two fingers in the air to Michael Jackson is not what anyone would have in mind.
Drake/Lil Wayne/Birdman Perform At the 2009 BET Awards
Michael was a poet and even though he talked about having sex, too, his music was never so crude and classless. Having Ciara, who everyone knows is not a talented singer, sing doesn't make sense. And as much as I loathe Chris Brown, his absence was felt.
Actually the only bright spots in Sunday's BET Awards were Ne-Yo's performance of Lady in my Life and Janet Jackson's tearful thank you.
I understand the show was changed to honor Michael Jackson about 48 hours before it aired, but let's just say we could tell. When I think of a tribute to Michael Jackson, I think of something thrilling, something classy ... something meaningful. Not Jamie Foxx performing four times. Or Beyonce' giving her all in her most boring performance to date.
Couldn't we have done better? Jay-Z in sloppy jeans and a white T-shirt, Kanye in jeans and what appeared to be a Member's Only jacket ... it was like a backyard barbeque with family and friends, except everyone was watching. Because of Michael's death, many more people watched than would have, and again, it was covered by the white, mainstream media, who don't pay BET, let alone its awards show, any attention.
I'm embarrassed. I'm embarrassed that no one could learn choreography in two days. I'm sad that Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Patti LaBelle, Aretha Franklin and other legendary singers (who can actually sing) weren't in attendance. And beyond that, as Jamie Foxx so eloquently referred to him as, why couldn't we have done this black man better?
We're angry at the media for calling him a musical genius and a pedophile in the same breath, and we're territorial about him like, "he's ours, we just shared him with the world," but with all the millionaires in the Shrine Auditorium, no one could put on a tux? It was just like any other day, nothing special, just a haphazard attempt to capitalize on his death. This was our chance to give him back his humanity. This is our Michael Jackson, the same guy who will now be on display like a circus animal at Neverland Ranch.
We have to do better. Not only for Michael Jackson's memory, but for our own self-respect. My thoughts were summed up perfectly by someone on Twitter: "I wish BET would've died and Michael Jackson did a tribute to them."
Crystal P. Smith is TheLoop21.com's editor. She writes the Inside the Loop blog.
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COMMENTS
Thank you Crystal for revealing the truth about the BET'S performance.
Probably the most accurate and moving piece i have read so far about the tragedy that is Micheal's passing and the travesty that was the BET awards. Sadly this is just the beginning of the season to cash in on MJ.
So damn true..
I agree with the fact that Chris Brown's performance would have made a big difference. He is a great entertainer and BET left many disappointed.
BET is BET and they do not honor themselves the way they act and dress for the award show. I think it is awful the way they act. They need to take some of that money at take etiquette classes or classes on how to act civilized.
As far as honoring Michael Jackson, I loved Michael when he was the black Michael Jackson. But we must admit, Michael wanted to be white and dug himself an early grave trying to do just that, BE WHITE. He was a beautiful BLACK MAN. He'd had so much plastic surgery trying to be white until his damn nose was about to fall off. He could hardly talk because the skin in his face and around his mouth was so tight he could hardly move his lips.
You would think at some point Michael would have realized that he was a beautiful BLACK MAN and that white people wanted to be like him. Whites are the ones lying under tanning lamps and in the hot ass sun trying to get some color. We have so many different shades of color. Whites are getting lip and butt jobs. Most of us were born wiht those attributes. Whites are the ones getting BOTOX and face lifts to hide their wrinkles. Our skin is thick so age does not affect us like it does them.
The family does have my heart felt sympathy, but Michael's death was what he wanted.
I was actually late getting, and so mad at myself that I might have missed "the Michael Jackson Tribute" that BET was so feverishly planning, that they had to alert EVERY other outlet about. When I got home, I called family members and asked "Did I miss it, what happened?" I breathed a sigh of relief that I was told, up to that point, New Edition did a song. "Yes!” I thought, I'll still catch it. And, you know what? At about 7:25pt, I changed the channel. I was bored to tears, and the few supposed "tributes" were shameful. Ciara? Come on now. And, I sat up in my recliner when Jamie Foxx escorted Beyonce (WTF was up with that mangy mane of lion costume hair!??) back to her seat, because something special was coming up! And then Jay came out, and I just knew he had composed a beautiful rhyme about Michael (his memories of him, lyrics to songs, etc). But no, we got standard Jay, trying to relive his Madison Square Garden performance.
This is the truest assessment of that awards show (that I saw about 40 minutes of). BET was dead to me a long time ago.
I agree 100% with this article. The BET Awards have long been a showcase for some nonsense. I didn't really pay attention to what was going on when the first award show came on when I was 13, but now that I'm older, I'm starting to notice a trend of decline within the quality of not just BET, but all Black media in general. This BET Award show just made it much more clearer exactly where we are now, not to mention the closing of VIBE and the upcoming bill that's going to put a restriction on Black radio...Some how, some way, we have to take back OUR media 100% because as it shows, no one else is going to speak up for us.
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