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Originally Posted by doubleaught
Why would these be brought up? Afaik these celebrations are Irish and German in descent, I don't see white people being discriminated against in the same fashion as we're speaking of. The celebrations don't highlight the difference between people, nevermind doing it for no good reason.
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Wait, so BET discriminates against whites? Chinatown discriminates against whites? I thought this whole thing was about organizations whose names highlight superficial differences between people. I don't know if you've ever been to an octoberfest celebration, neither have i. From what i can tell it's a celebration of german culture. How is BET different?
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Oh! Wow, a very clever change of my name. I'm silmply taken aback by your wit. I'll go ahead and take a breath and try to match your wit: L2read. Respond intelligently and I'll do likewise, if you'd like to flame you better be prepared. You know... by reading and understanding the material... perhaps *GASP* asking questions before firing away. Just a thought!
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Calm down, shoulderchips. It was an honest mistake; i'm sorry if i trampled on your delicate sensibilities.
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Interesting thought. I would argue defining a culture entirely based on the color of one's skin is a step in the wrong direction. Not even close to 100% of black people behave or subscribe to the stereotypical "black" lifestyle (whatever the hell that is, heh). Therefore pushing forward the idea these people are so different from your average American (not just whites!) is exactly the kind of thinking something like BET promotes.
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I would argue that it doesn't matter whether it is progressive or not. It is what it is, and will continue to be so until it isn't. I also don't think that it necessarily pushes the idea that black people are different from average americans, though i see how one could get that impression. You seem to be advocating the position that any sort of superficial recognition of cultural differences amounts to an opting out of american culture. This ignores the fact that america is not a culturally homogenous place.
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Why can't BET drop the B and still be successful? It could still the exact same material and fill the exact same need without pushing the idea "blacks are different." No, they're American and have a heritage or a set of ideals (depending on religion) to stand up for. There is no use in pushing the "black" part, just let them by what they're gonna be.
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I imagine that they could drop the B and still be successful. I don't think it would change people's tv viewing habits much since ET probably wouldn't change their programming. As far as many people would be concerned, BET without the B would still be the channel with all the black people on it doing black people stuff (remember UPN?), and as far as i could tell in this thought experiment, it wouldn't change much of anything meaningful about BET in terms of its cultural ramifications.
Dropping the B wouldn't amount to anything meaningful, since the claim that black culture is different from mainstream american culture isn't spurious. If all minorities suddenly stopped publicly mentioning the fact that their cultures are different from american popular culture it wouldn't change the fact that their cultures
are different from american popular culture. Furthermore, highlighting the fact that your particular culture is different from american pop culture does in now way imply that you yourself aren't an average american.