Black Entertainment Television History

The introduction of television casted a wave of change in the lives of the American public. In Gary Edgerton’s The Columbia History of American Television, he described the uprising of television, “involved the most extensive and ballyhooed series of public relations events ever staged around any mass medium in American history. “ (Edgerton, p.1) The first presentation of television played a pivotal role on how the American public adopted the new medium of technology and communication. I will explore the grand manner of how television was presented to the American public during the early years by the direction of David Sarnoff, and televised special of the 1939 World’s fair. In addition, how this presentation of television generated the acceptation

The stereotypical misrepresentations of African-American women and men in popular culture have influenced societal views of Blacks for centuries. The typical stereotypes about Black women range from the smiling, a sexual and often obese Mammy to the promiscuous Jezebel who lures men with her sexual charms. However, the loud, smart mouthed, neck-rolling Black welfare mother is the popular image on reality television. These images portrayed in media and popular culture create powerful ideology about race and gender, which affects daily experiences of Black women in America. With few healthy relationships portrayed in the media, Black women are left to make decisions based on the options

Lee's leadership model moved BET programming beyond hip-hop videos and reruns. She dug deeper and offered the viewer’s original movies, concerts, documentaries, late-night talk shows, news and public affairs. At a time when most broadcast and cable networks were stationary, BET experienced year after year of audience increase and high ratings. (www.encyclopedia.com/doc)

When you look at the amount of African American stars on television, it is easy to tell that stereotypes of African Americans are being portrayed negatively. Since the 1960s, black television has thrived in many different ways. From “Different Matters” to “Insecure”, African Americans have tried to get rid of this stigma. African Americans are constantly shown as. However, with the increase of representation comes an increase in misrepresentation. The amount of discrimination has risen exponentially in the United States. This is due to the increased hatred and miscommunication of black struggle and black problems in the world, causing an inhumane belief and standard of regular African Americans in the world.

Shelton Jackson “Spike” Lee is a controversial film maker known for is powerful films such as She’s Gotta Have It, School Daze, Malcolm X, and 25th Hour. Spike Lee isn’t afraid to talk about the real issues that goes on in the everyday lives of African Americans. Lee has shown a willingness to tackle prickly issues of relevance to the black community- and has savored every ounce of controversy his films invariably produce (biography). Major themes in his movies have a lot to do with police brutality on African Americans, racism, and Spike Lee wasn’t going to define black life in terms of crime and poverty. He wanted to raise awareness or at least let it be known what’s really going on in the black community’s.

Leslie B. Inniss and Joe R. Feagin. The Cosby Show: The View from the Black Middle Class. Journal of Black Studies. Jul, 1995.

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek” Barack Obama. The question is always asked does the media reflect the reality of society, or does society try and imitate the reality shown by the media? There are a number of stereotypes associated with African Americans in our society such as African American men are athletes, rappers, criminals, deviant, streetwise, uneducated, and unemployed just to name a few. African Americans in the media have changed through the years. The history of African Americans on TV or minorities in general is hampered by the racial conflicts and segregation that are embedded in American society. Historically, black actors have been grouped stereotypically and assigned to comedy. This has often been traced to the genre of black minstrelsy that was popular in the early 20th century.

Black Entertainment Television, which was created to empower black people in a predominantly white media, has strayed away from its roots and marketed its programming to mimic and compete with other stations for ratings. As a television station that once had a variety of journalism programs and shows dedicated to a diversity of music genres within the black culture, it has now centered its model on reality television and limited selection of rap music videos. The Encyclopedia of African American History states the ascendancy of rap music from a black, ghetto art form to a

Television is not only pure entertainment, as medium but also more like a way to delivery different kind of massages to the audience. In the earliest days of television, Black people are not seemed to be accepted to be in the television, even they have the role, they often portrayals of pleasing the audience by doing comedies. In Marlon Riggs’ Color Adjustment, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. state that the black urban sitcoms of 1970s represented the greatest potential for representing Black life in television’s history and also the greatest failure; and he gives an example like Good Time. The show represents the black communities across the country, and their situation in realities, also it talks about how they deal with the issues of racism and

apartment in which the Evans family live is roach infested and in disrepair; in other words, they

According to Tukachinsky, Mastro, and Yarchi, prior to 1930, the role of Blacks on screen were seen involving mostly in criminality and idleness (540). That role still persists until the present, with Blacks usually have to withstand to “longstanding and unfavorable media stereotypes including sexually provocative females and aggressive male thugs” (Tukachinsky 540). 1970’s movies such as The Mack, Black Caesar and Coffy have reinforced this stereotypic image of the black community. The

Students in the eighth grade are taught about the Civil War and how it was not only fought for moral issues regarding slavery but for states’ rights as well. While the Northern states didn’t wanted to go further with the acceptance of slavery, the Southern states reprimanded their decision that consequently led directly to war. In the state of California, the eighth grade history standards state that students will be exposed to events and issues regarding the formation of the Constitution all the way to the first World War. “After reviewing the development of America’s democratic institutions founded on the Judeo Christian heritage and English parliamentary traditions, particularly the shaping of the Constitution, students trace the development

Since its start, the television industry has been criticized for perpetuating myths and stereotypes about African-Americans through characterizations, story lines, and plots. The situation comedy has been the area that has seemed to draw the most criticism, analysis, and disapproval for stereotyping. From Sanford and Son and The Jefferson’s in the 1970s to The Cosby Show (1984) and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in the 1990s, sitcoms featuring black casts and characters have always been controversial. However, their significance upon our American culture cannot be disregarded. During the 1950s and 1960s, 97% of the families were Caucasian. In the first five years of the

BET is an acronym for Black Entertainment Television. The network was established as a result of the lack of culture and diversity in the television industry. The network was launched on January 25, 1980, it was first launched as a programming block on Nickelodeon. On July 1, 1983 the network was introduced as a 24-hour television channel. The purpose of BET was to bring diversity to television and show African American people that they too could make it to television if they worked hard. BET’s network lineup included African American sitcoms and music videos. BET has become a very prominent television network over the years and is the biggest network targeting African American audiences. As of today, about 88,255,000 households

Often, when one paper closed down, another immediately arose to take its place. Although newspapers were financially and at times physically risky ventures, Black editors were dedicated to disseminating a variety of ways in which free Blacks could argue against slavery and racism. The editors and their leadership were, for the most part, Christian, and exhorted Blacks to live in unison with Christian moral teachings and the mainstream values of the day. The main readers of Black Press were children and adults with educational opportunities and middle-class women and men who read content that served their communities road to excellence; Free Black communities were the main audience for Black press. Black press was determined to showcase Blacks who were providing children and adults with educational opportunities, announcing society events planned by middle-class working men and women, and instructing readers to maintain good manners and temperance when dealing with racial injustice. This content served at least two purposes. It provided a picture of Black communities that were building their own institutions and Black life and livelihood for White readers who might take a glimpse at a Black paper to gain more insight on the Negro.