Faith in Action

SOURCE: Washington Post

Channel Changer
Three Years Ago, Reggie Hudlin Came To Save a Troubled BET. But Has He?

By Teresa Wiltz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 4, 2008; M01

NEW YORK — To understand the irony, skip back four years: Reginald Hudlin, Hollywood director and comic book nerd, is ensconced with his close friend, firebrand cartoonist Aaron McGruder, gleefully penning a graphic novel, “Birth of a Nation.” The book features as its villain the network mogul “John Roberts” — a black billionaire with a complete willingness to sell African Americans down the river to make a buck. Not coincidentally, “John Roberts” looks a lot like billionaire Bob Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television.

Skip forward to the present: Now Hudlin’s dividing his time between Los Angeles and New York as BET’s president of entertainment, the man in charge of the images tumbling from the cable network’s airwaves. His critics blame him for serving up a steady diet of the same old same old: poisonous, stereotypical images of blacks, specifically rap videos featuring scantily clad vixens and blinged-out gangstas.

On the Internet, Hudlin is the target of a savage cartoon sendup, portrayed as the morally challenged programming head for “Black Evil Television” — a parody created by none other than McGruder, his former friend. And in Washington, protesters camped for months outside the home of Hudlin’s boss — network CEO Debra Lee — each and every weekend, chanting “Enough is enough.”

“Right now, Reginald Hudlin and Debra Lee preside over a media empire that perpetuates every negative stereotype about black men and black women that we fought against,” says the Rev. Delman Coates, the Prince George’s County pastor behind the campaign against BET. “And they have to be held accountable.

“The reality is, if Reginald Hudlin were white, more black leaders and more black organizations would be raising an outcry. But for some reason we give black people a pass for participating in our own exploitation.”

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For More Information:
Farajii Muhammad
Office:(410) 494-1588
E-mail:farajii@nllc.org

Youth Empowerment Movement says, “Enough is Enough” to Youth Violence

BALTIMORE, MD—The Youth Empowerment Movement (YEM) is hosting The State of the Youth Forum: Your Life, Your Choices on Saturday, May 31, 2008 from 9:30AM-3:00 PM at the University of Baltimore, to address the issue of the rising youth violence rate.

The State of the Youth Forum: Your Life, Your Choices is designed for middle school students, high school students, college students, and young people that are out of school, between the ages of 14 to 21, to come out and make a difference.

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Hat Tip: BBC News

A Sudanese government air strike on a school in Darfur has killed at least seven children, according to the aid organisation Darfur Diaries.

The group’s spokeswoman says six more people were killed when a market was bombed during the same attack on the village of Shegeg Karo on Sunday.

A rebel group says there were four air raids in total in North Darfur.

The Sudanese air force has made no comment. Under a UN resolution, all offensive flying is banned in Sudan.

Since the conflict began in Darfur five years ago, the UN estimates that some 300,000 have died and two million have been displaced.

The UN and African Union Mission to Darfur (Unamid) said the reported bombings were “unacceptable acts against civilians”.

Its peacekeeping force of 26,000 has yet to be completely deployed to Darfur, and officials say it is unlikely to be up to full strength this year.

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PHOTO COURTESY: James Klekowski

A few days ago, a brother of an organization I belong to called Brothers United for Change (BUC), sent me and the other brothers of BUC an e-mail. In the e-mail he posed the question: “What do young male youth need the most right now?” Subsequent to his question, he posited the following as his choices: Do male youth need someone to fight for their community, fight for their injustice, or fight for their education?

My response to the brother’s e-mail question was education, and I buttressed my response by citing a quote from Dr. Carter G. Woodson’s perennial book The Mis-Education of the Negro:

[t]he same educational process which inspires and stimulates the oppressor with the thought that he is everything worth while, depresses and [CRUSHES] at the same time the spark of genius in the [Black] by making him feel that his race does not amount to much and never will measure up to the standards of other peoples.

It’s my position that the nihilistic behavior exhibited by some Black male youth, particularly, Black male youth in my city of Baltimore is a direct consequence of an “educational” system that devalues, marginalizes and underestimates Black youth in general, but Black male youth in particular.

Why is it that if you ask most Black youth who discovered America, they will emphatically answer Christopher Columbus? That’s right! In the year 2008, Black youth are still being inculcated with this untruth. The late Dr. John Henrik Clarke, in his book Christopher Columbus and the Afrikan Holocaust states:

[t]oday former Columbus cheerleaders have discarded the word “discovery” and are now using the word “encounter.” They too are aware of the fact that Christopher Columbus discovered absolutely nothing.

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The T. in Turner Station stands for TOXIC

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