Published January 22, 2008
As you likely have heard, the founder of BET (Black Entertainment Television), Bob Johnson, decided to take Barack Obama to task on behalf of Hillary Clinton. While introducing Clinton to a crowd at Columbia College in Columbia, S.C., Johnson made several interesting comments in regard to Obama.
"To me, as an African-American, I am frankly insulted the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Hillary and Bill Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues — when Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood; I won't say what he was doing, but he said it in his book — when they have been involved," said Johnson.
Well, to me, as an African American, I am frankly insulted Robert L. "Bob" Johnson would imply we are so stupid that we would think he has a leg to stand on to even provide commentary when it comes to being involved with "black issues."
Bob Johnson has been the brains, heart and soul — I use all three terms very loosely — behind the downfall of black media in the past 20 years. I suppose Johnson thinks drug use is bad for recreational purposes but if you can make a profit from it, it's fair game, as BET has profoundly aired videos for songs that promote drug use, misogyny, the degradation of women, violence and other ills that affect our communities.
There is something seriously incompetent about a channel that is supposed to be geared towards and represent the black community when it offers mostly monolithic negative and harmful stereotypes in misleading images to our youth. It's deplorable that one of few BET shows that could have offered positive commentary — "College Hill," a reality show about black college students — ended up being just a visual tally board of who could have the most careless sex, drink the most and have the most fights. Wait, I think they showed them studying in one episode.
Great job.
Johnson's statements are as ironic as they come. While he is defending what the Clintons have done in regard to "black issues," he should be trying to rectify all of the damage he has done through the years. If he's so convinced the Clintons have been "deeply and emotionally involved in black issues" maybe he should ask them for advice on how to become involved when it doesn't have anything to do with exploitation and financial gains.
In addition, I question Hillary Clinton's public involvement with such a character. It's slightly contradictory to sell the notion of a female president being revolutionary while having a person speak on your behalf when that person has made a fortune in the business of violence against women and the African-American community.
Maybe Clinton didn't pick up on this, but Bob Johnson is far from a leader in the black community.
There's a reason why Johnson is never mentioned with the same regard as Oprah Winfrey, fellow black billionaire. Johnson isn't especially associated with respectability and integrity; he's associated with BET and no two words could be more opposite of the cable channel.
Obama has been forthright with his past or at least components of it. Bob Johnson, however, lacks the capacity to belittle someone's character based on morals.
Obama was a teenager who decided to change the course of his life and become a productive citizen. Maybe Johnson can ask Obama for advice after the Clintons school him on being involved with black issues.
Katrina L. Rogers, of Shreveport, is a member of The Times Community Board.
1.14.2008
Times Community Board issues challenges for new administration, Legislature
Published January 14, 2008
Members of The Times Community Board offer their thoughts on the threshhold of a new administration and Legislature in Baton Rouge:
New lawmakers can set tone for Louisiana
2008 is a huge political year for the country, but statewise, it may not be more of a big deal outside of Louisiana. With a new governor, a new House and Senate (with mostly familiar faces) and other state officials, this could easily be the beginning of a new start for our state.
My hope is the northwestern delegation can work together towards some common goals for the betterment of this region. I want the people who represent us to do it in a respectful and respectable manner. I hope our newer legislators go to Baton Rouge with an open mind, ready to learn as much as he or she possibly can. I suppose the same can be said for some of our not-so-new representatives, also.
I believe if our delegation can stand together as a formidable unit and Bobby Jindal keeps his word about including the northern half of Louisiana in state affairs, we'll be headed in the right direction. However, I'm concerned with the skimpiness of leadership roles for people from this area. I also don't have faith in all of our local lawmakers, but I believe the ones I do have faith in can provide leadership that will override the faults of our weakest link.
Members of The Times Community Board offer their thoughts on the threshhold of a new administration and Legislature in Baton Rouge:
New lawmakers can set tone for Louisiana
2008 is a huge political year for the country, but statewise, it may not be more of a big deal outside of Louisiana. With a new governor, a new House and Senate (with mostly familiar faces) and other state officials, this could easily be the beginning of a new start for our state.
My hope is the northwestern delegation can work together towards some common goals for the betterment of this region. I want the people who represent us to do it in a respectful and respectable manner. I hope our newer legislators go to Baton Rouge with an open mind, ready to learn as much as he or she possibly can. I suppose the same can be said for some of our not-so-new representatives, also.
I believe if our delegation can stand together as a formidable unit and Bobby Jindal keeps his word about including the northern half of Louisiana in state affairs, we'll be headed in the right direction. However, I'm concerned with the skimpiness of leadership roles for people from this area. I also don't have faith in all of our local lawmakers, but I believe the ones I do have faith in can provide leadership that will override the faults of our weakest link.
Katrina L.Rogers: Hold entertainers accountable for their actions
Published on January 13, 2008
Apparently, 7.3 million viewers can make even Nickelodeon turn a blind eye to unwed teenage pregnancies.According to www.nielsenmedia.com, 7.276 million people, two times the average, tuned into the network to watch the season finale of "Zoey 101," the 'tween show starring Jamie Lynn Spears.
Spears, the 16-year-old little sister of Britney Spears, announced her unplanned pregnancy last month. The fourth season of the show that focuses on teenager Zoey and her friends is scheduled to debut next month. Taping of that season wrapped before Spears made her headline-grabbing announcement.
Apparently, there may be talks about the show returning for a fifth season. The very sad part is that it just might make business sense for Nickelodeon to milk — no pun intended — the situation for as long as it can. But what's even more disappointing is that Nickelodeon is known as one of the safer cable channels for children. Even the Cartoon Network shows adult content after dark. So what would picking up the show for another season say to the young, impressionable Zoey fans? Probably that being a teen mother isn't as difficult as people make it out to be and that a kid doesn't stop your dreams of becoming a star or at least getting on the cover of tons of magazines.
Scary.
In a country where abstinence education reigns supreme, we pay dearly because of our ignorance to sexual health. It's unfortunate, and deadly, that countless people (especially teens and young adults) unknowingly walk around with sexually transmitted infections because they don't protect themselves while participating in activities that do not fall under their extraordinary liberal definition of "sexual activity."
If we're trying to protect our children from the hypersexual television shows, movies and music, you might as well put a parental block on Nickelodeon the same way you block Cinemax and BET. How odd that the home of popular children's shows "SpongeBob SquarePants," "Rugrats" and "Jimmy Neutron" is also the home to a show with a 16-year-old star who's also a mother and a "baby's mama."
I thought Disney was doing a bad job by subliminally telling young girls that all of their dreams will come true and they'll be saved as soon as they find a man to take care of them. But now they employ actors who do amateur Playboy shoots between gigs. But then this is the same company that kept using Lindsey Lohan long after her personal demons became public.
I don't believe teenage and/or unwed mothers should be tarred and feathered; I don't think taking nude pictures means you should be completely blacklisted. I don't even think being an alcoholic means you should never work again. But I do believe the people who are in the business of entertaining impressionable young children and teens should be held at a different, higher standard.
Let's stop teaching our children that what these people do is excusable because they're celebrities. I'm all for adults doing adult things when they're not hurting other people, but when you make your money from marketing yourself to children, you should act accordingly.
Katrina L. Rogers is a member of The Times' Community Board. Send comments to shreveportopinion@gannett.com.
Apparently, 7.3 million viewers can make even Nickelodeon turn a blind eye to unwed teenage pregnancies.According to www.nielsenmedia.com, 7.276 million people, two times the average, tuned into the network to watch the season finale of "Zoey 101," the 'tween show starring Jamie Lynn Spears.
Spears, the 16-year-old little sister of Britney Spears, announced her unplanned pregnancy last month. The fourth season of the show that focuses on teenager Zoey and her friends is scheduled to debut next month. Taping of that season wrapped before Spears made her headline-grabbing announcement.
Apparently, there may be talks about the show returning for a fifth season. The very sad part is that it just might make business sense for Nickelodeon to milk — no pun intended — the situation for as long as it can. But what's even more disappointing is that Nickelodeon is known as one of the safer cable channels for children. Even the Cartoon Network shows adult content after dark. So what would picking up the show for another season say to the young, impressionable Zoey fans? Probably that being a teen mother isn't as difficult as people make it out to be and that a kid doesn't stop your dreams of becoming a star or at least getting on the cover of tons of magazines.
Scary.
In a country where abstinence education reigns supreme, we pay dearly because of our ignorance to sexual health. It's unfortunate, and deadly, that countless people (especially teens and young adults) unknowingly walk around with sexually transmitted infections because they don't protect themselves while participating in activities that do not fall under their extraordinary liberal definition of "sexual activity."
If we're trying to protect our children from the hypersexual television shows, movies and music, you might as well put a parental block on Nickelodeon the same way you block Cinemax and BET. How odd that the home of popular children's shows "SpongeBob SquarePants," "Rugrats" and "Jimmy Neutron" is also the home to a show with a 16-year-old star who's also a mother and a "baby's mama."
I thought Disney was doing a bad job by subliminally telling young girls that all of their dreams will come true and they'll be saved as soon as they find a man to take care of them. But now they employ actors who do amateur Playboy shoots between gigs. But then this is the same company that kept using Lindsey Lohan long after her personal demons became public.
I don't believe teenage and/or unwed mothers should be tarred and feathered; I don't think taking nude pictures means you should be completely blacklisted. I don't even think being an alcoholic means you should never work again. But I do believe the people who are in the business of entertaining impressionable young children and teens should be held at a different, higher standard.
Let's stop teaching our children that what these people do is excusable because they're celebrities. I'm all for adults doing adult things when they're not hurting other people, but when you make your money from marketing yourself to children, you should act accordingly.
Katrina L. Rogers is a member of The Times' Community Board. Send comments to shreveportopinion@gannett.com.
The Sincerest, Humblest Apology of 1/8/2008
Posted on January 8, 2008
I goofed up. I made a mistake.While writing my column on Obama in Iowa, I hadn't decided how I was going to word Rev. Jesse Jackson winning primaries during his Presidential bids, so I skipped the parts where I'd refer to Jackson and wrote everything else.
The problem is that the version I completed, which acknowledges Jackson's accomplishments, was not the one I happened to turn in. In essence, I turned in an incomplete draft.
I turned the column in Friday morning but did not realize the blunder until late Friday evening, when it was too late to switch the stories. I agonized over it all weekend and hoped that I would be able to make changes before it ran, but when I saw in Sunday's paper that it was running Monday, I gave up hope.
I have no problems admitting that I made a mistake and that I’ll make a few more before it’s all said and done.
My biggest regret is that some people take everything that's written in the paper, or said on the news as the ultimate truth. I know that Obama wasn't the first person of color to win a primary, the fact that I know isn't that important. What's important is making sure the people who read my pieces aren't mislead or given inaccurate information.
I stand by my opinions, but I form those on truths and those are the same truths I aim to share with the people who read what I write.
I take full responsibility for my actions and I look at this as a learning experience. I hope that this reminds people that "the media" isn't always 100% accurate but we (I guess it's we and not they) are 100% human. Well, maybe most of us, I think a number of people would dispute Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh or Pat Robertson being human but for the sake of this argument, let’s assume they’re people.
I goofed up. I made a mistake.While writing my column on Obama in Iowa, I hadn't decided how I was going to word Rev. Jesse Jackson winning primaries during his Presidential bids, so I skipped the parts where I'd refer to Jackson and wrote everything else.
The problem is that the version I completed, which acknowledges Jackson's accomplishments, was not the one I happened to turn in. In essence, I turned in an incomplete draft.
I turned the column in Friday morning but did not realize the blunder until late Friday evening, when it was too late to switch the stories. I agonized over it all weekend and hoped that I would be able to make changes before it ran, but when I saw in Sunday's paper that it was running Monday, I gave up hope.
I have no problems admitting that I made a mistake and that I’ll make a few more before it’s all said and done.
My biggest regret is that some people take everything that's written in the paper, or said on the news as the ultimate truth. I know that Obama wasn't the first person of color to win a primary, the fact that I know isn't that important. What's important is making sure the people who read my pieces aren't mislead or given inaccurate information.
I stand by my opinions, but I form those on truths and those are the same truths I aim to share with the people who read what I write.
I take full responsibility for my actions and I look at this as a learning experience. I hope that this reminds people that "the media" isn't always 100% accurate but we (I guess it's we and not they) are 100% human. Well, maybe most of us, I think a number of people would dispute Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh or Pat Robertson being human but for the sake of this argument, let’s assume they’re people.
Katrina L. Rogers: Obama's win in Iowa signifies change
Published January 7, 2008
I had no idea that the results of the Iowa primary would affect my outlook on things. It's been less than 50 years since the Voting Rights Act, the marches from Selma to Montgomery and Dr. King's "I Have a Dream Speech." So the significance of Sen. Barack Obama becoming the first person of African ancestry to win an American presidential primary is invaluable.
I'm not campaigning for Obama, not saying he's the best candidate. I haven't made that decision yet. But I am left with the impression that people are honestly ready for a change and making those changes happen.
In 2006, voters said they wanted something different; not sure we really got it, but it was said nonetheless. I always stress the importance of voting and voter education but it was never clearer to me than in 2004 why people might feel their vote doesn't matter.
Election Day of 2004 was dark, gloomy and rainy. I saw people who obviously didn't get out that often but found voting an important cause. I was excited because so many people were voting, many just to change our administration. I went to bed — with hope — before knowing the results.
After learning Bush had been "re-elected" I felt like I'd misled people. I thought about how hard it was to get people to see their vote was important and that it would be almost impossible to have them see it after that.
But people didn't give up and Thursday's primary is proof.In a world where America has taken on the task of being the "enforcer of democracy," it's nice to actually see change on the horizon in the U.S.
Many people — both near and many nations away — have died, and continue to die, for the right to vote and elect their leadership.
It's refreshing to think that we actually may be forming the "almost all citizens have a voice" approach to a democratic republic that we're known for having.
When a man who wouldn't have been able to vote 50 years ago wins a primary, I take it as a sign of things to come.
Katrina L. Rogers is a member of The Times Community Board. Send comments to shreveportopinion@gannett.com.
I had no idea that the results of the Iowa primary would affect my outlook on things. It's been less than 50 years since the Voting Rights Act, the marches from Selma to Montgomery and Dr. King's "I Have a Dream Speech." So the significance of Sen. Barack Obama becoming the first person of African ancestry to win an American presidential primary is invaluable.
I'm not campaigning for Obama, not saying he's the best candidate. I haven't made that decision yet. But I am left with the impression that people are honestly ready for a change and making those changes happen.
In 2006, voters said they wanted something different; not sure we really got it, but it was said nonetheless. I always stress the importance of voting and voter education but it was never clearer to me than in 2004 why people might feel their vote doesn't matter.
Election Day of 2004 was dark, gloomy and rainy. I saw people who obviously didn't get out that often but found voting an important cause. I was excited because so many people were voting, many just to change our administration. I went to bed — with hope — before knowing the results.
After learning Bush had been "re-elected" I felt like I'd misled people. I thought about how hard it was to get people to see their vote was important and that it would be almost impossible to have them see it after that.
But people didn't give up and Thursday's primary is proof.In a world where America has taken on the task of being the "enforcer of democracy," it's nice to actually see change on the horizon in the U.S.
Many people — both near and many nations away — have died, and continue to die, for the right to vote and elect their leadership.
It's refreshing to think that we actually may be forming the "almost all citizens have a voice" approach to a democratic republic that we're known for having.
When a man who wouldn't have been able to vote 50 years ago wins a primary, I take it as a sign of things to come.
Katrina L. Rogers is a member of The Times Community Board. Send comments to shreveportopinion@gannett.com.
1.02.2008
It's Official, I'm Not a Fan of
Alicia Key(e)s. Okay, I've been saying this for a minute. Since my friend's roommate gave me a copy of "Songs in A Minor."
Don't get me wrong, I think she has some songs that are worth humming when you feel the need to hum something hum-able.
My beef with her, if you can really call it beef --I wouldn't, though I just did -- is probably why so many people thinks she's the flyest of them all.
Don't get me wrong, I think she has some songs that are worth humming when you feel the need to hum something hum-able.
My beef with her, if you can really call it beef --I wouldn't, though I just did -- is probably why so many people thinks she's the flyest of them all.
- She's a manufactured as a Lee Press On nail that's already tinted red.
Don't believe me, you never noticed how her crew over at J pushed how she was the anti bump n grind, sing hooks on a track while touching your tummy {Key(e)s 'came out' in the midst of Ashanti taking over the summer and airwaves of 2001 or was it 02?}, classically trained, b-girl stance having, poetic, non-commercialized pop princess of the year? Y'all don't remember that? Remember when J couldn't decide if her 'real name' was Keys or Keyes but they insisted that it was, in fact, her actual surname and it was just destiny, fate that should would become the ubergifted pianist that she was?
- Her videos perpetuated the same negative stereotypical imagery of black men that those "I'm in the pen, so I guess I'll write a street novel about the game" books that we all refer to as Urban "Lit."
I understand that a number of songs deal with separation and all, but was there any particular reason that her video love interest was always going to SingSing instead of, say, Stanford? If separation is separation, why go with the negative image? Why couldn't he have gone off to war (or at least basic training for those pre-pick a random Middle Eastern country to bomb War), why not college, why not move across the country because he just got this bomb ass job as an electrical engineer? Why prison/jail damnit?!
- Like You'll Never See Me Again sounds like a Prince song.
This is correct and exactly why I don't like the garbage. If I wanted to listen to Prince, I'd listen to Prince. I get it, there's nothing new under the sun; but even the really good remakes have some bit of originality. At least some, at little bit. Every time I hear the song, I feel like it was a recording of some concert in honor of the man. You know, those shows that are usually on BET or VH1 (even MTV had a few) where a younger, sexier artist typically does injustice to the icon's iconic song.
I could go on, but I trust you get the point. I'd much rather listen to Chrisette Michele, at least she's originally boring as hell on her own, with her own monotoness and whatnot. You don't see her swagger jacking from (insert the name of another really boring under 30 singer), now do you?
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