Who's Your Caddy meets Hillary Clinton?

Democratic Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has now associated herself with the film Who's Your Caddy. Remember that 2007 film starring the idiot of the airwaves Sherri Sheppard? Well Hillary Clinton has enlisted the maker of that film and the founder of Black Exploitation Television (BET) Bob Johnson.

Senator Clinton and Bob Johnson in South Carolina on Sunday.
Photo by Sean Mussenden/Media General News Service.

That's right Bob Johnson is now doing damage control for the Clinton campaign. The damage control comes after the Senator and her husband former President Bill Clinton (stuck their feet in their mouths) made comments that some in the African American community found offensive.

Here is what Bob Johnson had to say at a church in South Carolina yesterday;

"And to me, as an African-American I am frankly insulted that 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 since Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood –­ and I won’t say what he was doing, but he said it in the book –­ when they have been involved." - Bob Johnson

Bill Clinton supposedly referred to the Barack Obama Presidential campaign as a "fairytale". His wife, Senator Clinton made remarks which led some to believe that she was diminishing the role of Dr. Martin Luther King's role in the civil rights movement of the 1960's.

Both Clintons say that their remarks were misinterpreted and that they meant no offense.

Maybe they didn't mean any offence and maybe their remarks were misinterpreted. To tell you the truth, to me, that has been over shadowed by Senator Clinton's choice in Bob Johnson.

Bob Johnson is a greedy turncoat that has done and continues to do African America great harm. As the founder of BET he created an outlet for some of the most vile and derogatory programming on the air. As if that wasn't enough, Mr Johnson sold BET to Viacom.

Viacom has taken racist and derogatory programming to a level not seen since the middle of last century.

Most recently Bob Johnson has founded a film company, Our Stories Films. The film company makes films aimed at an African American audience. Their first film was Who's Your Caddy, which was a buffoonish film that relied on stereotypes of African Americans for their entertainment value. Thankfully the film was a flop at the box office.

As an undecided voter I am still weighing my options. Hillary Clinton has narrowed my options by one since she made the decision to ask Bob Johnson to do damage control in the African American community. As far as I'm concerned she may as well have chosen David Duke.

That's right, I see no difference between Bob Johnson and racist David Duke. Well except that Bob Johnson has done far more harm to African Americans than David Duke ever dreamed of doing.

So I'm not sure who I will be voting for in the California Democratic Primary next month, but I know who I won't be voting for, that's Bob Johnson's friend Hillary Clinton.


Will Hillary Clinton's close association with Bob Johnson affect how you vote? Do you find it offensive that Hillary Clinton has associated herself with Bob Johnson?

10 things I wouldn't have thought possible in 1990

If I could go back in time to 1990 and tell myself that these 10 things would be true in 2007 I wouldn't have believed it.

1) That some people change their phone numbers 2 or 3 times a year.
2) That I would spend hours a day in front of a computer.
3) That there would be a thing called a blog that would occupy several hours of my time every week.
4) That BET is actually worse.
5) That Black women go on daytime talk shows and tell the world that they don't know who the father of their child is.
6) That two families would control the White House for 15 years.
7) That Aresenio Hall would have no discernible career.
8) That minstrel shows would be back in fashion. (see # 4)
9) That I would hate rap music. (see #8 and # 4)
10) That Lisa Bonet wouldn't be a star.

Can you think of something you wouldn't have believed?

Sherri Shepherd is a Brilliant woman and a great addition to The View! (cough)

( I originally posted this in October. I think I might have been just a little bit ahead of the curve on realizing that Sherri Shepard is a complete idiot. So now that other people are seeing what I saw a couple of months ago I thought I would re-post along with some video of Sherri in action. Get ready for the sarcasm.)

As proof of the continued success of stereotypes, Sherri Shepherd of ABC's The View has been signed to develop a new series for the CW based on her life? (sorry that question mark should have been a exclamation point).

The sitcom will tell the story of how her former husband had an affair and of the child that was a product of said affair. Sounds like a great plot for a T.V. show doesn't it.

Apparently the folks at the CW have seen Ms Shepherd's work. She has appeared in such critically acclaimed films as Beauty shop and Who's Your Caddy?, as well as various other inspiring roles.

And it should be known that the CW network is a CBS Corp. media outlet and controlled by Sumner Redstone of Viacom. Mr Redstone and Viacom (as you know) are known for progressive, thought provoking and positive programming such as the uplifting shows Flava Of Love on VH1 and We Got To Do Better on BET.

I hope that at some point Ms Shepherd will grace us with her memoir. I think she should pass along to the rest of us the secrets of her success. I want to know, as I'm sure you want to know, how is she able to so perfectly mimic stereotypes that have been around for a century or more and make them seem so fresh and new!

I am almost unable to contain my joy that soon not only will we be able to see Sherri on The View five days a week, but we will be able to see her star in her own sitcom too!

And I'm sure you agree that you can never, I mean never have too much Sherri!


(I feel sick)


Sherri needs a history lesson


Sherri needs a geography lesson


Question:Do you think Sherri is an embarrassment to Black women or just to herself?
Also, do you think Sherri should be fired from her job as co-host on The View for being such an ignorant person?

Sometimes the enemy looks like us

Judge Mathis, Judge Joe Brown, Judge Hatchett (above), the list goes on. The one thing these courtroom t.v. hosts have in common is they exploit the ignorance of poor and uneducated black people.

The worst offender is Judge Hatchett. She is the Black equivalent of Maury Povich.

The scenario is almost always the same. A young Black woman and Young Black man enter the courtroom. Judge Hatchett declares that the woman is suing the man for paternity. The Judge questions both until it is revealed that the man may not be the father because the woman was sleeping with other men while she was being intimate with the young man. Then the DNA test. At least 8 out of 10 times the man ends up not being the father. So, the obvious implication, the women is loose, she sleeps around. What kind of woman doesn't even know who the father of her child is? Well according to this show, Black women.

Although White people appear on these shows too, the majority of the guests are Black. As we talk about derogatory media images it seems that more and more Black people are participating in exploiting our image. How can we protest Viacom and not Judge Hatchett and Judge Joe brown and all the others. Everywhere we turn there are examples of media stereotyping with Black people seemingly at the helm.

Black people have always been the victims of debasement by the media in America. Now it seems that for the right price Blacks are willing to participate in demeaning Black people too. Whether it's BET president Debra Lee, Judge Hatchett or Snoop Dogg (Calvin Broadus), the effect is the same as when White media companies defile our images.

There are attacks on all fronts. Sometimes I just want to tune it out. I want to ignore the media in general because I know it means me no good. But how does one ignore the media in 2007? It's everywhere, hundreds of thousands of outlets, new technology everyday.

This battle will go on I think until African Americans tune out what is referred to as mainstream media. About a month ago I cancelled my cable. I was feeling like a fool giving money to Viacom every month so they could produce Flava Of Love and all the junk on BET.

Every time you pay your cable bill a small portion goes to Viacom. Then multiply that by 25 million or so African American households with cable and that's a lot of money.

As long as we continue to give our money to the Viacoms of the world and as long as we don't hold people like Judge Hatchett accountable, it's just going to be more of the same. Next year this time there will be more protests, and the year after that and so on.

The slogan for a group of people who have been protesting outside of BET president Debra Lee's home is Enough is Enough. I agree.

Read more on this subject; What About Our Daughters - How Long Could You Live Without Cable? 381 days?

Mes Deux Cents - Why I Cancelled My Cable T.V.

Congressional hearings on degrading media images

This morning a Congressional hearing convened to discuss the media and its use of stereotypes and demeaning images of Black women. Gina of What About Our Daughters blog is there and has been live blogging from the hearings. Her coverage is great. This is why I love blogs. Cut out the middle man and go right to the source!

Read Gina's posts from the hearings here.

Read a report on the hearings from Media Week here.

The Story Of BET...Bamboozled

For anyone that does not understand how and why Black Entertainment Television constantly demeans African Americans, here is the story of BET and its president of entertainment Reginald Hudlin. It's called Bamboozled a film by Spike Lee.

In the film Reggie Hudlin is portrayed by Damon Wayans' character Pierre Delacroix. He like Hudlin is given the task of coming up with exciting new programming starring African Americans. He is prompted by his boss, of course that would be Sumner Redstone and in the film represented by the character Thomas Dunwitty (played by Michael Rapaport). Like Hudlin, Delacroix tries to think of the most demeaning, degrading way to show African Americans and like Hudlin decides on a modern day minstrel show.

I won't give the rest of the story away but this is a must see in the era of Hot Ghetto Mess and rap videos. This is a great film to see this weekend and especially a great film for teens to see who don't quite get what the fuss about BET and rap is all about.

Why Keyshia, Why?

Nothing it appears puts the kibosh on standards like the prospect of earning big bucks. That seems to be the case as recently R&B singer Keyshia Cole (above) announced to MTV news that she would be going on tour in October with Robert Kelly, professionally known as RKelly.

Mr Kelly is currently under indictment on 21 counts of child pornography and his trial is set to begin September 21 (five and a half years after the original indictment). He has denied having tour plans for October.

So here is my problem, why would Keyshia Cole not only consider going on tour with RKelly, but agree to do so? I had become a fan of Keyshia Cole after the release of her debut album 'The Way It Is'. I love her soulful voice, filled with what can only be described as anguish and pain. I even purchased her entire album, something I rarely do in the download era. But now what? I can't support anyone that would collaborate with RKelly in any way. One of the reasons I have lost all respect for the once storied NAACP is that the organization gave an image award to RKelly, two years after he had been charged.

So Keyshia Cole comes off all my play lists and I won't support her by purchasing her music ever again. But it's just painful that a woman would throw pride and common sense out the window for a few bits of gold. Of course Keyshia Cole is not the only one to do business with RKelly, BET/ Viacom even dedicated an entire day to him recently on the release of his latest album. And cable outlet IFC announced also recently that it would be airing a film by him. But those are big companies that I expect nothing from. I expected more from Ms Cole.