The District Chronicles

Issue date: 10/7/07 Section: Cover

BET is changing its depiction of African-American life with new offerings such as "Baldwin Hills" and "Sunday Best," but images of the defunct "BET Uncut" and music videos showing scantly clad young black women still make Rev. Delman L. Coates furious because the network he expected to be the voice of black people seems bent on exploiting them.

Coates is leading a spirited "Enough is Enough" campaign to stop portrayal of black women as strippers, whores, and objects of sexual exploitation. He and fellow protesters are equally angry at portraying black men as pimps, players, gangsters, thugs and drug dealers.

Last month, the Rev. Coates led an army of about 500 mothers, fathers, grandparents, toddlers, teen and other community leaders to 2800 McGill Terrace, NW, where Black Entertainment Television CEO Debra Lee lives, in the first of weekly demonstrations. Suddenly, the normally tranquil McGill Terrace was besieged by raucous protestors chanting "Enough is Enough. They wore white t-shirts with huge red stop signs on the front and held posters high for Lee, her neighbors and the whole world to read.

Toddlers toddled along innocently, hardly comprehending what the fuss was all about. Teenagers chanted loud, striving to be heard. Parents shouted their disappointment and frustration. Grandparents and elders marched in deafening silence. But it was the toddlers and teenagers the protesters were really worried about as they are concerned about the images of black men and women they would grow up with.

Rev. Coates vowed to picket Lee's home at 1 p.m. every Saturday until BET ends it exploitation of black women in music videos.

The goal of the "Enough is Enough" campaign is to confront corporate supporters who sponsor artists and different entertainers who objectify, degrade, or promote violence against black women, promote illegal activity, celebrate the usage of the word "nigga", "ho'", and "bitch."

The campaign also wants companies that advertise on television and radio stations to develop universal standards for music and videos that do not allow artists and producers to humiliate and degrade African-American men and women. The protestors want the Federal Communications Commission to live up to its responsibility for enforcing its Congressional mandate to regulate indecency.

Further, the campaign is asking Congress to change the law that allows cable companies to select the stations or networks they "bundle" into packages they sell to subscribers. These practices force subscribers to buy BET programs even if they don't want to because the station is one a cable provider chose to include in the bundled service.

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