Long criticized for showing gangsta rap videos and those with scantily clad female dancers, Black Entertainment Television is now taking those images -- spiced with profanity and frequent use of the N-word -- and remixing them into an audacious animated video promoting literacy and black pride that is drawing both praise and condemnation.
Employing a catchy variation on Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, the satire, which is airing with BET's afternoon programming, orders viewers to "read a book, read a book, read a [expletive] book" with a bouncy rap lyric.
BET encouraged viewers to join the network's online discussion after it began airing the video about a month ago. But the debate -- both pro and con -- escalated after unedited versions of "Read a Book" recently surfaced on YouTube. Most of the discussion centers on the negative stereotypes of African Americans, rather that the language.
In one scene, a gangster uses a book as a cartridge in an automatic weapon, while another shows a woman shaking her rear with "BOOK" printed on her low-riding pants. The video also says that blacks should raise "your . . . kids," drink more water instead of alcohol, buy land, "wash your . . . teeth" and "use deodorant."
Another version of the video shows pictures of historical figures such as Martin Luther King and the covers of several books such as "The Color Purple" and Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." Also spotlighted is popular author Zane, who specializes in black erotica.
The video was written and produced by Bomani Ahmer, who uses the animated rapper D-Mite to deliver the message, and was developed by BET Animation, a new division established by the network's president of entertainment, Reginald Hudlin.
The coarse language is bleeped out when it is broadcast on BET, which is part of Viacom, the owner of CBS, which earlier this year fired shock jock Don Imus for using what he called hip-hop-flavored humor in his comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team.
One e-mail poster, going by the name tcphilosopher, called the video "a satirical observation on the current, ridiculous, offensive and embarrassing state of the once noble art of hip-hop." The poster added, "African Americans, open your mind. This man is not offending us. He's smaking [sic] us in the face and saying WAKE UP. This is what they think of us . . . and the reality is . . . most of it is true."
