After months of BET coming under fire for its degrading depiction of Black women, a similar boycott has been launched against VH1 to protest against network executives who knowingly perpetuate negative stereotypes of Black women through its programming.
An employee of the network leaked information about a production meeting regarding a potential new reality show titled Interracial Love. The show, created by Tobias White, the white father of two interracial children, would feature professional, respectable, Black women who look beyond race to find true love. According to the employee, network execs rejected the show because the depiction of the Black women would be in opposition to those shown on such popular (yet controversial) shows as Flavor of Love and its spawns, I Love New York and Flavor of Love: Charm School.
Flavor Of Love‘s 90-minute first season finale drew nearly 6 million viewers — a performance that made it the most watched broadcast in VH1‘s history.The premiere of the second season of Flavor Of Love drew 3.3 million viewers, an all-time season premiere record for the 21-year-old network.
In a letter written to Black Press Radio, the employee shared what she was told happened during the production meeting. According to the employee, an executive stated: “It is our thoughts that the viewers are more interested in seeing Black people in a ‘ghetto’ role. This show will not sell.”
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Though the quote was second-hand information, Black Press Radio (www.blackpressradio.com) followed up on the story and reported on a statement sent in by Maura Wozniak, the Senior Publicist for VH1 Communications. In the statement, Wozniak confirms that Interracial Love was rejected. However, she made no comment about the alleged quote. Instead, she claims the show was simply determined to be ill-fitting for the network. She states:
“VH1 receives hundreds of unsolicited ideas for shows a week and has dozens of original programs in development…As is often the case, we immediately passed on this pitch because it does not make sense for the network at this time. But we are always open to ideas that fit in with our music and pop culture focus.”
In response, Black Media News immediately voiced its full support of a boycott against VH1. The organization wrote:
“There is a boycott that has taken a life of its own against the VH1 Network. We here at Black Media News have been watching the support around this boycott. VH1 had made racist comments about black women and why they only cast shows that stereotype black women as ghetto. The story was leaked on the Tom Joyner morning show and was also reported on Black Press Radio. The following comments were made by an employee of VH1. We feel these statements are worse than Don Imus due to the fact that they are not talking about just 12 black women they are talking about an entire race of black women. VH1 shows their views in their shows of black women. They have been type casting with black women only in ghetto roles. This is a very racist view and we ask for the continued support of this boycott…. “
VH1, BET and MTV, which have each been scrutinized for their misogynistic depiction of Black women, are all owned by the same parent company, Viacom.
DX will keep you updated as the boycott continues.
