Black Entertainment Television recently came under fire for not airing the Million Man March’s 20th year reunion held in Washington, D.C. on October 15th. People across social networks expressed their voices against BET’s decision to dismiss this year’s Million Man March. “It is truly a disgrace that BET would not even acknowledge the Million Man March but they got Nelly Meth smokin’ self on the channel” says Twitter member.
This year’s Million Man March marked the 20th year anniversary since the original march took place. Organized by Nation of Islam leader, Louis Farrakhan, men of color gathered together to declare “Justice Or Else” during a time of police brutality and murders of unarmed black and hispanic men in the recent few months. It was estimated that 1.5 million people participated in the march across D.C.
BET, known as Black Entertainment Television, refuse to acknowledge or air the Million Man March. BET released a statement days later:
We decided not to air the Million Man March beacuse we are working towards racial equality and to end division among whites and blacks. Although we understand the reasoning behind the Million Man March led by the Honorable Minster Louis Farrakhan, we can stand behind a theme that is “Justice or Else”. The ideology behind the theme encourages violence towards whites and we do not condone violent acts of terror against whites or any other races. We started as a black entertainment television company but now we have moved forward and we have viewers of the white community we wish not to offend by airing the Million Man March”
After releasing their explanation, BET insiders have told us that they have received hundreds of hate mail and many have threatened to boycott the channel. “I don’t see what the problem is. White people are our biggest audience and I think it would be idiotic for to offend them. We as blacks should stop walking around with chips on our shoulders and stop being sensitive. Why focus so much on race when our president is a brother” says BET producer, Jarvis Robinson.
*UPDATE*
BET executives have agreed to air the Million Man March during their infomercials hours which are between 3 and 6 am in the morning. The timeslot is durinng hours that most people are asleep and typically have the lowest amount of viewers.
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