Screenshot from hotghettomess.com, the website on which the new BET show is based.

BET’s new show “Hot Ghetto Mess” is causing a storm of controversy before it has even aired… and before critics and advertisers have even seen it. The show is based on a website (site has automatic music) by the same title, which “features photos of men and women, mostly black, with extreme hairstyles and clothing typically linked to hip-hop fashion,” according to the Washington Post. The show merges home videos sent in by viewers and man-on-the-street interviews produced by the network. BET said the show is intended to motivate and encourage “viewers to improve themselves and their communities.”

“Hotghettomess.com was created by Jam Donaldson, 34, a black lawyer from Washington, D.C., who is an executive producer on the BET program. On her site, Donaldson calls for a ‘new era of self-examination.’ The show builds on the Web site’s effort to take ‘a hard look at some dysfunctional elements of our community,’ [BET entertainment head Reginald] Hudlin said.

“‘The intent of the show is no different than what Bill Cosby is doing as he’s going across the country and lecturing as he talks about the problems of the (black) community that we need to address,’ he said. “Hot Ghetto Mess” approaches its goal in a lively way that will engage BET’s young audience, Hudlin said.

“Donaldson told reporters that the series has ‘exceeded my expectations. Everyone that sees the show will be pleasantly surprised. … I think they will learn something. There’s black history. We go to the community and ask what their opinion of some of these images are,’ she said.

“‘The show is so much more than the name,’ Donaldson said. She started the site because of ‘images of black dysfunction’ that were being distributed on the Internet without discussion of the need for change.”

[From the Washington Post]

Two major BET advertisers have already pulled out. Both the Home Depot and State Farm Insurance requested that their ads not run during the show. BET entertainment head Reginald Hudlin said, “‘It’s unfortunate that people are making an erroneous presumption based on absolutely zero information.’”

The blog What About Our Daughters, which focuses on the way black women are depicted in American culture, has said that both the site and the show of demean blacks. They have a comment from HotGhettoMess.com that they’ve posted on their own website which shows one of the many negatives HotGhettoMess has.

I am the mother of the teenager who was exposed on your website. She was at her senior prom and someone snapped a photo while she was dancing and submitted it to your website. Her breast had come out of her dress and she was bending over while looking back during a dance position. She had no idea this had happened and is very humiliated by this.’ Comment From HotGhettoMess.com.”

[From What About Our Daughters]

I can see where both sides are coming from, and I’m sure I still don’t understand the whole picture. On the one hand, it seems like the way the show intends to encourage “viewers to improve themselves and their communities” is by embarrassing them. The site’s creator manages to make it seem like its actually serving a purpose, but it also prominently features pictures like the “Hot Mess of the Month.” If the site’s (and the show’s) purpose is to discourage the glorification of the current “ghetto chic” lifestyle, I suppose that’s a good thing. But one could argue that some people have embraced that lifestyle because it’s what they know, and it’s theirs if they want it. No matter what, this ultimately comes down to money. Both the TV show and the website have advertising, and their creators profit from viewers. I’ve been seeing articles about this controversy popping up for at least the last week. It will be interesting to see if this show ever airs, and in what format, and what people have to say about it.