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'Hot Ghetto' Leaves Some Blacks Cold
Jam Donaldson's Web site, Hot Ghetto Mess, will be turned into a BET show.
(By Mark Gail -- The Washington Post)
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"Our feeling is that people who are concerned about stereotypes will want to watch the show because the whole point is to challenge stereotypes," said Jeanine Liburd, a BET spokeswoman. Asked how a show called "Hot Ghetto Mess" would achieve that, Liburd said she would check and provide descriptions of segments; she did not call back.
Nevertheless, the controversy over "Hot Ghetto" has helped and hurt the show. Donaldson shrugs off the criticism and notes that it has brought plenty of attention to the program, helping to double the number of visitors to her Web site (to about 30,000 a day).
On the other hand, it has also put a couple of would-be advertisers into a post-Imus crouch. In the past few weeks, State Farm Insurance and Home Depot both asked BET to remove their banner ads from promotions for the show on BET.com. Home Depot issued a statement saying it is not a sponsor of "Hot Ghetto"; State Farm said it found the program "inappropriate" and wanted no association with it.
Donaldson finds all the hoopla a little surprising. Although a committed TV watcher (she loves "Golden Girls" reruns), she never thought she'd be writing and producing her own TV series. Instead, she aimed for career in law (her degree is from Georgetown) after attending District public schools (Jefferson Junior High, Wilson High) and Howard University, which is about four blocks from her home. Donaldson's late father, Jeff, was dean of the fine arts department at Howard; Donaldson's mother, Arnicia Williams, is a retired FEMA employee.
Despite the liberal politics that surrounded her, Donaldson says her own views are more eclectic. She cites Churchill: "If you're not a liberal at 20, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative at 40, you have no brain."
As a legal aid attorney, helping poor people with housing disputes, she says, helped change her dorm-room politics: "I saw the victim mentality up close and personal. There's a downside to perceiving yourself as a victim in all aspects of your life."
She's not sure she'll go back to the job if her TV show isn't picked up. At the same time, she says she's not sure "I can bring myself to vote Republican" in the next presidential election.
Donaldson, though, says she's not trying to score political points for anyone with "Hot Ghetto." She's just trying to sound some alarms and, maybe, "raise the standards of my community."
Donaldson knows some will accuse her of airing dirty laundry, and providing cover for racists. She's not concerned.
"Someone sent me an e-mail [and] said he loved the site and said he was from the KKK," she says. "I don't really care about that. Black people know what I'm saying is true. Everyone knows it's true. We have to get beyond that. We're stifling our growth as long as we're obsessed with what white people think."
Besides, she adds: "We all need a voice to challenge ourselves. Sometimes you have to be shocking."
Staff writer John Maynard contributed to this report.
