Dear Mrs. Scott-Young,
My name is Hassan Hartley, and I had the unfortunate displeasure of watching the rank, repugnant coon-fest that you produce called "Love and Hip Hop", in which you profit mightily and heavily from casting people, particularly Black and Latino folks,(my folk) in the worst possible light. You, along with other cutthroats like Shaunie O'Neal, Wendy Williams, and Andy Cohen, have fed millions a pathological diet of ratchet, ignorant, stereotypical imagery mainly centered around black women, chiefly being angry, bitter, uneducated, catty, bitchy and conniving with each other,while the men are cast as oversexed, unfaithful, dishonest, anti-intellectual(think: stupid) deviants that cannot fulfill even the most basic of obligations to their spouses/mates.
As an openly gay man, I am equally disgusted by the imagery of "my kind" on your shows(albeit brief imagery-blink and you may miss the finger popping, effeminate, flamboyant stereotype of a Funky Dineva-although funny as hell) that perpetuates a false narrative that black gay men's chief desire is to be a sassy, flip mouthed black woman. Turning black gay men into the new Mammy figures of reality TV is not cute.
I understand that you are not the network owner. VH1, along with MTV, BET and a host of other media outlets, are owned by Viacom, and Viacom is owned by the very wealthy and Jewish Redstone family. You may be nothing more than a mere pawn in a game far bigger than your imagination and intellect can comprehend. I get that. I also understand the "get that paper, make those coins, make that money" aspect of television. No one is "hating" on you for being a financially successful, strong willed, capable black woman in a white/Jewish dominated entertainment industry. We need more sisters(and brothers) on their hustle. Their grind. My issue is with the content and imagery, not your business acumen.
What bothers me, after watching your "reunion" special, is how you seemed to be feeding the discord and strife between these women for ratings...you are not an unfamiliar kind of black person to me. I have studied Negroes like you for most of my life. See, there were blacks like you, who, in the 1500's, sold others into the worst chattel slavery the world has ever known, for sheer profit. There were blacks like you who, while on the plantation, sought the favor of their white masters so much that you would be his informant, should any uprising occur. There were blacks like you, who in the 1960's infiltrated both Civil Rights and Black Nationalist organizations to sow discord and strife, for your individual profit, as well as your bosses collective gain.
I have decided to spotlight you and your program, along with several others, in my upcoming book, "THE NEW MINSTREL SHOW: COONERY AND BUFFOONERY IN 21ST CENTURY BLACK ENTERTAINMENT" under the chapter dealing with the "21st Century Sapphire/Negro Bed Wench Syndrome"...I will use footage from some of these shows-maybe even yours-in the interactive e-book edition of the book to highlight the ratchet mess that television has become.
Thank you for reading these words, and I am sure you will keep raking in the $$$ by throwing your own sisters under the heaviest of buses.
Hassan Hartley
Three years later and she's still at it. Thank you, for this. I am definitely sharing
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