The title "BET Awards 2021" is pretty telling here as once again you have Black American television honoring their finest. Or who they consider their finest, but I will get to that a little later. Here on imdb it says that this ran for three hours and thirty minutes and that would be the duration with commercials. The factual duration of the show was slightly under 2.5 hours, which means that approximately 30% were commercials. Honestly, this alone is already enough to say that this event deserves the lowest rating possible and as I don't give ones, I happily hand out a 2/10 here. Actually, there was also advertizing during the broadcast, which made this even lower. There are many other reasons. Kinda sad to see a really experienced and lauded man like Glenn Weiss (not Glen Rice) in charge of a mess like this and it makes me question if many of his Emmy wins were not really justified. The writers have a few Emmy nominations, not too much though. Still kinda ironic that the man in charge behind the camera here was not only a white man, but also carries the name Weiss. I guess it is okay as long he is not in front of the camera to go against the general impression that this was an evening for Black people only. In general, this even struggled like many other awards shows these days in terms of approach and purpose. There were not too many awards and there were too many performers. A common problem. Just look at the way the show starts. No introduction. Nothing. Immediate move to the first singing performance. Also I still have to laugh over a month later at how they constantly called this the biggest night. I mean if this was true, it would be pretty sad. But they kept repeating it to make sure the simple folks are eventually buying this superlative. I think the inclusion of the cast of First Wives Club and the Cast of Sistas are self-explanatory overall. Irrelevant low-quality television "stars" being shown on BET+ and presented to us as artists. Nuff said. Spelling the plural of "sister" incorrectly also adds to the charm obviously.
The tables there and everything linked to them well I leave it to you to make up your mind about this inclusion connected with the pandemic. The vaccination encouragements were there too of course. Statements like "Tonight you get 100% of full blackness" I am not sure if you should laugh or cry about those because they absolutely go against equality from every perspective. Is there any justification for an awards show that deliberately shuts out everybody who does not have a certain skin color? I cannot really see such justification. And even there may be a small one, I do not think that events like this help in anyway to build bridges and create tolerance. Imagine a random White guy, musician, actor whatever being in the audience there. Let's not even talk about being nominated or being a winner. Imagine him on stage accepting this award. We all know how the audience would react and if not the one on location, then BET watchers at home. He does not belong there. Except praising a certain ethnicity here in a way that from my subjective perspective can be seen as racist, they also honored women especially that night. 2021 is the year of the Black woman as we were constantly informed about. Okay. I am not big on genderism either. Seeing Maxine Waters and Kamala Harris being honored there did not feel right for me. I have recently read about artists not being allowed to perform because they made political statements during their shows, but I guess as long as the political direction these statements come from is the widely accepted one, it's all good. I mean they are not even trying to hide it here. Giving a BET Award to a young woman who filmed the death of George Floyd? Hmmm. Still no elaboration on Floyd's lifestyle here and how he dealt with pregnant women or on a larger scale on the serious issue and gigantic quality of Black people killing Black people. There you could make an impact. Political inclusions were also indirectly connected to the corona situation. Also pay attention to background dancers wearing gas masks. Sigh. Oh and you can say another ten times how many great performances you already had (during an awards show!), but that does not make it true. The quality of the performances and singers was also fairly low. As bad as in pervious years I'd say.
I find it especially sad to see here how actually talented Black artists like Beyoncé (she was great with Destiny's Child back in the day when it was all about music still) have also gone down so deep on the quality scale and not delivered great music in years. If not decades. We are already at the point where we can be glad that the night this was aired nobody uttered "I can't breathe" and pretended it to be (rap) music. But as long as the likes of Megan Thee Stallion take home trophies for their music ("music"), there could very well be no way back. I mean Yadda, Yadda, Yadda. Do I need to say more? And the aforementioned focus on women being at the center this time makes it even easier for her to get away with all that. I mean she has the right color and right gender. Artistically creative relevance is completely secondary. Tertiary. I am also struggling with the impact this has on the English language. I mean I don't expect Oxford Dictionary here, but "all the women who was nominated" makes my ears bleed already as somebody with a different native language than English. I am sure her mother would be really proud of her. Look at how MTS thanks her for her body, her genes. (To me it felt as if she was exploiting her death more than she should have by the way. There was no heartfelt dedication.) Imagine a man making such a statement. Best case scenario he would just be considered shallow and arrogant. Worst case scenario his career is over. And when there was no messy stage action going on, you could read a permanent ad about Tyler Perry's Sistas. Of course he is involved again. Didn't they give him a honorary Oscar or something? Can only shake my head at that. I would say this awards show definitely sold its soul, but I am more in favor of the idea now it never had any to begin with. Also the music direction. No quality soul at least.
On a completely different note, as a tennis fan, I have no clue what was up with Naomi Osaka's inclusion. Not because she is Japanese, but her actions in recent months were highly questionable gently-speaking and I know what I am talking about. After these shenanigans, here they say she "stood her ground to support her own mental health". I don't even. Funniest moment of the show? Perhaps the Black Vine advertizing. Yeah I'm sure that will be a big thing in the ghettos and slums for years to come. Sure they will love to pay for that. I mean it has gotten absurd to a really unbearable level by now. Already talked about MTS and her mother earlier, but another person exposing her mother's breast cancer felt almost worse. It's not about awareness. It's about sympathy and the questionable idea to put highly private things like these out there for everybody to know about. One video snippet thingey showed the full incompetence too. Like they talked about lucky people getting a very special surprise and we see them waving into the camera and then it abruptly ends. High school amateur video potential. Did I mention Taraji P. Henson yet. This Oscar-nominated actress was hosting the show. Well, I liked her a bit early in her career, but it's impossible for me to do so now as she has gotten to the point where she calls the "evolution of twerking" "our history". Again, self-explanatory. Modern civilization at its best. Also if they ignore godmother Miley there. Would it be racist to agree and respond that it may have to do with the size of Black buttocks? There was also a category that featured international artists, but of course once again only if they had the right skin color for this ceremony. Career awards went to Queen Latifah. I don't mind her too much honestly (even if she is sometimes a bit too loud and exaggerated), actually one of really not too many slightly talented people on stage that night. I guess that is enough for such a key award to not suck as much as everybody else.
So yeah that's it then. If I have to decide for one thing i despise the most here, it would be the tolerance component and how this event really fuels parallel societies. From the perspective of tolerance I question the existence of the BET Awards and I think it would be better to discontinue them in the future. Also during small moments when we hear people scream out "Support the community! Our community!" How on Earth is this not exclusion of others? Next problem is too much music, not enough awards and what's even worse is that key moments come from the aforementioned Megan Thee Stallion, but also Nicki Minaj for example who started this mess a few years ago and is a crucial reason why MTS and Cardi B have such an impact right now. Why they are influential despite utter absence of talent and vocal range. All style over substance. On a very specific note, I was not too happy about Andra Day, after her big movie breakthrough, being a part of this event we have here. You can always say not, especially if you have Caucasian blood too and are not just Black, but White at the same time, even if some will not like it. It's simple mathematics. At the very end, there was a tribute to DMX, so the "awards" show ended how it started. With music. Not with what the title says. Not particularly good closure either, but also not as terrible as some previous moments and inclusions. I can see why DMX fans thought it was okay. But obviously it could not save this overall mess. Big thumbs-down from me. Highly not recommended. Too long. Too insignificant. Too untalented. Too shallow. Too intolerant. While pretending to be the exact opposite of all that. Thanks, but no thanks.
The tables there and everything linked to them well I leave it to you to make up your mind about this inclusion connected with the pandemic. The vaccination encouragements were there too of course. Statements like "Tonight you get 100% of full blackness" I am not sure if you should laugh or cry about those because they absolutely go against equality from every perspective. Is there any justification for an awards show that deliberately shuts out everybody who does not have a certain skin color? I cannot really see such justification. And even there may be a small one, I do not think that events like this help in anyway to build bridges and create tolerance. Imagine a random White guy, musician, actor whatever being in the audience there. Let's not even talk about being nominated or being a winner. Imagine him on stage accepting this award. We all know how the audience would react and if not the one on location, then BET watchers at home. He does not belong there. Except praising a certain ethnicity here in a way that from my subjective perspective can be seen as racist, they also honored women especially that night. 2021 is the year of the Black woman as we were constantly informed about. Okay. I am not big on genderism either. Seeing Maxine Waters and Kamala Harris being honored there did not feel right for me. I have recently read about artists not being allowed to perform because they made political statements during their shows, but I guess as long as the political direction these statements come from is the widely accepted one, it's all good. I mean they are not even trying to hide it here. Giving a BET Award to a young woman who filmed the death of George Floyd? Hmmm. Still no elaboration on Floyd's lifestyle here and how he dealt with pregnant women or on a larger scale on the serious issue and gigantic quality of Black people killing Black people. There you could make an impact. Political inclusions were also indirectly connected to the corona situation. Also pay attention to background dancers wearing gas masks. Sigh. Oh and you can say another ten times how many great performances you already had (during an awards show!), but that does not make it true. The quality of the performances and singers was also fairly low. As bad as in pervious years I'd say.
I find it especially sad to see here how actually talented Black artists like Beyoncé (she was great with Destiny's Child back in the day when it was all about music still) have also gone down so deep on the quality scale and not delivered great music in years. If not decades. We are already at the point where we can be glad that the night this was aired nobody uttered "I can't breathe" and pretended it to be (rap) music. But as long as the likes of Megan Thee Stallion take home trophies for their music ("music"), there could very well be no way back. I mean Yadda, Yadda, Yadda. Do I need to say more? And the aforementioned focus on women being at the center this time makes it even easier for her to get away with all that. I mean she has the right color and right gender. Artistically creative relevance is completely secondary. Tertiary. I am also struggling with the impact this has on the English language. I mean I don't expect Oxford Dictionary here, but "all the women who was nominated" makes my ears bleed already as somebody with a different native language than English. I am sure her mother would be really proud of her. Look at how MTS thanks her for her body, her genes. (To me it felt as if she was exploiting her death more than she should have by the way. There was no heartfelt dedication.) Imagine a man making such a statement. Best case scenario he would just be considered shallow and arrogant. Worst case scenario his career is over. And when there was no messy stage action going on, you could read a permanent ad about Tyler Perry's Sistas. Of course he is involved again. Didn't they give him a honorary Oscar or something? Can only shake my head at that. I would say this awards show definitely sold its soul, but I am more in favor of the idea now it never had any to begin with. Also the music direction. No quality soul at least.
On a completely different note, as a tennis fan, I have no clue what was up with Naomi Osaka's inclusion. Not because she is Japanese, but her actions in recent months were highly questionable gently-speaking and I know what I am talking about. After these shenanigans, here they say she "stood her ground to support her own mental health". I don't even. Funniest moment of the show? Perhaps the Black Vine advertizing. Yeah I'm sure that will be a big thing in the ghettos and slums for years to come. Sure they will love to pay for that. I mean it has gotten absurd to a really unbearable level by now. Already talked about MTS and her mother earlier, but another person exposing her mother's breast cancer felt almost worse. It's not about awareness. It's about sympathy and the questionable idea to put highly private things like these out there for everybody to know about. One video snippet thingey showed the full incompetence too. Like they talked about lucky people getting a very special surprise and we see them waving into the camera and then it abruptly ends. High school amateur video potential. Did I mention Taraji P. Henson yet. This Oscar-nominated actress was hosting the show. Well, I liked her a bit early in her career, but it's impossible for me to do so now as she has gotten to the point where she calls the "evolution of twerking" "our history". Again, self-explanatory. Modern civilization at its best. Also if they ignore godmother Miley there. Would it be racist to agree and respond that it may have to do with the size of Black buttocks? There was also a category that featured international artists, but of course once again only if they had the right skin color for this ceremony. Career awards went to Queen Latifah. I don't mind her too much honestly (even if she is sometimes a bit too loud and exaggerated), actually one of really not too many slightly talented people on stage that night. I guess that is enough for such a key award to not suck as much as everybody else.
So yeah that's it then. If I have to decide for one thing i despise the most here, it would be the tolerance component and how this event really fuels parallel societies. From the perspective of tolerance I question the existence of the BET Awards and I think it would be better to discontinue them in the future. Also during small moments when we hear people scream out "Support the community! Our community!" How on Earth is this not exclusion of others? Next problem is too much music, not enough awards and what's even worse is that key moments come from the aforementioned Megan Thee Stallion, but also Nicki Minaj for example who started this mess a few years ago and is a crucial reason why MTS and Cardi B have such an impact right now. Why they are influential despite utter absence of talent and vocal range. All style over substance. On a very specific note, I was not too happy about Andra Day, after her big movie breakthrough, being a part of this event we have here. You can always say not, especially if you have Caucasian blood too and are not just Black, but White at the same time, even if some will not like it. It's simple mathematics. At the very end, there was a tribute to DMX, so the "awards" show ended how it started. With music. Not with what the title says. Not particularly good closure either, but also not as terrible as some previous moments and inclusions. I can see why DMX fans thought it was okay. But obviously it could not save this overall mess. Big thumbs-down from me. Highly not recommended. Too long. Too insignificant. Too untalented. Too shallow. Too intolerant. While pretending to be the exact opposite of all that. Thanks, but no thanks.
