Black Pride Month
The BET Awards are always hosted in the same month as Gay Pride. Judy Garland was an icon for the gay community, hence the poster that we see in the background of the above photo. For the first Black Entertainment Television Awards to begin in 2001 is significant because Aaliyah died in August but we never got to see her attend in June. BETA is the black equivalent to the Grammys but with additional awards for thespians. People complain about “Oscars So White” but look at the number of white people who performed or hosted at BETA. In June 2001, Gwen Stefani performed. She is half white but not half black; she is half Italian. I am half white and half black.
Another performer was half white but half Latina i.e. Christina Aguilera. There was another blonde singer who also attended BETA, albeit a year later. Jené Fleming’s first claim to fame was a film starring Chloë Sevigny and Kate Beckinsale. Jené was employed as a dancer for The Last Days of Disco (1998). While Gwen comes from California, and Christina comes from New York, Jené came from Louisiana. Instead of moving to Atlanta, Jené moved to Florida (the home of death metal). Since Jené began singing in church as a child, it was not a surprise that she was signed to Motown Records (in Detroit).
Like Gwen and Christina, she only attended BETA once. Unlike them, Jené’s first album was shelved. As such, Jené’s Reign was a bittersweet title. Her efforts were not in vain since she became a part of pop culture history when Get Into Something was placed on the soundtrack to Rob Schneider’s The Hot Chick (2002). It also didn’t hurt that the song peaked at #39 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart. Two of the guest vocalists, Foxy Brown and Lady May, were seen together at a New York event for the Esquire magazine in May 2002. Another single, the poignantly titled I Will Remember Your Smile, was featured on the soundtrack to Empire (2002). In the 2002 Getty Images gallery for BETA, Jené was credited as Jenny.
2003 marked the third BETA. Despite her anti-black remarks in the 2011 Neil Strauss book (Everyone Loves You When You’re Dead: Journeys Into Fame and Madness), Paris Hilton didn’t think that it would be a problem to carry a purse which adorns the Ethiopian flag. This became the official flag for Rastafarians. Then again, there was a BET party involving white female dancers instead of black ones in the Snatch club. It is debatable as to how close that Paris Hilton had gotten with black men, but no-one questioned James Brown having a white wife (Tomi Rae) when they appeared at BETA in 2003.
When Michael Jackson presented Brown with the Lifetime Achievement Award, there was a missed opportunity for self-deprecation by singing a cover of Paul McCartney’s collaboration with Stevie Wonder - Ebony and Ivory (1982). In 2004, the audience in the Kodak Theatre were treated to Jay-Z performing alongside Dave Navarro and Kid Rock. Caucasian actress Jillian Barberie was one of the presenters but she could get away with it because of wearing a leopard skin dress. Caucasian multihyphenate Carmen Electra could be seen shaking hands with a black fan during the red carpet arrivals.
One of the attendees was an Italian actress, Natalie Raitano, who appeared in four episodes of Sammo Hung’s Martial Law (2000). This makes it all the more destined that she has a Yin-Yang tattoo above her left ankle. In 2005, the equally biracial Alicia Keys and Halle Berry posed together. Alicia was dressed in black, Halle was dressed in red, and they did the same thing at a different kind of BET event in 2013. It is a sapphic fashion trend to have two women dressed in this manner. Tom Cruise presenting the Best Actor Award to Jamie Foxx was contrived since they had starred together in Michael Mann’s Collateral (2004).
2006 marked the sixth BETA. The man with the red shirt is Brett “Ace” Young. Given what they call a black man’s manhood, it was tempting fate to flash himself like that (especially with the 69 at the bottom of the spade). Did he wanted to be drilled down by black mechanics digging for oil? When he was in Metallica, Dave Mustaine wrote a song about sex called The Mechanix. Since she is half-white with a middle-class background, Thandie Newton could have done everyone a favour by having her stage name be the same as her real name i.e. Melanie Newton. Maybe she didn’t want to be teased about her melanin.
In 2007, somebody deemed it fit for a white guy to perform at BETA. Robin Thicke did not fit in. Mark Wahlberg would have made for a better fitting. On June 28 in 2009, there was an ornate tribute to Michael Jackson despite the fact that only three days had passed since he passed away. Father Joe attended, and Alicia Keys shook his hand in the audience. Jeremy Piven presented alongside Marlon Wayans but Will Smith would have fitted in better since he actually looks like he could be related to Marlon. In 2010, there was a second tribute to Michael Jackson. Apparently, he was the black Jesus Christ - he sacrificed his complexion to atone for the sins of his fellow blacks, and BETA was the black Easter.
In June 2010, Tommy Lee and Travis Barker drummed at BETA. The difference was that this was the only time that Tommy performed at BETA. In 2011, BET officially jumped the shark in the moment that they decided to let Justin Bieber come up on stage with an entourage of fans. This could be the reason why Keke Palmer didn’t return to BETA until 2014. This would be quite the plot twist since Justin made a cameo appearance on her Nickelodeon TV series - True Jackson, VP. This was circa 2009. When they worked together, there was a photo of them posing for the camera where Justin had a half-hearted smile. Last year, he flirted with her on Instagram but it felt like he was putting on an act. Justin came under fire for racism in early June of 2014 (BETA are always held in late June).
In 2013, another Justin - Timberlake - performed and presented with Charlie Wilson. A more appropriate mixture would have been Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer. In spite of her anti-African remarks in the aforementioned 2011 book, Paris Hilton was seen at the 2014 BETA ceremony. She clearly didn’t get attacked or we would have heard about it. Generally, there are interracial couples who have attend BETA. Many years later, Paris Hilton still does not mind being physically sociable with black people. I’m sure that she got her freak on during one of the many freak-offs hosted by Sean Combs.
The BET channel is supposed to be a representation of black performers, so the above photo points to what was wrong. Latinx are more accepted at a BET event because they are similiar to the blacks - not bougie enough to be seen as a condescending threat no matter how much glamour that they appropriate and how much income that they accumulate. Blacks and Latinx are grassroots for different reasons - the blacks invented the urban music, but the Latinx originated Los Angeles. BETA are all about enabling - there are whites who are thirsty for blacks, and there are blacks who are hungry for whites.
The thirst and hunger became apparent in June 2015 when it was decided that there should be a runway event featuring white models - male as well as female. It would be more fun for the live audience than the TV audience. Rock stars can pick their groupies from the stage but it’s vice-versa for a catwalk show. It’s not just black guys who want to reverse the master/slave dynamic, but black women too. Surprisingly, there has never been a BETA spectacle involving white submissives and black dominants. In 2016, Beyoncé signed a white singer to a two year development deal. Sophie Beem never became a household name, but she wasn’t steamrolled by the music biz like how Jené was.
The above photo reminds me of a theory that I had in the ‘90s when I was watching The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. I theorized that the original Vivian was replaced because someone at the network wanted a black actress with a lighter skin tone. As for BETA in 2017, there was a tribute to George Michael. His birthday was on June 25, which is why BETA transpired on that day. George was half Greek, though. If Vanilla Ice died, would they have paid homage? In June 2018, Blac Chyna and Amber Rose looked like they were trying to appeal to men of a vintage generation. Blac with her short silver hair in a Marcel wave, and Amber with her bleach blonde hair styled to be like Jayne Mansfield.
Nicki Minaj performed with Oriental dancers, but you would think that Blac Chyna would have done that. Coincidentally, Blac was Nicki’s stunt double in the music video for Kanye West’s Monster (2010). Her blonde hair highlights how so many black artists have dyed their hair. In 2019, Billy Ray Cyrus defied everyone’s expectations by performing onstage with Lil Nas X. In 2020, none of the few guests were white. In 2021, a white music video director (Cole Bennett) attended BETA. Also attending was a whiter rapper named Jack Harlow. There are more white rap stars than there are black metal stars.
Like in 2015 and 2017, Shaun Ross attended the 2022 BETA. He is an albino who faced the same amount of ostracism as a guy who’s half black and half ginger. 2022 was when Keke Palmer returned to BETA on an annual basis. This was the same year when Summer Walker attended by being almost topless i.e. her nipples were covered by small gold plates. Keke is bisexual, as is a black woman who appeared at the 2023 BETA - Victoria Monet. She later became a part of Keke’s girl group - DivaGurl. Kinky Palmer! In June 2024, Keke and Summer performed with five other women at the Peacock Theater.
This got me thinking of something else - a rock duo called The White Stripes. They were a couple who pretended to be siblings, something that Heart was accused of. One elephant in the room is the possibility of lesbian cousins or even in-laws who go beyond the platonic with each other, but then there is a reason why so many eroticas have fantasies involving step relatives. In June 2025, Teyana Taylor’s robot suit at the 25th BETA was reminiscent of what Sally Yeh had worn in I Love Maria (1988). Hong Kong action films always had a loyal following in the black community despite the racism in the films being worse than the racism towards the whites.
No white performers strutted their stuff at BETA this year. The novelty value must have worn thin like seeing a white guy perform Wushu in a Chinese movie. This got me thinking of something else - you would never see a white person become famous by being a Cantopop star.