Don’t look for actress and Fox News Channel contributor Stacey Dash to be working on any more BET Channel shows for a while.
Dash questioned the black-oriented network’s very existence this week and wouldn’t back down despite criticism. She wrote on her website that BET lies to its viewers and promotes segregation.
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The dispute stemmed from Dash’s Fox & Friends interview Wednesday when she was asked about the lack of black nominees for Academy Awards. The former Clueless star said people need to make up their minds between segregation and integration, “and if we don’t want segregation, then we need to get rid of channels like BET and the BET Awards and the (NAACP) Image Awards, where you’re only rewarded if you’re black.”
A tongue-in-cheek BET tweeted a picture of Dash appearing in the network’s sitcom The Game.
More seriously, BET Chairman and CEO Debra Lee said the network was created to give African-Americans and lovers of black culture a place on TV where they could consistently see themselves represented and celebrated.
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“African-American contributions to American culture are countless and we cannot and should not wait for anyone to acknowledge them,” Lee said.
Several non-black artists have either received BET Awards or performed at the annual awards show, including Robin Thicke, Justin Beiber, Eminem, Justin Timberlake, Ariana Grande and Sam Smith, the network said.
On TV One, commentator Roland Martin showed how Dash has appeared on the cover of several magazines geared to black audiences and called her “a damn fool.”
Dash, who was suspended from Fox for two weeks last month for using an obscenity in a description of President Barack Obama, wrote on her website that most people have never heard of The Game because it’s on BET.
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“I’m thankful for all of the acting jobs I had,” she wrote. “But I look forward to the day when people don’t self-segregate based on skin colour, while loudly complaining about a segregated society.”
She wrote that BET lies to American blacks by telling them the rest of America is racist. “And they’re absolutely mortified that someone like me — and independent-thinking black woman — dares call their bluff.”
A BET spokeswoman said Friday the network would have no further comment.
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