This question allows us to discuss the historical dimensions of discrimination. Many black groups and organizations have been formed because blacks were not allowed to be part of white organizations. So we have historically black colleges and universities because white schools did not allows blacks to enroll. When I note this, some students will say that black organizations should have been disbanded with the end of legal segregation. The problem with that view is that discrimination didn’t end with the change in laws; moreover, using that same logic white segregated schools should also have disbanded. If we never had racism, I suppose there wouldn’t be any BET. We would not even refer to people by their skin color, but there was and is racial discrimination, so we can pretend color doesn’t matter.
By this point, I’ll still have a few people that don’t understand, and really feel that there shouldn’t be any BET at all. Then, I tell them that BET is currently owned by whites. This seems to delight some of the more prejudiced students, but it throws others off because they don’t realize how many whites are profiting off BET, and damn near every other black oriented form of entertainment.
So next time someone asks, why is there a BET and no WET, you can give a long treatise explaining why.
1. The normativity of whiteness refers to the idea that whiteness is viewed normal, unremarkable, and often invisible. Moreover, this concept reflects the idea that whiteness is both the standard of comparison for other racial groups and the category to which people should aspire.
2. There are indeed some organizations that cater to people of color, which exclude whites, but they are quite rare, and obviously BET doesn’t not have any no whites rule.