We have whittled away our core values to the point that we cannot even see how desperate our situation has become. Even still, some of us tend to lash out at the few people who will actually tell the truth. Bill Cosby went from being a really funny guy to the guy who called us out. People would walk out of auditoriums when the truth came out of Bill Cosby’s mouth. They called him names and said he was too hard on "us." Said he was "hatin!" Really?
Personally, I don’t think he went far enough. I mean, are our faults supposed to be kept confidential? Must we be quiet about all of our dirty little secrets so that others don’t find out how fucked up we are? Too late, they already know.
This brings me to the 2009 BET (Black Entertainment Television) Awards show debauchery. Oh, but first there are some words that we need to memorize, hold close and retain for the future.
· Class
· Dignity
· Pride
· Self-Respect
· Protocol
The BET Awards failed to exhibit any of these, which is all the more important reason that I must feed these words into the mouths of the hungry and unsustained.
The biggest star/icon/personality/entertainer the world has ever seen and probably ever will see, died on Thursday, June 25, 2009. His name: Michael Jackson. No need for me to delve into his achievements, I can do that in another piece. Let’s just say for now that the world has never seen any person larger in status than Michael Jackson. Which is why, BET felt that they should pay tribute to the fallen performer by revamping their award show to capture this sad and historic moment in time.
BET said that they tried really hard to produce a quality show. Granted, they only had three days to completely overhaul the show from whatever it was initially supposed to be to whatever that was it ended up being. Maybe they really did try, I’m not sure. But, when you have Soulja Boy (Tell them ni66as something or whatever his name is) on the same stage as people trying to pay tribute to the King of Pop, all of your efforts should be immediately given the side eye. Yes, Soulja Boy! The purveyor of songs such as “Kiss Me Through The Phone” and “Booty Meat.” He shouldn't have been been allowed in the parking lot - at least not until he learned English.
Then you have Beyonce - wearing a wedding dress slash wedding night hotel housecoat. How was that a tribute to Mike? In that outfit, I might have understood had she snatched off all that brick-a-brack and performed a cover of “Shake Your Body Down.” Her singing was good, but I just didn’t get how that related to Michael Jackson.
The night was supposed to be filled with tributes to Michael, but the sad fact is, many performers sounded like they were singing underwater. Was Gloria Allred the soundman? So what you ended up with was a tragic event in history being chronicled by tragedy. BET President, Debra Lee claimed to CNN before the show began that so many celebrities had contacted BET regarding participating in the Michael Jackson tribute. Clearly BET didn’t pick up the phone when they called.
Was Jill Scott busy? Ya’ll couldn’t find my girl India.Arie? I had her number if you needed it. Brian McKnight was out of town? Boyz II Men couldn’t sing “Its So Hard To Say Goodbye?” Yes, I love New Edition, but Bobby Brown beat up Whitney Houston and you let him huff and puff on the stage, yet you let Jay-Z punk you into rescinding your invitation to Chris Brown. Michael Jackson tribute you say? You mean Wyclef didn’t have a banjo or a ukulele in the trunk of his car? T-Pain had a Michael Jackson t-shirt on – under his “BIG A$$ CHAIN.” I’m thinking we should all pitch in and buy him a big IGNORANT A$$ BELT.
So now is the time to start building with those words I listed earlier. Its time to start looking at the got-damn Man In The Mirror. Clearly, the BET Awards had no CLASS “a’tall.” Was the fact that the rapper Drake had half naked pre-pubescent little girls dancing around him like sex slaves supposed to be part of Mike’s tribute? Have we lost our entire parcel of God given SELF-RESPECT?
CNN found themselves on the red carpet reporting live before the show began. I know right? If you had asked somebody a month ago what it would take for CNN to actually broadcast from the BET Awards, that person would have laughed, bent their wrist forward and said, “Chile, Michael Jackson would have to die for that to happen.” DAMN! But, it’s true and I’m sad. Initially I was excited to see CNN there, but only until they started to venture into the crowd to interview people. I yelled out at my TV, “Nooooooooooo,” but they found Kackalisha anyway. She had 10-inch fingernails. Her weave was crooked. Even worse, she was 22-years-old and had not mastered the English language. She spoke like she had a mouth full of Thunderbird and two bushels of chewin’ tobacco. Yeah, kind of similar to Tiny when she accepted the best rap something or other award for T.I. Now don’t you worry about Tiny though because BET has bestowed her with her very own show. Have some of us just no remaining DIGNITY? Don’t bother to answer. Refer to paragraph one. But I'm just 'hatin' right?
Tip: When CNN puts their microphone in front of you, and you know you’re not “worldly,” just decline to be interviewed. Tell that reporter - no matter how much you yearn to be seen by the people in the nail shop and the halfway house - no matter how bad you know that reporter wants all the white people watching to find out “our” secrets that I thought you wanted to hide, please tell him that you are just too sad to comment. And then, just walk away.
Michael Jackson may have been a lot of things. However, his accomplishments and the barriers he broke down for Black people are immeasurable. Yet, all some of “us” could focus on in the wake of his death, were unproven allegations. The people who called him horrible names just moments after he was pronounced dead could make jokes, but they didn’t care to mention that he gave away more than three hundred and fifty million dollars to charity. No proof of harming children, but there’s plenty proof of his humanitarianism. Nevertheless, the ignorant tend to focus on what they know best – more ignorance. Has every drop of our PRIDE evaporated? I’m mystified and troubled. When I saw the line up of new shows premiering on BET (Tiny plus that other girl and Keisha Cole’s mama’nem) I truly contemplated seceding from the union.
And what about the President of the United States – Barack Obama? What the fu*k was that *****’s excuse? Yeah, I said it. The most famous person in the entire world died and he couldn’t even utter two words about it. Meanwhile, people cried rivers of tears throughout the world.
“Mr. President, you couldn’t recognize an American treasure? I thought you were the leader of the free world? He’s not coming back either dude, it was a now or never moment and you blew billions of us off. Whether you like him or you don’t is irrelevant. The relevancy lies in the fact that so many people cared about him and his contributions to the world. The fact that a multitude of other world leaders publicly recognized Michael Jackson’s passing; while you let your Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, parrot some rather unflattering commentary that you made under what seemed like duress is an outrage. Not only did you fail to follow the most basic rule of PROTOCOL, you managed to break the whole code. Please turn in your badge at the front desk because you’re feeling real BET to me right now. Your Black is wack. Michael Jackson was my civil rights movement, but clearly you don't get it. Maybe you’re waiting for somebody more famous than Michael Jackson to die before you address your subjects, followers and constituency? Oh wait, there is no one more famous than Michael Jackson.” --WASET
For those who believe Obama didn’t have 10 or 20 seconds in his busy day to address the world in regards to the King of Pop, he was on CNN for 34 minutes the day after Mike died.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/26/AR2009062602257.html
I could write for hours about the President's disrespectful actions in the wake of Michael Jackson's untimely demise, but I was thinking of leaving room in cyberspace for all the people who are going to argue that he had better things to do than provide a 25 second blurb about the death of the most famous person in the world. On second thought, surely it would be Black people who would try to attack me for calling Obama out on his egregious faux pas. Yet, we all know that many of “us” don’t read articles with this many words in them anyway. Just in case though, if you made it this far and you know somebody who's gonna have beef here, you can Soulja Boy tell them that they don't have to read about Obama doing Mike wrong, I added pictures for their ease.
Off to watch the Cosby show…
WASET © 2009
17 comments:
That was very well written, entraining and true! I am with it 100%
I'm not sure if you are aware, but President Obama wrote the Jackson family a letter offering his condolences. Google it!
Michael Jackson was not a representation of "black pride". He stood for humanity and equality. Listen to the words.. don't just look at the cover.
You try running the country, reforming our healthcare system, pulling our troops out of the mess they call Iraq.. oh and don't forget to add- be "blacker" to that laundry list..
Have a little more pride and respect for our first Black President.
You were on point about the BET awards. However I do remembering that the President took time to write MJ's family a personal letter.
I believe that Michael Jackson was definitely deserving of all of the out pouring of love and respect and that BET did not give him the honor that they should have not to mention our dishonorable President who did not say a single word about Michael. Many may not agree with me but Obama is not American black and therefore not decended from slaves like we are and he cannot understand how important it is for us to honor Michael Jackson who was an ambassador around the world and did everything he could to help all children, any color so when the people who look to him for sympathy for a fallen icon that in so many ways transcended race because when people spoke of Michael Jackson, they never referred to him as a black man, just a man. Michael will be remembered for his humility and humanity and Barack Obama will be revealed to all as the fraud that he always was and once black people turn on him he is done.
Michael Jackson's death was supposed to make the whole world stop??? the president of the united states has a country to run he does not have time to spend hours and hours discussing a singer
Wonderful. I especially like the skit for the non-readers. LMAO
People are crazy, I agree with everything you said and I applaud your passion.
MJ was your Civil Rights Movement.. Obama was every other Black Americans Civil Rights Movement. How disgraceful.
The key word there to commenter #9 is "MY." You do you!
I LOVE THIS BLOG.
-Monk
I really enjoyed reading this post! I watched a little bit of the BET awards, Beyonce nekkid on stage-I don't care if she's a performer, that outfit was ridiculous and unnecessary, things have really gone left. No substance, it’s all about money and ass, no class and no pride. As far a President O-I think he's afraid to be too black. The man must be under tremendous pressure from the man.
I agree wholeheartedly regarding the BET awards and everything that THEY represent about "us". I spent the entire time watching it like it was a horrow movie, with my hands to my face. I sat thru the whol thing waiting on the big MJ tribute until the credits rolled- only then realizing that the bs shown in the previous hours WAS the tribute. But as far as Obama, I don't see it quite the way you do. Honestly, I think Obama handled it the right way (by sending a private msg to the family). Can you imagine the field day FOX news would have had had he done so publicly? Or the pack of people who would have claimed he'd done it publicly for attention or what have you? Say what you will, but NONE of us have ever been President, let alone the FIRST BLACK President, so we can't even begin to understand what it must be like to have to think about how people will react to EVERYthing you do. I personally believe he followed "protocol" just fine, you can't please everyone (clearly), but he let MJ's FAMILY know his heart and that is all that matters. I'm glad he didn't make it a public thing, because I would have seen it as tacky. It would be the equivilent of Candy Spelling writing that Open Letter to her daughter Tori. Some things are best done privately.
Great blog, nonetheless. I will be back.
Thanks Enigma Jones! I can appreciate your view of the Obama situation. Although I see it a little differently (can you tell?), your points were concise and well taken. Just proves to me that we all don't have to agree to have an understanding. Thanks again. :)
WASET
Ugh! I was reading some of the comments posted and I’d like to say that this whole “Obama is our black savior” mess has to stop. How about we focus more on what he/she can do for our country, rather than which shade of crayon they closely resemble.
We’ll see how much of a savior he is, when the backlash of that $787 billion stimulus bill finally hits our pockets. We’ll be at the top of the list for the poorest countries in the world, but what do we care then! We’ll be so defenseless that countries like Zimbabwe or Liberia could come wipe us out and our worries will be over.
Btw, this article was well written. Lol it’s a clear conscience around the world that BET completely failed at this one. They should not have dedicated the show to Michael, if they planned on having people like Lil Wayne, with teenage girls, on stage saying he wants to f*ck every girl in the world.
Tremendous blog (essay)! Loved every second of it and agree wholeheartedly...even weeks later.
Btw, a friend of mine turned me on to your blog b/c we were discussing President Obama's halfhearted, weak response.
And to those who say that the President has better things to do than to talk about some "singer," ... what do you think of the three paragraph statement he RUSHED out moments after 92-year-old Walter Cronkite passed?
Interesting. I don't see the world mourning, the Internet slowing and Twitter crashing over this death ...but yet, Obama felt the need to comment on this "icon's" passing.
Oh I am on THAT, believe THAT. New blog tomorrow to discuss. Thanks a lot. :)
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