Last night’s outburst from Kanye West at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards was not the first of his public speaking shockers. His well documented “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people,” left Americans with mouths agape. Somehow, some believed that it was high-time someone said what many at that time were thinking, but we didn’t really look ahead at how that same behavior - unchecked and encouraged – would become disastrous. Moreover, it’s one thing to feel courageous enough to take on the leader of the free world and something rather cowardly to snatch the microphone from a teenage girl making a nervous acceptance speech. West delivered an apology, but short of using a butter knife to sever his testicles and use them as click-clacks at the end of a wire hanger in front of the same millions who witnessed last night’s VMAs, it was too little too late. This leads us to the real point of this entire article, which is the importance of choosing your battles. It is my opinion that Kanye has a good heart, but because of circumstances unknown to us, he lacks the filter or gate that prevents him from championing every cause he deems before him. You see, he may have believed in his heart that Beyonce was suffering an injustice by having Taylor Swift win the first award for Best Video – Female, but somehow he should have saved his comments for his appearance at Jay Leno’s primetime premiere tonight. The stage would be his and he would be joined by none other than Mr. Beyonce himself, Jay Z. All said, it’s a mistake he will spend the rest of his career – assuming he still has one – apologizing for. Whether he's bringing attention to the folks who suffered at the hands of an apparently ambivalent President or he's taking a stand against-the-grain for millions of gays oppressed by the hip-hop community, West hasn’t always been the bad guy. Unfortunately, this little tirade may have been the greatest lesson of them all for West – Sometimes it’s best to WAIT and ANALYZE a situation thoroughly to insure that getting behind an issue or cause warrants your support. No, Beyonce doesn’t need West to sing her praises – she even went on to win for Song of the Year the very same evening – but not exercising appropriate decorum led West to make a fool of himself and diminish the power of his words. If we’re to learn anything it should be that all battles are NOT ours to fight and that pausing to ascertain which are worth fighting is the difference between being thought of a hero or a coward.
On Blast
Have you ever thought you were championing a worthy cause only to find out you were stepping out of line where your support was not warranted?
Keep passin’ the open windows…
2 comments:
Bravo CeCe! The testicles comment had me and Coby in stiches.
As for Kanye - I have to agree that he has gotten behind some good causes, but it's no secret that I am FAR from being a fan of his. As a matter of fact, he is one of the few celebs that I despise. For me, he is the black version of Paris Hilton in that he is a symbol for much of what is wrong with society today. That girl did a sex video and was elevated to superstardom (when just a few posed photos dethrowned Vanessa Williams, and a peek at a nipple demonized Janet Jackson - is America that afraid of the naked black female?), and this idiot rants and raves at every awards show, throws temper tantrums and continuously displays his manufactured ego, only to have his bad behavior eaten up by the public and praised by today's youth. (Oh, and I say "manufactured" because I feel his egotism is a complete act - a total put on character to generate press. You and I both know ego maniacs and whilte the essence is the same, they are not as boastful, because-in their eyes-they don't have to be).
The bottom line is that snatching a mic from a teenage girl during an acceptance speech is morally reprehenisble, no matter who does it. Unfortunately, people are now making this a race issue because of his George Bush comment. As ridiculous as that may seem, it is an easy jump for the Kanye haters, and I find it irritating.
For the record, let me just state that as a black man, Kanye is in no way shape or form a representation of my race. And as awful as it is to wish ill on another, I can't pretend that I hope this signals the end of what I feel has been a VERY long 15 minutes for a marginally talented producer.
Admittedly, age and experience have tempered me quite a bit, but I am empathetic to West’s issue of foot-in-mouth disease. That said, I’m not a fan either, but I do recognize that even a broken clock is right twice a day. His standing up for gay issues (albeit for personal reasons…lol) and taking Bush head on all garnered him some cool points in my book. Unfortunately, like all broken clocks, we must toss it to keep our sanity after glaring at the wrong time the other 22 hours of the day! The stand-out issue for me is that I ABSOLUTELY HATE A BULLY! When he snatched that mic from Swift I didn’t see Black or White; I saw a bully and a victim. I wished it were Pink that won the award because she would have devoured him. All said, it was a BAD judgment call. I’m learning to be more tolerant of others so that when I have my foul-ups the laws of karma have some mercy on me as well.
BTW – I’m ADORING the photography on your blog. It’s fire! We need to talk!
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