Celebrity once meant a person had a platform with the potential to be a leader and was influential because of their visibility. But that meant a certain expectation to uphold values that could be emulated by those who weren’t celebrities.. Today celebrity takes different forms and a certain mindset—stars are chosen because they’re not going to rock the boat… -Davey D-
(FinalCall.com) – Star power, social responsibility and controversy surfaced again over a partnership between hip hop entrepreneur Jay Z aka Shawn Carter and a high end store accused of racially profiling customers and rapper-businessman Kanye West’s appropriation of the Confederate Stars and Bars flag for a clothing line.
Jay Z issued a statement Nov. 15 defending his decision to keep his product line partnership with Barney’s, despite lawsuits alleging the New York store racially profiled Black customers. One customer was arrested after using his own credit card to purchase a $350 belt.
“The easy position would have been to walk away and leave policy making to others hoping that someone addresses the problem. I will not leave the outcome to others. I will take this into my own hands with full power to recommend, review and revise policies and guidelines moving forward,” said Jay Z, in the mid-November statement posted to his website.
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The rapper and businessman called his decision a commitment to tackle the problem head on, with a “leadership role and seat on a council specifically convened to deal with the issue of racial profiling.”
“As I previously stated, the collaboration with Barneys has always been about giving and The Shawn Carter Foundation. From this collection, the Foundation will receive not only 25 percent of sales, it will now receive the additional 75 percent of Barneys’ sales, totaling 100 percent of all sales from BNY SCC. Along with 100 percent of sales from the collaboration, the Foundation will receive an additional 10 percent of all retail sales from Barneys New York stores nationwide and Barneys.com on November 20th,” said Jay Z.
His Shawn Carter Foundation grants scholarships to single mothers, children in alternative schools, and others who generally don’t receive scholarships.
Kanye seemed less concerned about negative opinions during a recent radio interview in which he discussed the backlash. “Any energy is good energy. You know the Confederate flag represented slavery in a way—that’s my abstract take on what I know about it. So I made the song ‘New Slaves.’ So I took the Confederate flag and made it my flag. It’s my flag. Now what are you going to do?” he asked.
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Conservative talk show host , Sean O’Reilly hated Hip Hop with a passion. Yet, there he was, sitting in front of his flat screen watching the Grammys, anxiously , waiting for the rap song of the year to be announced . When the winner was finally revealed ,he jumped off his recliner like this favorite team had just won the Superbowl. No , he hadn’t become a converted Kanye West fan, he was just happy that he could announce to his millions of listeners the next morning that the best rap song was “N*ggas in Paris…”
The only other thing to come close to this monumental event is, perhaps, Nas and ex -wife Kelis sportin’ the N*gger T-Shirts on the Red Carpet at the 2008 show.
For instance Philadelphia social worker, Abena Afreeka , who recently started a “N*gga Recovery Program” to help those addicted to using the word, opposes it because it acts as a psychological trigger to subconscious memories of slavery which results in negative behavior. Thus creating the perfect Manchurian candidate.
