Even stars chase clout for more shine, but that’s not the real problem.
After shrugging my shoulders and giving a gas face while watching The Shade Room’s Instagram reel of singer and actor Tyrese Gibson blasting the Biden-Harris administration for signing the so-called Asian Hate Crime Bill while ignoring the safety needs of Black and Brown communities, I thought it would be important to share two points: why do Americans count on misinformed celebs’ busted platforms for guidance, and a bigger problem to discuss.
But let’s first do the most obvious thing and hit some clarity: Tyrese is referring to the COVID 19 Hate Crimes Act of 2021, and the bill covers more than Asians. I added a link to the bill for deeper reading.
Next, we need to stop giving so much cred equity to celebrities. Aside from movie scripts, many of them read much less than you do.
So why assume they have any idea of how the world runs, or that they can relate to the same universe you choose to live in?
But I get it. The credibility economy becomes important in an increasingly unequal society where the paths for building a reputation or stable funding stream are too rare and narrow to easily exploit.
And people want those roads as open as possible in 2024. Tagging in for Instagram and Tik Tok is bigger than FOMO — fear of being irrelevant is worse.
Celebrity or not, being relevant sustains and grows their brand — whether the goal is business or personal — and a brand can enable revenue growth. America ain’t free and the price tag continues to climb.
Think about this — how many movie snippets and song clips can most luminaries share on social media before boredom hits audiences? Y’know, unless you’re Rihanna or somebody …
This is why sharing an opinion — without reading or otherwise becoming informed — is such a magnificent brand play for clout chasers.
The low-to-nil upfront costs to being ignorant on digital media make the possible economics of clout so damn compelling. Therefore, celebrities can drop a flood storm of ideas, but still leave us dry.
Let’s pause for our doubters: how much did Tyrese invest to appear so uninformed on that clip with Benjamin Crump?
There is a special post for the blind faith we place in celebs that’s itching to be written — and I may have to be the one who writes it. My dogmatic editorial policy has been standing in my way up to now …
Tyrese aside, the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act seems odd — especially since we keep discovering how human and civil rights in America have so many loopholes that legislators have to keep introducing waves of legislation to create or protect these rights.
As if the The Constitution has been acknowledged to be insufficient at rights provisioning.
Therefore, the discussion we should focus on is bigger than the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act.
Bigger than the Emmitt Till Anti-Lynching Act of 2022. This came after 200 failed attempts at passing federal legislation during a 120-plus-year timespan.
Bigger than the Matthew Shepard And James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009. The need to make hate crimes a federal law says a lot …
And for those of you who are into color-trippin’, please don’t respond with “Democrats did more of the bill-blocking.” I’m not the one. I read. Plus, I trace bloodlines. Subtle warning …
Bigger than the 1996 Church Arson Prevention Act. Yup, America needed to pass federal legislation to protect the physical existence of predominantly Black churches in the South by outlawing these targeted acts of arson.
Bigger than the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Bigger than the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Bigger than the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the Civil Rights Act of 1875, and Civil Rights Act of 1957.
Some of you may be surprised about the last three civil rights bills passed by Congress, while regular readers may remember my thoughts about that just over ten years ago.
American politicians like to remind constituents that we’re “all in this together”.
But if “this” is a boat and rights have something to do with unobstructed sailing, then why do we need so many patches when we should all agree that boats should float?
Or is the question, “Why does the boat have so many holes”?
Or — and I’ll place this to Tyrese — “Do we all agree this is a boat”?
song currently stuck in my head: “earth song” – milton nascimento, esperanza spalding, and dianne reeves
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