The Trouble With Celebrities

Raven Symone, appearing on The View, has defended a television personality's right to say that the First Lady resembles an ape. Freedom of speech and all that. At least no one started up a contest of wits featuring quotes from The Planet Of The Apes, or from The Simpsons Stop The Planet Of The Apes... I Want To Get Off!  (  "I hate every ape I see, from chimpan A to chimpan Z !"  )


Meanwhile, we read about Stephen Smith:
http://news.yahoo.com/stephen-a-smith-black-americans-should-vote-republican-gop-election-140317220.html

ESPN host Stephen A. Smith says that if every African-American voted Republican for one election, it would send a strong message to the GOP that their vote is important.

“What I dream is that for one election, just one, every black person in America vote Republican,” Smith said Tuesday during an appearance at Vanderbilt University, according to audio published by Breitbart.com.

During the 2012 presidential election, an overwhelming 93 percent of black voters supported President Barack Obama, while just 6 percent voted for Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

“Black folks in America are telling one party, 'We don’t give a damn about you,’” Smith said. “They’re telling the other party, ‘You’ve got our vote.’ Therefore, you have labeled yourself ‘disenfranchised’ because one party knows they’ve got you under their thumb, the other party knows they’ll never get you and nobody comes to address your interest[s].”

Smith compared voting with “shopping around” to let store owners know they have to cater to you to win your business.

“We don’t do that with politics, and then we blame white America for our disenfranchisement," he said.

The “First Take” commentator is known for being outspoken.

Earlier this month, Smith suggested that Philadelphia Eagles coach Chip Kelly was racist for trading away black players like LeSean McCoy, DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin while keeping Riley Cooper, a white receiver who was fined by the team in 2013 for using the N-word at a Kenny Chesney concert.

“Chip Kelly makes decisions over the last couple of years that, dare I say, leave a few brothers feeling uncomfortable,” Smith said. “I think that's fair to say. I mean, we’re sitting here looking at some of the decisions that Chip Kelly makes, and I’m like, what is up? What’s up with that? I mean, it’s like you've got to be his kind of guy, you know? And I’m like, well, Riley Cooper’s your kind of guy?”

Last year, Smith was suspended by ESPN after he made controversial comments suggesting that Janay Palmer, the wife of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice, could have done something to prevent the domestic violence incident that was caught on tape in an Atlantic City elevator.

Smith later apologized.

“I made what can only amount to the most egregious error of my career,” Smith said. “My words came across that it is somehow a woman’s fault. This was not my intent. It is not what I was trying to say.”

1) Mr. Smith does not think to suggest that the Republican Party go 100% in support of Blacks... for a day or s0... let's not make a habit of it.
I mean, one party in America telling one group of people, "We don't give a damn about you!"
For Blacks to vote for the Republican Party seems a lot like Frodo and Sam agreeing to pop over for tea at Sauron's in Mordor in order to send a message.

2) It is hard to trade players in the NFL without including a few black players. There is a large population in the league, so I'm told.
As for Riley Cooper's use of the N word, I suppose Mr. Smith never heard that racial epithets are part of the early training even in the Kids Touch Football League, where the players are 5 years old and up. Agility in racial epithets count, man!

3) Janay Palmer could really not do too much to prevent the violence once she was in the elevator... unless she had a ladies' pearl handle automatic with one in the chamber.


The trouble with celebrities is that they assume that the brilliance of the one facet of their lives which led to their enshrinement in the 24/7 pantheon easily slides into other areas, like politics, logic, philosophy, religion, etc.
I does not.
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