Celebrity Culture Needs to Die Part 1: Celebrities Are Not Community Leaders!

“Show me in the white community where a comedian is a white leader. Show me in the white community where a singer is a white leader. Or a dancer. Or a trumpet player is a white leader. These aren’t leaders! These are puppets and clowns that have been set-up over the Black community by the white community and have been made celebrities. And usually say exactly what they know the white man wants to hear.” – Malcolm X

Celebrity culture needs to die. You know things are getting crazy when celebrities are writing public policy for the Black community and creating their own political parties. 

This year is when I become fed up with celebrities. First, we had to deal with them crying about being quarantined in their McMansions and singing John Lennon songs to us. Now they’re trying to morph themselves into leaders of the movement from their gated communities. Can celebrity culture just die already? It’s gone way too far. Celebrities have this Godlike view of themselves and the fans are also to blame for this. Y’all keep treating these humans like they are God’s gift to the planet because they sing and act, and now they believe it.  

Ice Cube thinks that he can write a policy for the Black community. The Breakfast Club is now the Black political platform and Charlamagne is a CNN commentator. People ignore the organizers in their community to uphold Jay-z and Killer Mike as the new Malcolm X and MLK. None of these people are community leaders. They don’t even live in the community. And it’s so easy for them to be opportunistic “activists” because people are so brainwashed by celebrity culture. They believe celebrities are the ones who can make a real change because of their influence. As if we aren’t the ones who give them their influence!

Ice Cube thinks that he can make policy for the Black community he no longer lives in. He appointed himself as a spokesperson for the Black community when no one asked for it. Ice Cube then makes an appearance on Roland Martin’s show to talk about said policy, and he couldn’t even explain what it meant. These celebrities are not qualified leaders just because they are rich and famous. Instead of elevating leaders who live in the community, he nominated himself. It just shows how narcissistic these celebrities can be. 

P. Diddy is now trying to create a political party called, Our Black Party. I feel like someone who is known for ripping off his Black artists isn’t someone I’d trust to lead Black people. Who nominated him as a Black leader anyway? Rich people see the profit in politics. This is all a game. Their money and their rights will be protected regardless of who’s elected. We don’t have those same privileges. 

The Breakfast Club is now a political platform to reach out to Black voters. The Breakfast Club with its berating of Black women, it’s transphobia, and it’s homophobia. Charlamagne has been able to rebrand himself as a woke personality. He is now a political commentator on CNN giving his input on Black issues. Instead of asking the Black people that live in the community, the media uses Black celebrities as our representation. But we have allowed this to happen. 

 Jay-Z dared to act like his NFL deal was about change and not him building wealth for himself and his family. “We’re past kneeling,” so we are teaming up with the same racist organizations we were protesting against? We’re past the, “we have to change things from the inside,” bs. And he had the nerve to compare himself to Fred Hampton. Fred Hampton’s focus wasn’t on teaming up with racist white people or becoming a billionaire. Radicals like Fred were killed for their activism. They didn’t get billion-dollar deals or meetings with racist politicians. And it’s shameful that y’all uphold these celebrities like they are radicals.

Rich Black celebrities are the same as their rich white counterparts. That’s why Trump and Kanye are friends. That’s why Jay-Z goes on yacht rides with Jack, the founder of Twitter. That’s why Ice Cube proposes policy and Killer Mike get access to government officials, unlike the working-class people who vote them in. All skin folk ain’t kinfolk. Rich Black celebrities are focused on building their wealth. They’re trying to get a seat at the table with the white millionaires and billionaires. You don’t get rich from helping your community. You get rich from hoarding wealth and exploiting those who are vulnerable, ask P. Diddy. 

I can go on and on with this. We keep looking to celebrities to lead us when these are entertainers focused on their money. Be your leader. Be the change that you want to see. When we put celebrities on a godlike pedestal, you create narcissists that believe their hype. They think they speak for communities they no longer live in. They become experts on issues that they never studied or faced. Then it leads to opportunists who use our issues as a cash grab. We have to stop allowing ourselves to be exploited by them. Being “woke” has become profitable for celebrities in the past few years. Meanwhile, the real organizers continue to struggle financially and are punished for wanting to help their community.