Michael Arceneaux, EBONY.com contributor and Master of Shade, calls out five of his biggest gripes from the past week. Rejoice and be read. Follow Michael @youngsinick.
1. Stop Talking About Race and Sandwiches, Anthony Mackie: You can add actor Anthony Mackie to the ever-expanding list of Black celebrities I thought I really liked until they opened their mouths to say some really stupid stuff about issues I’m passionate about. The first issue was race, which he discussed with The Grio. To Mackie, people are tired of movies about race, although he has a new movie called Black/White. As for the Oscars snubbing of Selma, Mackie basically argued to work harder; in related news, George Lucas recently noted how the Oscars are more about politics than performance.
Of course, the worst musings came when Mackie touched on the racial politics of hair: “Like my nephew wanted to grow dreadlocks. I’m like fine, I’ll sit you down and I’ll watch The First 48 with you and everybody you see on that show, that’s doing something wrong, they’re Black dudes with dreadlocks. So, do you want to be seen as part of the problem or do you want to be an individual?”
Oh, Mackie. The po-po will shoot you with a fro; with a fade; shoot you while rock twists; kill you dead if you’re hairless. The police care less about the hair than the skin you’re in.
When the (predicable) backlash began, Mackie blamed The Grio for editing his comments…and they responded by posting the entire interview, unedited. Nice try, Anthony.
If that interview wasn’t enough, Mackie then shared his gender views on The Wendy Williams Show. To Mackie, a woman’s role with “her man” is to “make daddy a sandwich.” If she does, I hope she gives daddy a lil’ saliva for the progressives.
2. D.A.R.E. To Be Better By Welfare: Wisconsin governor and heartless person, Scott Walker, has introduced a new budget that would require drug testing for recipients of food stamp and unemployment benefits. This goes against federal rules for such programs, mostly because it’s a waste of money. Florida Governor and fellow Republican, Rick Scott, had a similar plan, though that ended with the federal government thwarting select portions from being implemented and a federal judge ruling it unconstitutional. Oh, it also wastes money the same way it did in Missouri.
Under Walker’s plan, for the few who would test positive, they would receive free drug treatment and job training. That sounds nice, though why not just do that in general for the residents already suffering in your state, sir?
3. Kenya, You Got Some ‘Splaining To Do: In response to the immediate clap back to the “Black Wives Matter” ads spotted in Atlanta, the company hired to has apologized for their participation and place the blame in the direction of Kenya Moore.
They write to Reality Tea: “This was never supposed to happen the way it did. We are part of a design team from Chicago that also works out of New York City. We were hired by who we believe was a representative of Ms. Kenya Moore in early December to design and print these posters.
We are deeply sorry for propagating social injustice and pain in America. We are coming out about this because it has conflicted with our morals as a multi-racial design team.”
I’m not sure if I’m telling the truth, but I do wish computer viruses on everyone involved.
4. Y’all Did Say Y’all Weren’t Too Proud To Beg, But…: I’m a little torn about TLC turning to Kickstarter to fund their new album. On one end, congratulations on achieving your goal, and in another, for continuing to be willing to try new ways of creating and sharing your art via Al Gore’s Internet. However, a group that made millions talking about broke men sure have their nerve now holding their handout to pay for studio time. I mean, couldn’t TLC cover this with a WeTV reality show?
And now that I think about it, people have to donate money and then purchase the album? This sounds like “What Pebbles did to us, we gon’ do to you.” Also, without Left Eye, Lord knows T-Boz and Chilli are going to need a DJ Mustard beat or seven to get back on the radio.
Personally, I’d be more willing to fund an Electrik Red album through Kickstarter than a TLC one, ‘cuz those poor girls never had a chance. God bless, though. I’ll check it out on Spotify.
5. Don’t You Ever, Ever Cover Anything Beyoncé and Jay Z Related Again: Whatever Christina Milian and Lil’ Wayne do with their bodies is their business, but what they do with Beyoncé songs in the booth is of national concern. Personally, I stopped listening to Wayne once I realized without a Styrofoam cup full of inspiration, my man ain’t got it, but I said I would be be less judgmental in 2015 so I gave it a chance. That was a mistake.
Wayne, stop. I mean, leave your first kiss behind at Cash Money if you’ve got to, but also leave behind music if you’re not going to put your brain into it.
Christina, SKATEBOARD? Girl, shut up. I like your reality show, though. Just ask your ex-husband if you can release those songs y’all did together. I’ll buy that on sale.
