In more relevant news there is the response by Mr. Wesley Snipes to the charges of tax fraud and the supposition of the media that he might be in hiding or evading. As I had mentioned before, Mr. Snipes has not been hiding, but in fact was in Namibia filming a movie. [Could this be part of the Black Panther film that has been mentioned he wanted to do?] If you may recall the media frenzy, there were various news and celebrity television shows that questioned where Mr. Snipes was after federal authorities indicted him on failure to pay $12 million in taxes for 1996-7.
For all the personnel and resources that these corporations and the government has it seems that I was the first to mention that perhaps Mr. Snipes was out of the country on vacation or on a job. In 2 days, perhaps 3, of all the various talking heads wondering and suspecting motives of Mr. Snipes my supposition was never mentioned. It was about a week later that Mr. Snipes mentioned he was in fact on a job outside the country and that he would deal with this when he returned. That news was barely mentioned for about half a day. Something you probably never heard about, and I didn’t notice covered at all, was the fact that Mr. Snipes recently stated he believes he is being used as a scapegoat. It is his claim that “I'm to be the scapegoat, because there's more public interest in `celebrities gone bad' than `rich people being taken advantage of”.
Well I’m not sure if Mr. Snipes is exactly innocent, but I do agree that he is being railroaded. The media has worked hard to portray him negatively, though there have been no facts to go on. If there was any unbiased media then the news of Mr. Snipes comments would have gotten equal time and it has not. That is just frustrating to me, and I imagine worse for Mr. Snipes.
In a bit of sad news I mention that Mr. John R. Pepper II has passed away. Many may not be familiar with this pioneer. Mr. Pepper former the first nationwide radio station that provided a format targeting a Black American audience. That may not sound like a big deal to some, but imagine this. Prior to the creation of WDIA-AM in the 1940’s there was no station in the South with an all Black American on-air staff. Without this B.B. King might never have gotten started. It’s possible that stations featuring R&B and Rap don’t exist without the efforts of Mr. Pepper. It’s important to remember what those before us have done, especially when they pass on. My condolences to the family and friends of Mr. Pepper.
Lastly I want to touch upon the continuing matter of Mr. Michael Richards. It seems that 2 men that Mr. Richards berated in the now infamous stand-up show at the Laugh Factory are looking for a personal apology and perhaps money. I agree that there should be an apology of a personal nature. That I feel is required. Speaking on television shows is a start but does not impact those directly assaulted properly. It’s the least Mr. Richards can do.
I fear though that this will become about money. If the media does its generally poor job, this will be shaped as an elaborate scheme to seek money from a rich and famous individual rather than what it was. Nothing should detract from the offensive nature of this tirade. Compensation in terms of money is not unwarranted though. It may provide an additional sting to remind Mr. Richards that speaking in such a manner, evoking such thoughts with the intent of malice and the infliction of pain, is never acceptable. But if the media make this a farce then all its impact will be lost. This should not be about the money, and so far it is not. But let’s not lose sight of what created this situation.
Too often there are distractions made by the media to lessen or divert attention for what the real news story is. This is one case where the attention needs to remain on subject. But I have no doubt that there will be some attempt to change the focus. To try to make many Americans feel less uncomfortable about what happened. But being uncomfortable is what this is about. Appeasing some is not worth reducing the impact and distaste of this incident.
This is what I think, what do you think?
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