Celebrity revelations

Recently, there have been a couple of more celebrities telling us in an interview how cruel the world has been to them.  I don't know how cathartic this is for them, or whether it's a part of their therapy, but I really don't need to hear how mean the world treated a very rich person who is beyond popular.  For that matter, I don't care about their illnesses, what they're doing to treat them or anything else that most people without the narcissistic penchant would keep to themselves.

Of course, the most loudly touted of the self-reveleations in recent history was Angelina Jolie's news that she had a double mastectomy because she carries the same gene many women in her family carry that results, eighty percent of the time, in breast cancer.  I'm glad she took the initiative, understand why she did it and am glad that she'll be around for her children.  I almost understand why people applaud her coming out with the news, if in fact it was intended to destigmatize double mastectomies for women in the same position.  What irked me about this isn't so much her publishing the whys and wherefores of her decision in a major newspaper, but that she was then lionized for doing something so many women before her had done, some of whom are also celebrities themselves.  But because they lacked the sterling boyfriend and pouty countenance of Ms. Jolie, she reaps the benefits of her courageous decision and the others are left to fend for themselves, no matter how courageously they acted long before Ms. Jolie made her decision.

These revelations seem to come out in droves, each new one emboldened by the one that came before it.  Two more recent blurbs involve Mariah Carey and Oprah Winfrey.  Ms. Carey once had a racial incident when she was a child.  Ms. Carey, a biracial woman who has always identified more with her black roots, allegedly had a white adult spit in her face.  I find it incomprehensible that a white adult would spit in the face of a biracial child in the mid- to late-1970's.  Even so, if it happened, there is no follow-up on what happened to the adult.  Was he/she arrested?  Was he/she confronted?  Did someone punch this person?  No, all we hear is that Ms. Carey suffered an indignity as a child that she is only now willing to disclose.  That it comes on the heels of the Zimmerman verdict is, I'm sure, nothing more than an amazing coincidence.

Likewise, Ms. Winfrey suffered an indignity when a shopgirl in Switzerland, allegedly, refused to show her a bag in an upscale shop.  The allegation has been denied.  Whatever the case, what could very easily have been a misunderstanding -- be it cultural or linguistic -- has now morphed into another racial incident.  That this happened shortly after the Zimmerman verdict is, again, nothing more than a coincidence, I'm sure.  Remember, Ms. Winfrey declared that the Zimmerman acquittal equated what happened in the Emmett Till case.

I'm sure that if I suggested that there was any connection between these recent incidents and Barack Obama's waxing nostalgic after the Zimmerman verdict about the trouble he and other blacks have seen I would be deemed a racist.  Yet it's somewhat telling that -- again, shortly after the Zimmerman acquittal -- an incident involving three fifteen-year-olds beating the living tar out of a thirteen-year-old was quickly deemed not to be a hate crime or even involve any racial overtones.  It was all the result of a foiled drug deal and a disclosure to authorities -- race played no part in it.

Here's the tape of the beating:

The bandwagon jumping to disclose sordid or sorry details of one's life has gotten out of hand.  To be encouraged to label everything that happens between blacks and whites a racial incident is specious at best.  But why do it?  To show how you're just like an average black person?  I'd bet there are far worse cases of racial injustice than being denied the opportunity to view a bag in an upscale shop in Switzerland (where they may not even know who you are...).  Likewise, if the incident about being spat on was so horrible -- which it was, if it truly happened -- why is it only coming out now?  Was Ms. Carey so traumatized that she forgot about it all these years?  She was married to a white man at one point, so it couldn't have traumatized her too badly.  But why even bring it up?  The only conclusion I can reach is that she brought it up now to capitalize on the still-sensitive post-trial emotions that are elevated in the black community.  At least with Ms. Jolie's revelations, there's some sort of attempt to help other people (although given the fact other celebrities had already undergone the procedure, I have to wonder).  But with Ms. Carey and Ms. Winfrey, just what's the message?  That as a child, someone spat on her?  That she just remembered it? Or that Ms. Winfrey couldn't see and therefore buy a bag she wanted in Switzerland?

This is the sort of thing that makes me shake my head about Twitter.  Instead of focusing attention elsewhere, people more and more are focused on gaining attention for themselves.  I don't get it.  And I don't understand debasing and important issue like civil rights with celebrity gamesmanship.

(c) 2013 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles