Serena's outburst was just about as uncalled-for and even more disrespectful than Kanye's decision to jump onstage and pull a "Kanye". Normally, Serena is very well-spoken and tactful both on-and-off the court. I'm always impressed by the intelligence, composure, demeanor, and classiness of the Williams' sisters which is why this strikes me as an unfortunate aberration for Serena. Of all the things I could imagine her saying I would have never thought she'd swear to God that she'd shove a tennis ball down the line judge's throat. That's harsh, lol. Could I see her calling a line judge or umpire stupid or straight up wrong about a call, YES. Shoving a ball down someone's throat is so Ving Rhames slash R. Kelly of her (you'll get that one eventually), lol. Outside of that I was equally disappointed in the post-match interview where you could see on her face that she knew she was wrong for having done it, but was too prideful to admit she was wrong, apologize, and take the heat. I'd have respected her a lot more in this shytuation if that were the case. But as far as I know she has yet to formally apologize or make a statement and that's pretty disappointing. There are a lot of young Black girls that look up to Serena and Venus and I think by not coming out and making a statement saying that it was wrong and people shouldn't react this way, she's doing a disservice to those young girls that look up to her. YES, she has a social responsibility to do this! I don't care what anyone says.
UPDATE: Serena has apologized.
Exhibit B: Kanye West storming the stage (again) at the VMA's
Watch the video here
First off, this focking guy! Seriously! This is the second time Kanye's pulled a stunt like this so there's really no excuse whatsoever as far as I'm concerned. Apparently he was sauced up off Hennessy the whole night and I'm sure that had something to do with it. But nevertheless, even off a fifth of that yak he's got to know he can't pull a stunt like that TWICE! Maybe the pressure of Amber Rose's increasing celebrity is getting at his insecurities? But realistically, homie is biting the hands that feed him. Does Kanye not know that some of the same people that listen to country music's Taylor Swift are also buying his records as well? He's not moving that many units solely of the bruhs and sistahs out here, let's be real. Not to mention that outside of record sales, fan-bases, and pop culture attention whoring, Kanye was FLAT OUT WRONG for jumping onstage like that! And not just WRONG, but CLASSLESS (read: without class, tact, or respect). For a man who tends to think so highly of himself in terms of his level of sophistication and the "finer things in life" he enjoys (Amber Rose, included), he sure knows how to act indignantly obnoxious (read: like a fucking spoiled bratty azzhole). Beyonce should have grabbed his dumb-azz by the ear and pulled him offstage (sidebar: I swear Beyonce is acting more and more like an old, wise and all-knowing Black woman nowadays than ever. Sasha doing the performing, singing, and videos though, lol). Funny thing is, I wasn't surprised one bit by what Kanye did. That's actually the sad part. Kanye is a great producer, an on-the-verge-of-great rapper, and a pop icon. If that's not enough for him to let his "big ego" go limp for a minute and humble himself and realize that God has given him things a lot of us will never see then he should at least have some respect for his fellow artists, musicians, and fans of not only himself but Taylor Swift. This was the biggest display of azzhole-ishness from Kanye thus far and the unfortunate part is that I'm sure there's more to come. Blame on the a-a-a-a-alcohol Kanye. Good luck with that.
Oh yeah, Kanye has apologized, unlike Serena. To his apology I say, WOMP!
UPDATE: Video of Kanye apologizing on Jay Leno 9/14/09 (courtesy nahright.com)
Read about it here
This one is the least offensive of these incidents. In fact, it wasn't offensive at all, just out-of-place. The people that were enjoying the Jay-Z and Alicia Keys performance surely cared nothing about Lil Mama and may have only known her (if they knew her at all) from America's Next Best Dance Team (or whatever that show is called). Mama's situation was one in which no matter how siced she was that the Jay and Alicia performance was crankin', she needed to keep her "Lil" azz in her seat.
It was a disrespectful move in the sense that you don't get onstage with two (arguable) legends (definitely one legend at the least in Jay-Z) uninvited and try to steal the spotlight. I remember when 50 Cent did this while Kanye and Jay-Z were performing in NYC a while back and I thought all hell would break loose. It turned out that Jay-Z handled that shytuation with the same class and swagger that he handled this one. Jay actually embraced 50 when he did it and he ignored Lil Mama, which was probably the right thing to do no matter how many of us wanted him to pluck her Lil azz off the stage. Or better yet, Alicia or Bey could have handled the light work in this case considering Beyonce and/or Alicia's thighs are thicker than Lil Mama's entire body.
In the end, I'm sure she regrets
Exhibit N: As in NIGGER/NIGGERish
My issue with each of these incidents is that they involve a semi-famous or ridiculously famous Black person doing some shyt they know they had no business doing. Serena KNOWS she has no business telling the judge she's wants to shove the tennis ball down her throat. Even in the heat of the battle Serena knows not to say something like that (out loud). So in the end what *some* people will see is just another young Black girl with fame and money but no home training and the ability to revert to a "ghetto girl" if put in the right/wrong situation. And yes those people will see it that way even though Serena and her sister's track record of intelligence, and classiness are fairly well documented/photographed/video'd. Of course it isn't right and of course there are tons of people that won't view her that way. But *some* people will and *some* young Black women will be pre-judged because of it. With great fame comes great responsibility, socially. Even if you don't want it (à la Charles Barkley).
Similarly, Kanye's second time jumping on stage and having an outburst not only shows that he's either "apeshyt" (as he likes to say) or has no self-control, class, or respect for other artists. Is he that much of a narcissist? We all know Taylor Swift can't touch Beyonce with a 10 foot pole (pause) when it comes to the two videos in question. And for the record, I'm not even a big Beyonce fan but I respect what she's accomplished as an entertainer and businesswoman. But for Kanye to go and grab the microphone from Taylor Swift and interject the way he did was completely classless and tasteless. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Beyonce is big enough to handle her own. And Kanye taking up for his big sister in law is less impressive to me than him bringing Amber Rose everywhere dressed like she wants to get it on every 5 minutes. And considering Kanye's done it once before he should have known to stay in his seat, no matter how much Hennessy he drank prior to and during the show. Speaking of, bringing an open bottle of Hennessy to an award show and drinking straight from the bottle is classless in-and-of itself, especially when you're the alleged Louis Vuitton Don. Let alone doing it with a woman accompanying you as captivatingly (I know, it's not a word) sexy as Amber Rose on his arm (even if she condones or encourages it). Using his own words against him as well as Jay-Z's, it seems that Kanye must have dropped out of college because he realized he could pay for school but he couldn't buy class. Donda West isn't just rolling over in her grave, she's doing the worm. Imagine that.
I won't touch on Lil Mama again other than to say that what she did could also be argued as another example of a young Black person acting an azz and trying to get some attention for it. It was just lame.
In the end, all of these incidents are deeper than just someone making a mistake or bad decision that makes he/she look bad. In a sense, it makes us ALL look bad and it makes us all look like...
...that is, in the eyes of *some*.
2 comments:
I mostly agree with the things you said in this post. However, and maybe it's because I'm a would-be lawyer, but I can see both sides of all of these incidents (well except the one with Lil Mama).
As I watched the show, and they announced the first award. I thought, because of MTV's track record that they would give it to either Lady GaGa or Pink. From a pop culture perspective, Beyonce should have won this award hands down, because her video broke records. But when they said Taylor Swift's name, I was sitting there with my mouth open. I couldn't believe it, especially considering that she is a country artist and MTV doesn't play her videos (or anyone else's for that matter.) But when Kanye walked out there and grabbed the mic, I finally got it. He honestly can't help himself. Let's face it, us working adults deal with these type of shytuations (as you call it) all the time. Where something happens that is just unbelievable and we have to muse how we really feel, while saying something totally different. Kanye doesn't know how to do that. AT ALL! That is his downfall.
As for Serena, I watched that entire match, and I felt every bit of her frustration because she just couldn't get it together. Then all of a sudden, she started hitting all of these aces and I thought, wow, maybe she'll be able to make a match out of this. Then here comes the bad call, which they put on instant replay about five times. The line judge got it dead wrong. So when she went to say something to her, I honestly thought she was questioning the call. I thought tennis players were allowed to do that, kind of the way NFL coaches can throw down that a flag on a call. She would have gotten away with going off, had she vented and walked away. But homegirl, turned around and got in one last dig, and that's what did her in. I don't excuse it, her or Kanye, but I admit, I do understand.
As for Lil Mama, for some reason that bothered me MORE than the previous two incidents. In any situation I look for the cause and effect. You can find one with Kanye and Serena, but with Lil Mama, it was just so incredibly random and ridiculous that I found myself upset when I saw her "stealing that moment" from Jay and Alicia. I get it, she's from New York, but hell so were a lot of people sitting there. The camera even panned to Beyonce wildly singing and cheering her man and Alicia on from her seat. But how do you explain such blatant disrespect and attention whoring. Who the hell is she? If it weren't for that show, she would be another nobody. And what was up with the darn security at the MTV Awards, that both of them could just rush the stage?
I apologize for getting longwinded, but great post!
Thanks.
I do not buy that Kanye can't help himself. There's no way he can handle himself this way EVERY time something doesn't go the way he thinks it should. I really believe it is the alcohol he drank combined with other things going on in his life right now that we all probably have no idea about. For him to do this a second time after he'd took some heat (although not this much) for the first time he did it, I think there had to be something else going on mentally and the alcohol gave him the heart to do it.
Serena...Like I mentioned in the post I am considering this an aberration because she was super frustrated and I like the way she handled her apology once she finally apologized.
I'm done talking about Lil Mama, lol.
Also, I bet MTV has security set-up so that they only rush the stage if it's 1) not a celeb and 2) if someone on stage is in eminent danger. Otherwise, something like Kanye or Lil Mama running up there is just good publicity for MTV's show that'll make people watch next time.
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