Big Brother: Black Men & Celebrity Culture

We’ve been taught our favorite celebrities can earn untouchability—but at what cost?

I am someone deeply bound by nostalgia. I think often about the people and art forms that shaped me in elementary and middle school.

How Kanye West got on live TV during a Hurricane Katrina charity telethon and said, “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people.” How the first-ever episode of The Chappelle Show literally closes with Dave Chappelle portraying a blind KKK leader who doesn’t know he’s Black. How Lil Wayne rapped on seemingly every beat imaginable on Da Drought 3, including Beyoncé & Jay-Z’s “Upgrade U” and Young Dro’s “Shoulder Lean,” and pretty much said, “These are my songs now.”

It’s these kinds of moments, performances, and artistic offerings that cement certain figures as icons, or even idols, in our minds. It’s almost as if they’re elevated to a place where they can do no wrong because we feel that what they’ve “given us” is so right (cue The Boondocks’ R.Kelly episode).