Somethin' for Everybody

Lashawn wrote about it today and it just kinda provoked me to put my 2 cents in. The fact that R. Kelly got nominated for an NAACP Image Award while he's got CHILD PORNOGRAPHY charges pending is mind-boggling. And in the interest of disclosing my biases, let me state right up front that I have never like R. Kelly as a singer. I'm pretty good about not fooling myself into thinking that I know celebrities, so I wouldn't say that I have any personal animus towards him, I just don't think he can sing. He's like 7-up -- never had it, never will. Well, at least I was neutral until all this madness with the tape started. (I did not see the tape, even though I have had opportunities. I always figured that if he was going to jail for making it, I would be just as culpable for watching it. So it might not be him. Gotta play fair.) Once the tape came out, my respect for him sank. I mean, regardless of whether he did it or not, why the devil would his next single after the scandal be "Ignition?" In the words of Kane, "Wha'chu on, hops? Dope or dog food?" Anyway, my point in bringing this up is that the NAACP, by nominating R. Kelly, did the functional equivalent of walking through a lion cage in a wildebeest jumpsuit. For real. I had run out of jokes, the story was so old. Then they go and revive it by nominating him for an image award. The amount of stupidity involved there cannot be overstated. What kind of credibility can your organization have when you nominate an alleged child pornographer for an award? (I bet the folks at Vivid Video wouldn't let that type of thing slip through.) Now, people are legitimately questioning everything about the NAACP, including its place in the America today. I know the NAACP used to be about something, but what do they do now? Kweisi Mfume signed on to PETA's blackout of Kentucky Fried Chicken. The logic behind targeting Black folks is ostensibly "because black people can relate to the suffering of chickens." Obviously they never met me. I never met a chicken I didn't like-- fried, baked, in a taco...well, actually I did meet one I didn't like. Boiled. (Yeah, boiled.) A friend of mine used to tell me that if the chicken goes extinct, I will be the prime suspect. And don't think a bunch of vegans is gonna get me to change my mind. But I digress. The NAACP is now a joke for everybody all along the political spectrum. From as far left as Aaron McGruder (creator of the Boondocks) all the way to the Armstrong Williams right, everybody has weighed in on the utter...I can't even think of a word for how stupid this is. They're just a joke. I'm not disrespecting the history of the organization, I'm just pointing out how far it has fallen. If anybody is disrespecting the history of the NAACP, it's the current "leadership." So basically, the NAACP has gone from W.E.B. Du Bois to Thurgood Marshall to Kweisi Mfume to R. Kelly? (One (or two) of these people just doesn't belong) And I know, Kweisi Mfume responded to the uproar by changing the manner in which people are nominated, so nothing like this could happen again, but at this point, it's just too late. I hope my grandmother cancels her membership.