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Discussing the Diaspora as seen through an internal Black lens
Gabrielle Union and Celebrities Losing Their Skittles Over Black Blog Power
December 21st, 2007
Last week I told you about Stephen A. Smith aka “Screaming A.” saying we shouldn’t even be allowed to blog. Before that, I brought you the story of Michael Baisden trying to savage online Black activism with his direct false assault on Color of Change, and indirect implication on the rest of the world of socially minded black websites that he roundly refered to as untrustworthy. Now Gabrielle Union has jumped into the frey.
Black celebrities are losing their shit over bloggers being non-corporate media controlled, and because were eating into their elitist pie, that they think they’re entitled to.
The Essence interview with Gabrielle, Nia Long, and Sanaa Lathan starts off just fine:
ON BEING IN-BETWEEN JOBS AS A BLACK ACTRESS
Essence: What kind of year has it been for you?
Sanaa Lathan: I’m happy to have gotten a job this year. You know one of the things I decided early on in my career—especially because I only have me to take care of—is that I don’t want to do anything just for money. As a result, I can be very annoying to my agents and pass on everything. To a fault. But something came along that I’m really excited about. I’m playing a Senegalese woman, and it’s the first time that I’ll be able to do some real accent work. It’s a small, really beautiful film. Other than that, I’ve just been living my life. Living the life that you live as an actor between jobs…
But some how the convo turns to the Black Bloggoshpere when Gabbie chimes in:
Essence: How do you deal with the 24-hours-a-day gossip that comes out on the Internet?
Gabrielle: Just last week somebody gave me a baby. This isn’t Perez Hilton or the White gossip people, these are women of color, specifically Black women who, for whatever reason, don’t like the company I keep.
Sanaa: She’s talking about the gossip sites.
Essence: The blogs.
Sanaa: That are run by Black women.
Gabrielle: And now because everyone is clamoring for celebrity tidbits, the bigger gossip sites and even mainstream entities are picking up on it. No fact-checking, no nothing. And in one week’s time, there were like five different dudes, a baby—I’m a homewrecker. In literally seven days. I can’t point the finger at the White media. They don’t care about us. Paparazzi are not staked out in front of any of our houses. They are not going through our garbage because they don’t care about us in that way. So when you hear crap about us, it is coming from our own community, which hurts.
Nia: We are some of the few Black actresses whose passions are rooted in our community.
Gabrielle: There is this idea that there is integrity in journalism; if it’s written it has to be true. But that’s not the case. When blogs or any of the magazines get it wrong, there’s no accountability. In the next breath, they’ll complain on the blogs that we don’t have enough Black stars. Well, you rip us to shreds every two seconds from our nose to the weave to the clothes to the shoes to the ashy ankles.
Courtesy of Essence via I Like Her Style
Oh, but little miss Gabbie wasn’t finished there. She followed up with Vibe Magazine:
It’s like if you wrote for a major newspaper or a major magazine. If you can’t substantiate your claims, you don’t write them. We don’t have enough black voices, [and] we certainly don’t have enough people in entertainment who are trying to do good things for our community, so anytime you try to attack someone’s character, you negate their voice for all the things that they’re trying to do.
True! Well accept for the part that you necessarily don’t srite them. What you don’t do is state it as fact and you note that its unsubstantiated. And the fact is, major magazine print unsubstantiated facts all the time. Ever heard of gossip columns? Ever heard of tabloids?
Like Stephen A Smith, Gab starts off rightfully pointing out what journalism should be, and like “Screaming A.”, unfortunately she kept talking:
If you look at what Perez [Hilton] does - and I don’t advocate for Perez, you know, he can write hurtful things about a lot of people - but what he does as a man of color, as a Latino, is he never dogs Latinos, ever. He actually breaks artists on his website. They can go from “Who the hell is that?” to Number One on iTunes in a day, just from what he says. So he’s trying to uplift his own people. I mean, he dogs everybody else, but as a man of color, I applaud you. I can’t dog you for not dogging your own people. He never says anything negative about Latinos, ever, and I just wish that we had more of that kind of “raise up” mentality and pulled each other up instead of dragging each other down. Especially like… If I got arrested, say whatever you want to say. If I had kids and left them in the car while I partied, or I got out of cabs showing all my private parts, you have every right to dog me. If I came out and dogged my own people, kill me in your blogs. But don’t make things up! I do enough, and if you really got spies everywhere you’d know what I was doing, you wouldn’t have to make things up. And if you don’t know your facts, then just don’t print them.
– Courtesy of Vibe Magazine Via Urban-Hoopla
*stares* *blinks* *blinks* *stares*
WHAT?
Okay, let me go back to the beginning and break this stuff down.
First to Nia Long’s comment — Are you sure you were talking about everyone in that interview being deeply rooted in our community? Wasn’t it Sanaa Lathan who told the AP after doing her interracial dating movie that black women “have to look at other options” other than Black men “if you want to have a family” and if “you want to be married”? Because apparently the white man was right all along, and the black male is a mindless savage.
Anyway, back to the main point- is Gabrielle Union really saying she should be above reproach? Wait a minute, really, are you serious?
What’s really funny is that she rails off on this whole spiel about how black people shouldn’t criticize black people (which on the face of it is absurd) and the whole time all she’s doing is criticizing other black people the same way she’s proclaiming the bloggers shouldn’t do.
Well you’re about to get criticized by another Black Blogger for being a HYPOCRITE. You lose credibility with me for saying this fork-tongued shit; not because of any gossip I ever heard.
Look, I’m not a fan of the gossip sites, other than a few celebritie sites that do more than the average with the content of their site; because I think it’s a waste of time and space to write about you people daily. But savaging all of them, and putting them all into one basket is foul on your part.
Next, it’s just inane for you to hold up an ass-hat, low down and dirty clown like Perez Hilton as a model for black people to aspire to; and equally inane to say that black people shouldn’t be criticized or critiqued by black people no matter what they do. This type of attitude is what leads to black thugs like Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatric, Former DC Marion Berry, and a slew of other black politrick-tians and so called civil rights leaders to be empowered to exploit and rip-off their own people. They’re black, so we should just give them a pass to do and to say anything. This is why R. Kelly gets to molest black girls and stay jail free and multi-platinum. It’s despicable!
Next thing I guess you’re going to loc up with Camron and the Dip Shit Set and do a Stop Snitching video.
We here in the Black Bloggosphere do a lot of great work too, speaking up and organizing on the same issues that you mentioned and a great many more. But it hasn’t stopped you and your buddies in mainstream entertainment for attacking us whole-sale lately; in an attempt to diminish our collective credibility instead of going after just specific Bloggers who may have done wrong.
You may not want to scold us about integrity until you demonstrate a little of it yourself first. In your own actions you don’t practice what you’re preaching.
Congradulations Gabbie, you hopped out of the frying pan right into the fire.
posted in Cultural, Social Commentary | | | View blog reactions |
14 Responses to “Gabrielle Union and Celebrities Losing Their Skittles Over Black Blog Power”
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Yobachi Boswell is creator and publisher of BlackPerspecitve.net. I’m a writer, activist and political watcher based in Nashville, Tennessee. I’ve also been know to do some spoken word and MCing in my day.
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Another celebrity needing attention, and as usual her information is wrong. Blogs get there information from the press, and they discuss their opinions about the matter. She’s just mad because she has been caught dancing on tables and hanging on the arms of half the men in Hollywood. If you don’t like it get out the business, honestly do they want us to subscribe only to the controlled, airbrushed, and fabricated side of print media. We want to see what’s real and what’s not because after all we are the ones supporting your careers. We buy tickets to your movies (good or bad) that puts money in your pocket so that you can wear the weave (she described above), so if we want to say you need stop having a negative media image, I think we have the right to. This is the price of fame, and don’t say you do it for the love of acting because I know many starving actors, and you my dear aren’t one.
The sad thing is, Gabrielle Union is one of the most respected in young Hollywood, but after this statement, she just added herself to the hit list. Talk about hypocritical, really who is the one talking about black people, who is attacking whom???
Last thing: if you think white media is not doing this, then you need a wake-up call. Where do you think the pictures come from? Black blogs are making Gabrielle Union a house hold name and expanding her career, something white media isn’t trying to do. Extra don’t care about the premier of The Perfect Holiday, and their audience will not be buying tickets to support the movie.
Yeah, I was going to make the point that bloggers for the most part don’t provide source information (though I know I do from time to time); but since I don’t follow the celeb blogs very close I don’t know if they don’t sit and make up stuff, so I just didn’t weigh into that particular issue.’
“The sad thing is, Gabrielle Union is one of the most respected in young Hollywood, but after this statement, she just added herself to the hit list”
That’s what I’m saying. And as has been commented else where, Gabbie has gotten a lot of praise over the years, so for her to only focus on the negative and come out of the side of her neck like this was a stupid move.
But yeah, talk about biting the hand that feeds you.
Who does Gabby thinks supports the movies she is in? Us Black folks…and putting down the Black media that spreads the word about Black themed subjects is not going to put you on the high priority list…
I so agree that she has shot herself in the foot…maybe that is one of the reasons that her movie bombed at the box office…who’s to say?
It’s their personal assistants and publicist feeding us this information!! They on here telling all these bloggers people business and making other people rich!! some of the crap that comes out is just that crap but don’t put yourself out there like that… if you do it i’m blogging about it!!
great joint my man!!
Marvalus, she probably doesn’t think blogs are really media. And she’s obviously blind to all the positives she’s gotten from bloggers. She’s probably another hollywood person who’s just too high on herself and doesn’t have perspective.
Thanks BlogXilla.
Look, I can understand being upset about being lied on or demonized, but you can’t paint everybody with a broad brush. She needs to get a grip.
*blank stare*
*smh*
I had to read the post several times. I hoped I’d mis-read a line or two because it so doesn’t make sense. I must have missed something because I fail to find Gabrielle’s logic on this issue. It’s so across the board and disconnected that I’m sure there must have been a group blond moment during that Essence interview.
You know celebrities used to have a certain mystique that allowed others to hold them in somewhat high esteem. Much of that was due to their “distance” from their fans. On the surface that may seem wrong but there was some benefit to that. Because of the internet and other means of connecting with others very easily, the celebrity mystique is destroyed. We can see for ourselves just how unenlightened, uninformed and misguided some celebrities are. Some folks should just look good, read their lines and be quiet.
Now, I have no idea which bloggers are referenced by Gabrielle Union, Stephen Smith, et. al. I do know that the Jena 6, Genarlow Wilson, Shaquanda Cotton and others are pretty damn thrilled that black bloggers supported them.
It’s time that all these folks that claim to be stars understand that it’s a two-way street. First of all, you must have fans who want to support your work. Secondly, with celebrity comes a loss of privacy; it goes with that fat paycheck. So if you’re boinking someone’s else’s man, or you’re even suspected of being involved with someone, or you’re out in public looking a hot mess, expect to be put on blast. It’s a part of the game. Deal with it.
And another thing, rather than trashing anybody, celebrities should use their access to the public to try to help the collective. When a celebrity has an opportunity to let their voice be heard, and it can help others, they should use it. Celebrities have to remember that they are a brand in and unto themselves. Besides, no publicity is bad publicity so Gabrielle should just give us all a break.
Vanesa, I wouldn’t take it as far as to say that it’s okay to baselessly trash people just because they’re celebrities since it comes with the territory - it’s still wrong and an individual publishing ideals should exercise a little integrity. Though they have to understand that they will be talked about and people have their opinion.
On the other hand I agree with you that the across the board assault by Mrs. Union is just as wrong on her part and she needs to get a grip. She better learn how to express herself better, because insulting the people that support isn’t wise. Like you said, this closer access to celebs is exposing the deficiencies of many of them.
I’m not going to make a statement about your opinion on IR dating. I don’t agree with your spin on Sanaa’s quoute. However, Gabby needs to get over herself. She ought to be happy that someone is giving her the time of day considering that most big movie production companies won’t pay her tail an once of attention. A black man with talent can get any role he wants in any movie. Heck, newcommers like Chris Brown can get more play in entertainment world than a black actress. So, she should be happy that we give her some press, be it negative or positive, so she can ride to a better career.
Hairs My Story.com
I really want to give Gabrielle the benefit of the doubt and say that she had just finished reading some gossip about herself before she did those interviews and was really salty about it.
A lot of blogs (Black or otherwise) don’t go after the gossip or create it or whatever (at least I hope they don’t!) they just report it.
Gabrielle needs to understand that the negative aspects (sometimes someone is going to write a crappy story about you) are often outweighed by the positive. New black voices (bloggers/actors/actresses/musicians/tastemakers/politicians/etc) are exposed, (Black) issues that were not previously spoken about are brought to the forefront.
Womp womp for Gabby. Drink some prune juice and let that ish go.
(P.S. LOL at “losing their Skittles”)
Tayo: “Gabrielle needs to understand that the negative aspects (sometimes someone is going to write a crappy story about you) are often outweighed by the positive.”
Yeah, I think that’s the underline point she chose to ignore.
And oh, on the skittles thing, I was going to say “loosing their shit”, but I had just done a post a couple of days earlier called “White Folks Going Ape-Shit Over Animals Again”; and since I don’t like to curse a lot on my blog, I didn’t want to have two post in a short period of time with a curse word in the title. I figure I’ll save it for when I really need it.
[...] had to take Ms. Union to task late last year for taking swiping shots at the entire Black blogosphere. But we forgive, cause she just melts your heart with that [...]