Septembre Russell. The topic for chatterboxes this week was, above all else, Kanye West slighting Taylor Swift during her VMA acceptance speech.
In addition to Mr. West’s antics, another figurehead, Serena Williams, played into the trend with her inability to hold her tongue during a tennis match. And let us not forget the violent outburst of Oregon Ducks football player LeGarrette Blount.
Is it a cliché for me to write my opinion about these happenings? Maybe. Did I choose to highlight their actions because each of them is black? No, that’s just a coincidence, and not a flattering one at that.
Everyone else may banter and discuss the details of each incident inside residence halls or on Facebook, but me, I get to do it here, and what I say, my opinion, will live on in infamy.
I refuse to discuss at length the Swift-West encounter. Why beat a dead horse? He knows he was wrong, and he apologized.
I will, however, admit that I was delighted by Kanye’s intent, but not his delivery. I agree with freedom of expression, but West took John Mayer’s “say what you need to say” a little too far.
Let us not forget that he is known for his public displays of disdain. Who watching was imagining anything tame as West approached the stage? I’m almost certain that he did not materialize on stage, and on his way there, I’m certain that more than 10 people could have sensed the interruption.
What about Taylor Swift? I do not feel an ounce of pity for the waif who stood there and let another steal her thunder. I promise you the Man Himself would have to come and remove the microphone from my grip before I let anyone impose on my acceptance speech. There would have been a fight to the finish that night, that’s for sure. But I digress.
Each blow up came paired with a consequence: for Williams, a disqualification; for West, another reason for listeners to boycott his music; for Blount, a season suspension.
The aforementioned consequences bring me to an important observation: While we continue to promote “greenness,” we flourish in “meanness,” for lack of a better word.
If we could recycle our emotions as we purport to do with our cans and cardboard, the environment would be improved as a whole. The action is not called recycling for kicks. A simple breakdown of the word reveals its self-explanatory nature.
We need to take our bags, our negative emotions, the outbursts and the uncanny ability to be cynical whenever the opportunity presents itself, and recycle them for use at a later time.
Without reusing those bags, like the ones under your kitchen sink, they become stockpiled and overflow into chaos characterized by violent, enraged and outrageous acts that cannot be undone by a mere apology, no matter how public or heartfelt. The environment is not only polluted by what we chose to throw away, but also by what we do and say. At this rate, we’re traveling down a path toward a beautiful planet full of ugly, egregious individuals. Now it is time to go “green” emotionally.
Put that on a T-shirt.