The invisible and the celebrity
Michael Brown and Robin Williams... Robin's memorial will be the films, TV appearances, awards, and Hollywood parties given by his saddened friends. Michael's will be his fb page and T shirts and maybe some graffitti.
I'm an old white man born in the first half of the last century, and I never liked celebrity culture. I counted 19 diaries here on dk regard the suicide of Mr. Williams.
Something really bothers me today, and I guess I shouldn't resent the celebrity-in-death of Mr. Williams, the famous star. I suppose it's not right for me to compare his priveleged life, and manner of death, to that of Michael Brown.
Last night I watched Michael Brown Sr. and Lesley McSpadden, Michael' parents, trying to get through a TV interview. Mr. Brown was stunned into incoherence and Ms McSpadden was stunned into cries and tears. They didn't have handlers or PR staff to help them. They didn't have the instinctive facile knowledge about how to handle the press, or what to say. They weren't in Hollywood, they were in a poor-ass part of Missouri. And the President didn't speak to the nation about their son's murder.
Young people nowadays are always talking about their feelings- this morning when I overheard the TV news, I had a feeling of hate for Robin Williams. An unworthy thought, I know, but I'd spend the evening before watching the Ferguson Missouri police reps spin a kid's murder. I'd watched the national press make this a story about a riot instead of a murder.
Now I get to see how wonderful Hollywood culture is, and how great the stars there are, overcome by grief for their intimate wonderful dear close friend.
"Beloved" Robin Williams...Christ, I resent that. Who loved Michael Brown? Watch the news clip of his mother breaking down.
Choices in death...who made the choice for Michael Brown? Robin Williams got to make his own choice. "He had everything", the reporter said. Michael Brown didn't have nothin', had to struggle to graduate from high school, and struggle to get into a little college. The people in his town are afraid of the same police that escorted Robin Williams to press appearances...
This country has it's priorities all wrong.