21/07/2023
Black Celebrities: The Beautiful gates without keepers
There is this general assumption the public subscribe to when anyone zooms into limelight. We always thought it was that easy. Usain Bolt once said in an interview that the world record of 9.69 seconds he set and later broke with 9.58seconnds in 2009 took him 730days of consistent hard training before he could set the pace .Sometime in 2020 while I was in Lagos. Just a few meters away from my residence I strolled into a few groups of young people with different types of gadgets. Thery were cameras. Within few seconds I realized they were shooting a skit. Immediately I stopped to become a spectator. It was well over an hour; the skit had not been concluded. The owner wasn’t just getting it and the young director was also not ready to settle for anything less than what he must have believed was the quality. The skit eventually was less than three minutes.
Renowned heavy weight boxers such as Andy Ruiz, Bronze bomber and even Anthony Joshua has all been under daily routine of stresses, muscle expansion and all form of exercises, all waiting for that opportunity to grab that global center stage once again. The point I am trying to make here is just simple. For every five minutes a display of success, beneath it is years of rigorous hard work, consistency and several accounts of failures recorded underway. and make no mistake about it, the road to success is not a member of anytime tribe, race, or color. You will need to put in the hard work before you can get results. No, my worry. Why do black celebrities put in so much hard work to get to the top only to fall like a pack of cards?
On July 18, Nigeria born world record 100m Hurdle holder won the 100mhurdle in the Silesia Diamond League in Poland. Amusan crossed the finish line in just 12.28 seconds, breaking the previous record of 12.30 seconds set by America's Kendra Harrison in 2016. She is the current World, Commonwealth and African champion in the 100 m hurdles, as well as the meet record holder in those three competitions. Just 24 hours later, news emerged that she is currently under investigation for doping. The Athletics Integrity Unit has suspended her for missing three drug tests. Tobi, according to a twitter handle believed to be hers, has since requested that her privacy be respected while she follows due process to fight the AIU’s suspension. This is heartbreaking. A lot of questions came running through my head. Why would Tobi miss test this important to her career but create time for arbitration. Is she so poor she could have gotten a dedicated assistant for tracking important dates in her life?
One of the finest left back in the game of soccer, Benjamin Mendy has just been released off the hook after two and a half years of legal battle. The France left back was cleared at a retrial of attempting to r**e a woman — who was 29 at the time — at his home in October 2018. He was also found not guilty of the r**e of a second woman two years later also at his home address. He had not kicked a ball since 2021.While delivering judgement at the Chester crown court, am emotional Mendy wept. Luckily, life seemed to have given him a second chance as he has just signed a 2-year deal with France based Lorient where he will have a chance to start life afresh. What a loss!!! This is my worry, while at Manchester City, Benjamin signed a six year contract which would pay him an average salary of £4,680,000 per year. What would have cost him to hire a private lawyer who would have read the riot acts to him and consequently avoid this career damaging banana peel?
Sometime in 2021, October 18 to be precise. World renowned Nigerian Afro queen, Tiwa Savage almost paid heavily for what an ordinary person of her age would have done scot-free. She had her career, endorsements, and mega deals on the brink of collapse just because she got intimate with her partner. One would want to ask, is conjugal bliss not a right for black celebrities anymore? Apparently, poor Tiwa though after a well-deserved tour, there was nothing wrong with seeking relaxation away from a familiar ambience. She had gone on a boat crise with a few friends. She got intimate under the cameras and blackmailers came after her in droves wanting a chunk of her wealth. Honestly the list is endless. I could just go on. Israel Adesanya is currently slogging it out with his girlfriend claiming to be paid handsomely for dating the UFC champion for 5 years. I am just weak.
The message here is straight forward. Black celebrities need to understand that no one is watching out for them as much as their counterparts from the West. There is no logical sense in sweating it out hard and getting to the top only to lose it in just a swoop. I mean why sparing the cash to spend on lawyers, private body guards, private investigators, public relations, calendar and event schedulers, tour guides as against losing it when charlatans, hyenas and opportunists come calling . Staying at the top requires discipline and funding. Until celebrities of the black race acknowledge and address this ,the beautiful gates would remain wide open.
