During the "Women's March" following the inauguration of President Donald Trump, a number of celebrities, including Madonna, took to the airwaves to protest the election and make their voices heard. While most of the messages stayed on point, the Mad Maven decided to take her voice one step further by exclaiming the following statement to audiences worldwide:"Yes, I'm angry. Yes, I am outraged. Yes, I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House," Madonna said. "But I know that this won't change anything. We cannot fall into despair."
While the rest of the statement admittedly revolved around love and not giving up, the fact that a wealthy white celebrity decided to voice this very violent statement to the world, in front of cameras and millions, cannot be ignored.
Why?
If a Muslim American man had made the same statement, he, his family, and acquaintances, would be questions, detained, and possibly sent to Gitmo without trial, or worse, if you want to believe the conspiracy theorists.
The fact is that Madonna only got away with this because she is:
1) Wealthy
2) A Celebrity
3) Caucasian
2) A Celebrity
3) Caucasian
Had she been a wealthy Muslim celebrity, a wealthy Black man, a poor unknown white woman, or any mix thereof that did not involve all three components, she would have been detained and questioned, regardless of what the rest of the statement said. Her privacy would have been breached from her e-mails to her home to her financials. Her threat would have been taken seriously, especially since it was voiced for all to hear. Had the same statement been by an Imam, his mosque would have been searched, infiltrated, possibly shut down, and his followers would have been questioned, followed, suspected.
But....nothing....
And this is the problem with celebrities - from our Billionaire Reality Star President and Admitted Sexual Predator to celebs like Madonna spouting angry words to the mic.
They live in a different reality than the rest of us.
Whether the economy goes up or down, the Trump and Material Girl will be fine. They won't lose their jobs, they won't be discriminated against at a job interview, they won't have to shuffle childcare with a work schedule and meager budget. They don't even have to worry about abortion, which almost exclusively affects Latino, Black, and poor women. Their kids will go to the best schools, and they don't need to worry about being shot in the back because they were wearing a hoodie at night.
So how can these two disparate icons of the Right and Left, respectively, even hope to represent women, let alone our entire country?
Our American hero worship has taken us to this logical conclusion, where politics influenced by wealthy famous people affect real people like our soldiers, our working poor, our teachers and law enforcement, our kids and grandparents.
Perhaps it was fitting that the so-called "Women's March" excluded all women's pro-life groups from officially participating in the march, despite American women being split evenly in half on the choice/life issue. Whether the organizers knew about Madonna's statement ahead of time or not (most likely not), Madonna's statement neither supported life, hope, nor all women.
Instead Madonna gave an insensitive call to murder that may very well lead some deranged domestic (and very American) terrorist to plant a bullseye on the hundreds of innocent individuals that work in our nation's Capitol.
Causes need to stop relying on celebrities and the wealthy to promote their beliefs. It is the people, the women that showed up to the marches with their daughters and mothers and sisters, that should have received the limelight. Not spoiled movie stars and pop icons.
America needs to stop worshipping reality stars and putting them in power - whether it is cultural, financial, or political, from the Kardashians to the Trumps.
And Madonna, enjoy the fact that you are privileged and instead of seeing Gitmo, you got the publicity that you did not deserve.
- A Former Material Girl Fan
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