Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Boycotting Charity? Hate the Trump not the Apprentice

Racist or not... Controversial real estate tycoon Donald Trump delivers a weekly Sunday night Super Bowl with ratings topper Celebrity Apprentice. The comb over rocking, solemn faced Billionaire is often a bigger celebrity than the celebrities on the show. Celebrity Apprentice is a staple in pop culture, grown out of The Apprentice where mere mortals would fight to win a successful job with the Donald. In the celebrity version, celebrities battle it out for their chosen charities. So why are people rallying to boycott a show about charity? Celebrity Apprentice actually has nothing to do with Donald Trump or his company, it is a show that acts as: 1: An exposure medium for fading or rising stars 2: A two hour advertisement
for certain companies paying for product placement 3: An excuse to see how dramatically celebrities respond to pressure & competition, otherwise known as entertainment drama!
Yes the Donald has been off his rocker the last few weeks and it all began when he somehow thought he was qualified to run for President in 2012.
Following his announced interest in the presidency, Trump took it upon himself to criticize President Obama, claiming there had to be something up with him not releasing his birth certificate to being skeptical of his qualifications for attending Harvard. Obama had something for that ass by roasting Trump at the White House Correspondents Dinner then interrupting Celebrity Apprentice (ET) to declare he killed Osama. Could you blame Obama after Trump bitched: "I have friends who have smart sons with great marks, great boards, great everything and they can’t get into Harvard," Trump continued, "We don’t know a thing about this guy. There are a lot of questions that are unanswered about our president." Another alarming statement: "He needs to get off his basketball court and worry about gas prices." Trump has been crucified for being the new celebrity racist and is quickly joining the ranks of radio racist, Rush Limbaugh. Professor Michael Dyson called Trump, "Racist by inference." Whether he is racist or not, his show has done wonders for such charities as, St. Jude's medical research hospital and their work with children suffering with aggressive cancers. And what about the Black celebrities who are on his show? Should they forget their charities and walk off Celebrity Apprentice because of Trump's controversial statements about Obama? OF COURSE NOT! Most of us are not going to boycott the show, it's just too damn entertaining and much of it is heart warming. Last week I shed a tear watching a little boy suffering from Luekemia, give a fist bump to country star John Rich before he hand delivered $20,000 to St. Jude's and has donated upwards of $650,000 to the hospital thus far through Celebrity Apprentice. Trump has even matched many of the donations companies have made who have been featured on the show. How could anyone boycott such a positive and necessary show?!
Other charities represented on the show this season include, AIDS Project L.A. (Latoya Jackson) The United Methodist Children's Home of North Georgia Conference (Lil Jon) Save the Music Foundation (Mark McGrath) American Red Cross (Niki Taylor) American Heart Association (Star Jones) Atlanta Union Mission: My Sister's House (Emotionally Violent Nene Leakes) Boycotting Celebrity Apprentice won't shut Donald Trump up nor will it bring down his Trump Towers of fortune. You probably don't have a Nielson ratings box on top of your TV anyway. Boycotting Celebrity Apprentice only implies that you don't care about little bald babies at St. Jude who benefit from the donation dependent hospital and other charities.
Do I think Donald Trump is racist? I can't say, what I do know is that as a black man it's upsetting to hear a white man question a black man's merits to get into ivy league schools. However, its far too satisfying to hate Nene Leakes and far too entertaining to see what eccentric outfit Latoya Jackson will throw together.

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