The Unreality of Hypocrisy

In the event that you are left with any kind of confusion, let me make this perfectly lucid.  If my man knocks me out cold in a public elevator, in the privacy of our bedroom, anywhere for that matter, he better pray to God that I do not revive because when I come to, I WILL KILL HIM!!!

With that said, let me also make it clear that I do not know Ray or Janay Rice so I emphatically refuse to make any judgments on their behavior.  I can assume, because I’m still human, but I will not pass any judgments on the matter.  I assume that since they were high school sweethearts that she genuinely loves this man and is not taking his punches just for the money.  I will assume that he genuinely loves her too.  I will further assume that that was not the first time he put his hands on her in a violent manner.  And lastly, I will assume that she believes that she can change him.

Now what Ray Rice did to his fiancée was horrible.  It was wicked.  And it was inhumane.  But above all that, it was criminal.  And guess where criminal acts should be judged?  In the court of law, NOT in the court of public opinion!!!

After he has gone through the legal system, and his crime is punishable by a jail sentence, then he should be sent to jail.  Not sent to the poor house!  This criminal act is not worthy of him being punished for LIFE.  He did not commit murder.  Sure, he could have killed her.  But you could have been killed walking down the street, eating your breakfast.  Anything.  So let’s not coulda shoulda woulda here. 

When Jimmy Swaggert, Jim Bakker, Ted Haggard and Eddie Long were first touched by scandal, none of them were initially put on indefinite leave.  Instead people claimed that they were after all human beings and should be forgiven.  Yet, they are in the business of morality, while athletes are not.

But what really gets me is the hypocrisy of the expectations that people place on athletes.  People are okay spending thousands of dollars to watch two 200 pound men pummel each other over a ball, but cringe when that 200 pound man pummels his woman.  People are okay pushing these men to be aggressive on the field, be aggressive all their lives for Pete’s sake, but pretend that they cannot understand how some of them cannot switch the aggression off.  And don’t tell me that they don’t all act like that because we all have cancer genes, but we won’t all die from cancer. 

People can dress up in their best Vegas threads to watch two men punch each other’s lights out, but quiver at the sight of said man punching his actress wife.  You cannot send a man to war and not expect him to have some kind of post-traumatic stress from the ordeal.

People can pay to watch Julia Roberts play a beautiful prostitute and fall for a rich, handsome Richard Gere, but outside the movie theatre, they turn their noses up at the world’s oldest profession.

People will praise movies like 12 Years a Slave, The Help, Driving Miss Daisy and Amistad, and flourish them with awards, but REFUSE to have a serious dialogue about racism.  They will revere Tom Hanks in Philadelphia, yet scorn the man on the street suffering from HIV and AIDS.

Parents will allow their children to watch shows on Nickelodeon and Disney Channel where the parents are idiots, then act confused when their own children disrespect them.  Parents allow their children to listen to music by Rihanna, Miley Cyrus and the rest of that crew, then dread when their children see them as role models. 

People made the reality show 16 and Pregnant so popular, that it spawned the Teen Mom spinoff series.  Then they cry as if a professional athlete just beat them, when they find out that their teenage daughter is pregnant.

People buy a slew of electronics devices and games for their children and then complain that they don’t study or go outside and play as much as they should. 

People will go to church every week and fall sleep as soon as the pastor starts his sermon, then chastise youths for not going to church.

On paper, people will say that convicts deserve a second chance, but they don’t mean sexual predators and pedophiles, and they certainly don’t mean that they can live that second chance in their neighborhoods.

Women have copies of 50 Shades of Grey on their night tables, but get offended when their partners suggest anything “too kinky”.

Americans will cheer when a Chinese or Russian spy operating on American soil is sought out and caught, but will cry foul when an American spy is captured on foreign soil.

Here’s the thing:  once we start rating inappropriate behavior, morality, crimes and sins, we are climbing a very slippery slope that will not end well at all.  One person might think that even one cigarette is bad, while six beers are fine.  One person might think that all drugs should be illegal while another cannot wait for marijuana to be legalized in Pennsylvania.  One person might think that if a man has a child out of wedlock, he should serve time in jail, while others think that it’s no big deal.  Meanwhile, the others that thought that it was no big deal, would not see things so lightly when their women have a child out of wedlock.

I know for sure that I’m not, and I don’t think that anybody is condoning what Ray Rice did, but let’s put it all into perspective.  These people are paid to be violent on a daily basis.  Then they are expected to turn it on and off like a switch.  Ray Rice is 27.  He most likely will not be the same person at 37 or 47.  Yes, he should have known better.  Yes, he should have done better.  But in reality, people don’t always do what they are supposed to do.  Jay Z reserved the urge not to punch Solange’s light out.  Does that make Jay Z a better man than Ray Rice?  Not in my opinion.  It just means that Jay Z and Ray Rice have different character flaws, because we all know that Jay is not perfect.

Also, people will do bad things, and many of them will regret it.  We just cannot throw people out of society forever when they screw up.  Chris Brown beat Rihanna in the face.  Sean Penn tied and beat Madonna up for nine hours.  Marv Albert sexually assaulted a woman and bit her dozens of times, claiming that it was consensual.  Michael Vick owned and operated a dog fighting ring.  Speaking of rings, Rush Limbaugh was caught in a black market drug ring.  Bill Clinton got pleasured by an intern in the White House, denied it (well sort of) then admitted it (well sort of). 

In 1977, at age 43, Roman Polanski raped a 13 year old girl.  Woody Allen dated his adopted step-daughter when she was about 20 years old, and later married her.  That did not stop people from watching their movies, the Academy from nominating their pictures or actors from wanting to still work with them, even today.  Eric Clapton, who owns a vacation villa in Antigua called Steadfast Point, drunkenly stated in 1976 at an anti-racism concert that England was becoming a black colony and all the wogs, coons and foreigners should get out.  Charles Dickens left his wife after 20 years of marriage for an 18 year old actress because she became fat and lazy after she bore him 10 “noisy-ass children”.  A racist to the core, Thomas Jefferson had an ongoing affair with his slave Sally Hemmings, creating seven children with her.  Yet, he is one of the presidents featured on the Mount Rushmore National Memorial.  Christopher Columbus claimed to have discovered the West Indies when not only were people already living there, but other nationalities had arrived there previously.  Come to find out, he was just a tyrant and a slave trader, if I’m going to be kind to him.  Yet he is celebrated on the second Monday of every October, to this day.

We might not like everything that happens in life, but that is not going to stop bad things from happening; but perspectively speaking, we cannot call one thing entertainment when it’s done for show and then cry foul when it happens in reality.