You Are Because You Have, You Want and You Want to Have Even More

1. I haven’t seen your documentary, but I did browse its site. That itself revealed enough for me and was probably much more than those who attended your recent premiere were able to access before the Q&A you hosted. None of the children you feature on the site have the same bright eyes or round cheeks as David Banda (the Malawi boy you’re hoping to adopt, although his father is alive). Why are you attempting to adopt a child with a living parent instead of a child whose parents have both died of AIDS? You had many choices between funding David’s well-being from afar or personally nurturing him as his mother - and you seem to have chosen the latter option. Do you also intend to adopt and personally nurture other Malawi children infected with HIV regardless of their parents whereabouts?

2. While we’re talking about AIDS and your documentary, I noticed that the first interviewee listed is Bill Clinton. Are you aware that the word ‘pharmaceutical’ is conspicuously absent from his foundation’s website? As you probably know, he’s working purportedly to make drugs like antiretrovirals more accessible to Africans infected with HIV and, last I checked, only pharmaceuticals make those particular drugs in Africa. Although the focus of your documentary is about AIDS’ destruction of an entire African country, there are those who not only know the numbers but who also understand and relate to the spiritual aspects of this onslaught’s impact much more than many of those you’ve chosen to interview, but people like Dr. Marjorie Hill are conspicuously absent from your project. I really expected much more perspicacity from someone like you, since there are probably not many people alive who can say they have witnessed the devastation of HIV/AIDS from a perspective as wide or as varied as yours.

3. I didn’t see you at Willi Ninja’s memorial service after he died of AIDS, but he left behind the House of Ninja and its children - many of whom were left parentless once again. (That’s the House of Ninja - not the House of Xtravaganza - although HIV/AIDS has decimated much of Black and Latino gay life inside and outside of the house community throughout the world.) Yet I read that you recently appeared on BET’s 106 & Park for an interview probably more about selling your new album than anything else, replete with gold chains. Why does an artist of your stature only seem to appear as ‘urban’ when it’s convenient for you and your marketers when youth who are truly urban could have benefited from the sincerity of your presence a long time ago? You see what New York City has become and take no responsibility for it. Where have you been? Once upon a time, its nightlife made you who you are. What have you given back to it? Is this documentary supposed to count? I question anything that proselytizes, but I guess there’s not much difference between evangelizing and working a sales pitch.

4. People of color in your employ this time around include Timbaland (what, no Missy?), his partner Danja and Pharrell Williams (without his partner Chad Hugo). People of color you’ve employed in the past include Jose & Luis Xtravaganza, Niki Haris and your daughter’s father, Carlos Leon. (Grammy winner Lisa Fischer, Siedah Garrett, the legendary Nile Rodgers and Babyface all had substantial careers before you ever employed them.) I don’t expect an artist of your stature to maintain professional ties that span the entire extent of your career (not like Liz Rosenberg) but witnessing the significant role race has played in your career while reading quotes like “If I weren’t for me, David would be dead.” (with David’s father being very much alive) make you more than a bit suspect as a role model for any Black child. All those salad days at the Paradise Garage, dancing to and being influenced by the Black music that Larry played, all seem to evaporate now that you wield the surreptitious white privilege that gives you the power to say such things and do pretty much whatever you want without incident or consequence. Once you collect whatever it is you want from us, you seem to revert back to someone who is white and who doesn’t want to be confused as anything else. It looks like you’re trying to mitigate your greed with philanthropy and your entitlement with religion. Is behavior like that supposed to be indicative of someone struggling with the realities of race in this world effectively enough within herself to then nurture children regardless of their respective races?

LiveNation knows why they’ve given you $120 million, and frankly I can’t blame them. You’ll probably be around for a little while longer. But honey, your slip is showing - and so is your agenda.