Keeping Perspective

The Lede blog at the NY Times posted on Jay-Z recently in which we find the Secretary General of the UN stating:

Even the United Nations recognized him for helping to improve water and sanitation across the world with an improbably informal shout-out from Secretary General Ban Ki Moon:







My man Jay-Z has been a wonderful partner to the UN, and a champion of those in need around the world.

While I'm sure Jay has put in some work and I'm not trying to hate on the brother (who did after all take pot shots at head-wrap wearing black folk) but I'm pretty annoyed at the rate of celebrity dick riding that the press has been doing in regards to Africa. Seriously it's all well and good that filthy rich celebs are doing something but the people who need to be getting mad props are the people who have sacrificed all to give 200% to Africa. And more often than not these people are Africans (no knock to Jay, but I doubt he sees himself that way). I won't belabor the point with my own words because there is a nice article over at Black Electorate that makes the point concisely:

There is no African, myself included, who does not appreciate the help of the wider world, but we do question whether aid is genuine or given in the spirit of affirming one's cultural superiority. My mood is dampened every time I attend a benefit whose host runs through a litany of African disasters before presenting a (usually) wealthy, white person, who often proceeds to list the things he or she has done for the poor, starving Africans. Every time a well-meaning college student speaks of villagers dancing because they were so grateful for her help, I cringe. Every time a Hollywood director shoots a film about Africa that features a Western protagonist, I shake my head -- because Africans, real people though we may be, are used as props in the West's fantasy of itself. And not only do such depictions tend to ignore the West's prominent role in creating many of the unfortunate situations on the continent, they also ignore the incredible work Africans have done and continue to do to fix those problems.

Technorati Tags: Africa, Pan-Africanism