My friends are evenly divided on the Two and a Half Men star with half us being firm on “Team Sheen”, the other half being just as firmly on “Team FCS” (and if you need help with that acronym, I suggest you redo kindergarten).
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Mr. Sheen, who’s recent shenanigans with hookers/porn stars, cocaine and now his war of words with the creator of his hit show have kept him in the news lately, has been granted the media circus most stars would kill for, without the seeming necessity of any of the cleanup.
And of course, the question was posed, “if Charlie Sheen was Black…?”
Now, admittedly, I’m one of the few Black people in America that thinks that we can get away with everything that white people can.
It’s just that we should expect entirely different responses.
Like, say, in dealing with the police.
We all remember and probably laughed when white people asked of O.J. Simpson, “If he isn’t guilty, then why is he running?”
We might have even said by way of explanation, “Well, unlike you Homie, who the police might detain for a round of ‘Sir’ heavy and very patient questioning, the cops come in billy clubs and guns drawn first when dealing with Blacks, and any movement at all, false or otherwise, results in a beating and an arrest on the mild side, with death as a constant and related possibility.”
Still, nobody’s a bigger fan of the “righteous indignation” kick than I am. When white people are on it, it’s often convincing. When Blacks are on it, the results are mixed.
All it takes to ride that kick is the genuine conviction that you’re 100% in the right.
And while Charlie Sheen is riding the “righteous indignation” kick right now and winning with it so far, I can only think of two examples of Black celebrities that have ever been on it.
The first was Muhammad Ali, who genuinely didn’t believe that a Black man should be forced to fight in a war he didn’t believe in and lost millions of dollars and the three prime years of his boxing career as a result.
The second was Tupac Shakur, who genuinely didn’t believe that he was guilty of sexual assault.
Look at what happened to him.
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