Source: Prince Williams / Getty
For many, this year has been the hardest one yet. Over the past 12 months it feels like the world has dealt with ten lifetimes worth of drama — the pandemic, social unrest over racial injustice, mass unemployment, and an election that had the future of America on the line. There’s also all the personal issues each of us have been facing in our everyday lives.
With all this happening, am I the only one who wondered why celebrities were acting so… tacky?
When the coronavirus started making national news, it was late February. Across the country, people began panicking on an apocalyptic level. News reports covered mass hoarding of food, personal care, and household items. Many were wondering how they were going to survive and stay healthy. In the midst of all this, celebrities started to lose their minds. Even though nobody knew what was going on, some stars were caught using their platforms and status to enhance the pandemic’s worst parts.
Keri Hilson linked coronavirus to 5g technology, spreading false information. Erykah Badu said she’d be charging fans one dollar to sit in a concert she performed over Instagram from her home — a decision that was controversial for many. By the end of March, ironically, Madonna was calling coronavirus “the great equalizer” from a luxurious milk bath full of rose petals.
Drake let everyone know he was socially distancing from his private jet featuring custom designs from Off-White’s Virgil Abloh. Kim Kardashian rented a private island to celebrate her birthday with family and friends.
By November, chaos and anticipation leading up to the 2020 presidential election had everyone stressed out. Even then, some celebrities just continued to let us down and use their platforms for nonsense. Famous rappers such as 50 Cent, Lil Wayne, and Ice Cube either blatantly came out supporting Trump, sought to work with him, or nodded to his policies. Kanye West doubled down on his bid to run for the presidency himself, getting more than 60,000 votes across 12 states on election day.
With many of us having more time than ever to be on social media, we were inevitably seeing how celebs were living this year compared to the rest of us. Their displays of wealth often seemed remarkably tone-deaf and tasteless. No matter how much they got dragged, side-eyed, and canceled on Twitter, many just didn’t get it or didn’t care. For example, Cardi B made headlines as recently as November for asking Twitter if she should purchase an $88,000 purse. Similarly, a tweet from Keke Palmer had people thinking she was “poverty shaming” EBT users at a time when 700,000 people in the country had almost lost their food stamp benefits.
All the side-eye worthy behavior considered, when they weren’t throwing extravagant parties filled with people not socially distancing, there were a few good things to come from the famous this year. DJ D-Nice’s “Club Quarantine” and the Timbaland and Swizz Beatz created Verzuz battles bloomed — and both were ways of keeping our spirits up while stuck in the house.
Many Black celebrities tried to support different communities during the pandemic, with Lizzo sending free lunch to hospitals and Diddy having a dance-a-thon to raise money for healthcare workers.
During the Black Lives Matter protests — which took place in numerous countries — a number of celebrities seemed to “prioritize the people” and call out hypocrites. Samantha Marie Ware, Alex Newell, and Amber Riley held their Glee co-star accountable for her disingenuous #BLM post. Some stars banded together to support Black-owned businesses, and others, including RHOA’s Marlo Hampton and Porsha Williams, helped educate people on the Black Lives Matter movement and the necessity of the protests happening.
All in all, there’s no denying that 2020 was just a weird year — to say the least. As far as celebrities go, when many people were looking to them to use their platform for good, there were too many instances of them selling out, evading health experts’ recommendations, throwing their wealth in our faces, and acting a complete fool. Unfortunately, quarantining at home with no makeup on, doing TikTok challenges, and chatting with us on Clubhouse all-year long wasn’t enough to make most stars more down to earth.
While they gave us some good things, this year proved that stanning celebrities needs to go down the drain. Hearing about their “rich people problems,” now, more than ever, felt insensitive and out of touch with the everyday world’s circumstances. But with a new year comes new hope for many things — including that tacky behavior and an inability to read the room will go out of style for celebs.
