Sometimes, celebrities DO “give back” and STILL don’t get any credit for it.
Case in point: Oscar de la Hoya is a great boxer and a generally decent person (not a saint, mind you) who’s given a substantial amount of money to worthy charities in his old neighborhood. But for the most part, Mexicans and Mexican-Americans loathe him!
DETOUR: Now, I don’t waste much time crying for Oscar. Sport fans like or dislike athletes for a host of irrational reasons, and Oscar isn’t entitled to be loved any more than Roger Maris was.
If Mexican fans want to hate OScar, well, he’ll have to console himself with his mansion and his millions of dollars.
I get the feeling that many people in poor neighborhoods don’t WANT to see their friends and neighbors succeed- at least, not to the extent that they’ll ever change their lifestyles or move away.
That may be why we see such an emphasis on “keeping it real,” among young black athletes and musicians.
Young inner-city athletes or rappers are often expected to prove that they’re still “down” by keeping large “posses” of their old friends around (often on their payrolls), by continuing to hang out in the old neighborhood, by resolutely refusing to adopt “white” ways of speech or behavior. Bad, even criminal behavior, is often admired, as a sign that success hasn’t changed a celebrity in the least.
Conversely, a guy like Oscar de la Hoya, who used his money to move to a nice suburban estate and take up hobbies like (gasp!) golf, is widely despised by his old neighbors, who seem to think he had an obligation to stay in the barrio forever.
I’m idealistic enough to think we ALL have a moral obligation to help the less fortunate, and I’m delighted when those who strike it rich use their new resources to help people in need. If, say, Paul McCartney gives a million pounds to a school or hospital back in Liverpool, I applaud that. If Bill Cosby elects to give money to after-school programs in Philadelphia, that’s wonderful.
My point is, increasingly, that kind of charity doesn’t seem to be enough, in the eyes of the inner-city poor.
I grew up in an ordinary, blue-collar neighborhood in New York City. Most kids growing up there had aspirations to do better than their parents, and many did. And when, say, a bus driver’s son became a college professor or a barber’s daughter became a doctor, they usually moved away to a much nicer location. When that happened, most of us were delighted for them. If they chose to stay in touch with people, from the old neighborhood, great! If they chose to give money to local worthy charities, so much the better. But nobody EVER suggested that they had somehow “sold out.” Nobody EVER suggested they had an obligation to retain blue-collar Queens accents and attitudes. Nobody EVER suggested that people who succeeded and moved out were elitist snobs who’d gotten too big for their britches.
We were genuinely happy when an Astoria kid moved up in the world.
Sadly, that often is NOT the case in many inner-city neighborhoods.
Say, 29th and Ditmars?