‘The Root’ on Why Black People Love Charlie Sheen

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‘The Root’ on Why Black People Love Charlie Sheen

Posted at 03/04/2011 by Staff 0 Comment

It’s hard not to turn on the TV these days without seeing actor Charlie Sheen’s latest rants and ramblings. While some have chastised the media for giving him far too much air time, others of us, have been transfixed and completely engrossed in his ramblings.

Natalie Hopkinson has penned an analysis of why black people love Charlie Sheen for The Root. Here’s an excerpt:

No one knows how unfunny addiction is more than black people. It’s a tragic disease that devastates families and whole communities. We know crackheads. They are our neighbors. They are in our families. We are the ones who invented laughing to stop from crying over it. That’s why even the cracked-out panhandler I just passed in traffic was shaking his head, no doubt finding some comfort and solace that someone is more self-destructive than he is.

There is plenty of evidence that white people do more drugs than we do. They just don’t go to jail as often. And they also don’t typically deliver the same profit margins when mass media converts their addictions into paychecks.

Consider the long list of fallen black cracked-out icons pimped for ratings. Bobby “Preparation H” Brown, Whitney “Crack Is Wack” Houston, Flava Flav, even Marion Barry. I have a friend who last Halloween dressed up as Rick “Cocaine Is a Helluva Drug” James, re-creating his iconic “F— yo’ couch” scene immortalized by Dave Chappelle.

And now, inducted into this elite club straddling the blurry line between cult hero and train wreck is Charlie Sheen. There is a perverse thrill in watching a pale, $2 million-per-episode TV actor (until CBS halted production on Two and a Half Men, that is) win the deadbeat sweepstakes so definitively. And the defiant, swaggering way he’s going down — all Tony Montana “Say hello to my leetle friend” — is pure hip-hop.

Sheen refuses to allow others to have all the fun at his expense, so he parodied his own damn self on his Twitter feed (“Born Small … Now Huge … Winning … Bring it … ! (unemployed winner … )” reads his profile). Bravo, Charlie! That’s the kind of trickster move I’d expect from Kanye West.

My friend Richard O’Connor caught up with the Sheen meltdown after a long, hard day spent educating the youth. “From a man in his early 40s, today really was pretty bad,” He wrote on his Facebook status update.

“The only thing that made it bearable … Charlie Sheen!!! The voice of my generation.”

To read the full article, click HERE.