The Cult Of Celebrity: The Beyoncé-Run World Has Forgotten Its Real Heroes

On Saturday, President Obama delivered a commencement speech at Washington’s historically black Howard University. During his inspirational speech aimed at demonstrating the possibilities of the future, Obama explained to the young graduates just how far black Americans have come since his own graduation from Columbia University in 1983.

“When I was a graduate, the main black hero on TV was Mr. T. Rap and hip-hop were counter-culture. Now, Shonda Rhimes owns Thursday night, and Beyoncé runs the world.”

President Obama’s speech was not limited to Beyoncé references. However, the fact that this particular reference is the one garnering the most attention is further proof of the cult of celebrity that continues to gain power in America.

Reality TV, Tabloids and Gossip! The cult of celebrity has taken over…. > http://t.co/QcqEc1DzjD pic.twitter.com/UE93Tzi1oe

— YouWorkForThem (@YouWorkForThem) July 31, 2014

Want proof? Let us look past the cult of celebrity at the other women in Presidents Obama’s speech.

Fannie Lou Hamer was the first woman lauded by President Obama. Hamer was an activist, a philanthropist and a civil rights leader in the 1960s. Born to sharecroppers in Mississippi, Hamer went on to play an instrumental role in Mississippi’s Freedom Summer. She also ran for U.S. Congress, served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention and was the recipient of a number of honorary doctorates, including one from Howard University. Today, nearly 40 years after her death, she still deserves a place among the country’s most admired women, a place currently denied by the cult of celebrity.

Also ignored was President Obama’s mention of Brittany Packnett, a young activist in the Black Lives Matter movement, a former elementary school teacher and the executive director of Teach for America. Packnett, like Martin Luther King Jr. and other activists that came before her, promotes, in her own words, “peaceful protests to promote the value of our children’s lives.” Why should such a woman — who has dedicated her life to improving the lives of the people not only in her community but also throughout the country — be ignored? The answer is the cult of celebrity.

What about Zora Neale Hurston? President Obama mentioned her as well. Hurston wrote what is still one of the most-praised novels in both African-American and women’s literature — Their Eyes Were Watching God. The book, written in the first person in the black vernacular of the early 20th-century South and narrated in the third person in “standard” American English is both a linguistic masterpiece and a rare literary gem offering a view into the life of a black woman searching to find herself in a world filled with both opportunities and limitations.

Hurston, who wrote a must-read for all Americans, but especially women, died in 1960 and her grave remained unmarked until 1973. Hurston was forgotten during her lifetime, and the media has forgotten her again. Blame the cult of celebrity.

I will not say that Beyoncé, as a talented performer, has not earned her celebrity, but I will ask why she deserves more attention than the above three women? The cult of celebrity, perhaps?

Is a string of number one hits of more value than participation in the Civil Rights Movement? Is signing a petition and donating money worth more than one woman’s life’s work to make her community and her country safer for all? Is a high-profile marriage of more interest than a novel celebrated as one of the best books of the 20th century? Thanks to the cult of celebrity, the answer is, apparently, yes.

#CultOfCelebrity pic.twitter.com/r2cTWHWo

— Paul Vance (@_TheSamurai405) January 23, 2013

The cult of celebrity is distracting Americans not only from the people who are truly important but also the issues that are truly important. If you have not done so, I suggest you read or watch President Obama’s speech. You will see that his intention was not at all to embrace the cult of celebrity but, instead, to celebrate the accomplishments of all black Americans.

Today, people across the globe are reading that the U.S. president thinks Beyoncé runs the world. How do you think that makes us look as a society? Let us not allow our president to become a victim of the cult of celebrity. Instead, let us resist the growth of the cult of celebrity and stop America’s downward spiral.

If we fail to stop the infiltration of the cult of celebrity into every aspect of our society, we run the risk of becoming the laughingstock of the world. If it is too late to stop the cult of celebrity, we can at least alter it by redefining celebrity. In that case, let us make celebrity synonymous with scientist, author, painter or teacher and stop making celebrity synonymous with reality TV star or celebrity politician.

[Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images]