Like millions of others, last weekend I was stunned when Whitney Houston passed away. I was on my sofa browsing Google News and I saw about halfway down the page "Whitney Houston, 48 pronouced dead."I had to read it several times because it didn't make sense. "What do they mean pronounced dead?" "What do they mean dead?" Then after a few seconds, my brain told me, dead meant dead.
I was sad.
The 17 year old me was supposed to marry Whitney Houston back in '85 when I first heard her debut album and saw this pretty woman with her shoulder out starring back at me and me alone.
I guess this post is really less about my feelings for whitney and more for my feelings toward the media. Maybe the 'white' media, but the media none-the-less.
I saw a crawl yesterday on CNN that said, "Whitney Houston's funeral to be called "A Home Going Service". Then I saw something similar on another channel and I read it on certain websites.
I just want to scream to the media world... BLACK PEOPLE HAVE BEEN CALLING OUR FUNERALS "HOME GOING SERVICES" SINCE WE FIRST STARTED DYING!
I think the media is under this insane assumption that "Home Going Services" are something we reserve for famous Blacks. Sorry media - you look stupid! We all get "home going services" - it is NOT some ceremony that we've been holding secret from you people and we only break it out for our famous folks.
Just thought you should know.
TTBM
