Whitney's "Home Going..."

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