Has Miley Cyrus Become Miley CyRACIST?

If you had a nickel for every time you made a funny face or a rude gesture in a picture, how rich would you be? What if you had to pay every person you offended with that face or gesture $4000? How much in debt would you be? Well, to answer this, all we have to do is look at some music celebrity news!

On Feb 11th, one of Disney Channels top teen stars, 16 year old Miley Cyrus, had a lawsuit filed against her for an offensive gesture made in a picture. While sitting on her boyfriends lap with several friends standing around her, including an Asian-American boy, Miley though it would be funny to stretch her eyelids like many people would do to make a stereotypical gesture about an Asian person. Unfortunately for Miley, having an Asian-American in the picture could not be used as a “get out of jail free” card in this situation.

Lucie J. Kim of Los Angeles, California, and part of the OCA, an organization dedicated to advancing the social, political and economic well-being of Asian Pacific Americans in the U.S., has filed a class action lawsuit against Miley on behalf of all Asian Pacific Islanders living in Los Angeles County. On the accusation of a civil rights violation, she is requested to pay $4000 in damages to each potential plaintiff, making the lawsuit have a net worth of a whopping $4 billion.

In response to the lawsuit Miley made two attempts at apologizing. The first apology didn’t seem too sincere and possibly could have put her in even hotter water. Her first apology said, "I've also been told there are some people upset about some pictures taken of me with friends making goofy faces! Well, I'm sorry if those people looked at those pics and took them wrong and out of context!" Her second attempt was much more mature, but a little late. This apology said, “I want to thank all of my fans for their support not only this week, but always! I really wanted to stress how sorry I am if the photo of me with my friends offended anyone. I have learned a valuable lesson from this and know that sometime my actions can be unintentionally hurtful. I know everything is a part of GODs ultimate plan, and mistakes happen so that eventually I will become the woman he aspires me to be. Peace and love, Miles."

This lawsuit just goes to show, how anyone in the spotlight is a target waiting to be hit. It is one thing to teach a kid a lesson about a racist gesture, but it’s another thing to squeeze a ridiculous $4 billion out of it. If we all played the game like that, then I could probably file a lawsuit against Miley for being born with, what I think is, an offensive face and collect $4000 for every picture of her with her face in it.

There are millions of other things to worry about in our world today, and much more important problems to solve. Unfortunately racism, is one of these problems, but I think we could work on fixing this problem in much more efficient and cost effective ways then filing lawsuits against children for being children!

Amanda Touch
Wilkes University '10
Communication Studies

Britney's Banned Single

Nowadays, we have grown accustomed to seeing Britney Spears do crazy things. Whether she’s shaving her head, driving with her children on her lap or lip synching at MTV’s Video Music Awards, nothing really seems to surprise us anymore. But when I heard that her newest single, “If You Seek Amy” was banned from the radio between 6 a.m. until 10 p.m., I have to admit I was shocked. If you say the name of her new single really slow, it spells out something. Say it. It spells out F-*-C-K-M-E. Of course, it was intentional because Britney wanted to say something that would cause a rise out of some people. A lot of artists say that word in their songs and we don’t ban it from the radio. So why do we become so offended when Britney Spears spells it out for us?

There are hundreds of artists who curse or have songs that could be offensive. For example, Black Eyed Peas came out with the song “My Humps”. The song was full of sexual innuendos but it was played on the radio nonstop. Eminem rapped about drugs and violence but we still keep his songs on the radio. Akon had a song entitled “Smack That”. The song was considered to be offensive to women but it was never banned from the radio.

So why is Britney Spears' song banned from the radio? Do we still like to imagine that she is that sweet, innocent virgin from the 1990’s? Do we not like to hear one of our Pop Music Queens spell out a bad word for us? We have to learn that she is grown up and we must accept that she is not the same Britney Spears that danced around in a Catholic School outfit singing “Hit Me Baby One More Time”. When you really think about it, any song on the radio today can send out the wrong message. Music can be influential, but it is not the only influence. And just because Britney spells out a curse word for us, does not mean we must take it off the air. If kids want to hear the song, they are going to find it somewhere else other than local radio stations. If someone is so offended by the song, than the simple answer is just do not listen to it.

Lora Kormos
Wilkes University '10
Communication Studies