Let me start this piece by saying that this is NOT an assault or judgment on Fantasia Barrino or Alicia Keys, nor is it an assault on Nsenga K. Burton, editor-at-large at TheRoot.com. But this IS a shot at the media, in general, and those who insist on falsely playing up any situation available to create drama.
This is a topic that has annoyed me for at least a year now, but it really came to a head in the wake of the alleged Fantasia Barrino affair with a married man whom shall remain nameless.
There are some (Nsenga Burton obviously is one of them, judging by this article) who think Fantasia Barrino has unfairly been on the receiving end of media scrutiny as of late. This began with Fantasia's supposed attempted suicide, which apparently was motivated by said media scrutiny, resulting from details of her "private life" being exposed. Now, notice the term "unfairly". In order for something to be unfair (and transversely, fair), there must be a measuring stick…a means of comparing said situation with one that has been deemed "fair" or moderate. Get it? For an extreme to exist, a normal must also exist…and an opposite must exist as well. Well, the Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz saga has provided such a measuring stick in the media's eyes.
You see, those who believe Fantasia is being treated unfairly seem to also want to see Alicia Keys on the receiving end of an equal amount of scrutiny. After all, they both did commit the same crime in the court of public opinion. That is, they both were involved with a married man. Right? Many bloggers and columnists have implied that Alicia Keys has been "let off the hook" because she is a larger public figure, she's light skinned, she fits a more universal definition of beauty, she's more polished in that she went to and graduated from a prestigious performing arts school, thus she took a more traditional path to achieving showbiz stardom. And Fantasia is apparently the anti-Keys in every way. She's dark-skinned, has struggled with abuse, illiteracy, she's from a small town in a "small state", she's not the classic beauty that Alicia Keys apparently is, and she happened upon her stardom and fame as oppose to earning it. Thus making Ms. Barrino an easier target. Right?
But they both got involved with married men, right? Their situations are exactly the same. Right?
It has even been stated that, in the court of public opinion, Alicia Keys has done far worse than Fantasia in the steal-a-man department. She "stole" Swizz from Moshanda. She got pregnant by him, and married him. All Fantasia did was make some sex tapes with her married guy and get his name tattooed on her.
Same situations, right?
Wrong.
In my opinion, it's clear and obvious why the media dived on Fantasia in a different way than Alicia.
Alicia Keys didn't get the level of public scrutiny that Fantasia got because, up until recently, Alicia Keys kept her private life just that…private. Hell, up until about 3 years ago, half of y'all suspected the broad was gay! She'd never been photographed in a romantic or intimate setting with a man (nor woman, for that matter). She'd never spoken openly about her relationship(s) (if there were any). And she'd never done a reality TV show or tell-all biography, exposing the gritty details that we all (read: you all) love so much. And that combined with the messages in her music (no matter whether she lives those messages or not) allowed the media to create a squeaky clean image for her (be it deserved or not). So at the end of the day, when this Swizz-Mashonda-Alica-Beatz scandal emerged, many weren't sure what to believe.
Fantasia, on the other hand, rose to fame with the media in her personal life…before she dropped one single album. She played herself (no pun intended) in the Lifetime Movie Network biographical film about her life. She had a Keisha Cole-style reality show. And she openly and publically has discussed her troubles. Some may think this is admirable. And maybe it is. But unfortunately, when you give the media that kind of access to you…that kind of insight into your personal life, people (and the media) feel they have a certain right to your privacy. And so yes, the media felt perfectly fine with sinking their teeth into the juicy Fantasia scandal
But even bigger than that is the fact that we don't know what the f*ck was really happening. I know I haven't been married that long, but I can tell you this about marriage: If you're on the outside looking in, you don't know half of what's going on in that marriage. I don't care if you're getting daily updates from one of them, you don't know half. For anyone to hear second-hand (or hell, even third-hand) rumors about a marriage…one that involves 2 people that they don't even personally know, and then think that based on those rumors you can form a relevant opinion, is ridiculous. Marriages end far far far before the divorce. And to two people that want to be rid of each other, the divorce is only paperwork…just as a marriage license is only paperwork for two people who are really committed to one another. But that's another blog. Separation is real.
When a couple decides they no longer want to be together, THAT is the end of the marriage. Not some government documents. Some people like to wait until the divorce is final. Some move on as soon as the couple comes to an agreement that the relationship is in fact done. And we don't know where on the scale Swizz, Alicia, Fantasia (or her guy and his wife) fell. We only know what we hear. Of course Mashonda publicly and verbally lambasted Alicia Keys after she found out Swizz was dating her. Wouldn't YOU do the same if you found out your soon-to-be ex-husband was climbing Mt. Alicia?! I'm just saying.
So with all due respect, media personalities and bloggers, if you don't know any of the parties involved personally, please, shut the f*ck up. And stop trying to turn the situation into a light-skinned vs dark-skinned issue. Y'all wear me out.
