WE FAILED MO'NIQUE

On my daily youtube watching and I see a thumbnail of Nicki Minaj receiving Donkey Of The Day on Breakfast Club and there was a quote from Charlamagne in the title that said she’s becoming the “Mo’Nique” of the rap industry and I can’t lie it annoyed me. I clicked on it just to hear the context of it so I would get a better understanding. 



“Don’t become the rap game Mo’Nique blaming everyone but yourself.”



I’m not going to get into all the bullshit in Charlamagne’s career. I’d be here for a long fucking time if I did. From his takes on black women to him all of a sudden being this spokesman for mental health when he causes a lot of those issues in the culture. Just him saying the quote about Nicki Minaj while slandering Mo‘Nique above proves my point. Empathy is one of the tools needed in dealing with mental illness and he rarely shows it. I don’t take anyone seriously that follows that man.



Enough about him and let’s get to the point of all this. We’ve failed Mo’Nique. 



Terribly. 


I’m sure you know how it all began. Mo’Nique was negotiating with Netflix for a comedy special. She was offered 500,000 dollars. Now in my opinion that’s disrespectful to Mo’Nique. I said that when I read it last year. The woman is an Oscar winner. An award people swear they give a fuck about and claim it’s the creme de la creme of entertainment. I just couldn’t believe people would say with a straight face that the 500K was reasonable. 



The Netflix issue is debatable cause it’s hard to gauge what to pay someone and what’s the criteria for the pay. Amy Schumer received 13 million. Why? She was one of the hottest comedians. I don’t think she’s funny at all. Her stand up’s are terrible but she can potentially sell out Madison Square Garden. So Netflix is trying to cash in with her because it’s business. They want return on investment. Do I think they overpaid for her? Fuck yes but we all know why. I don’t even have to say it. I get it but Mo’Nique is on the Mt.Rushmore for female comedians. Hands down. She’s even potentially in the Top 50 all time male or female comedians. If she can stand amongst legends and get respect then why couldn’t she get paid like one? 


Tiffany Haddish deal wasn’t that much more than Mo’Nique’s either and you could say Tiffany’s career is kinda better than Amy’s now in my opinion. Tiffany can do arenas. She’s on a hit tv show. She has an Emmy. Does movies. So if Netflix sits down with Tiffany again will they be willing to give her the same 13 million Amy Schumer received? I’m thinking they won’t. And that’s the problem.


Now was Mo’Nique call for a ban of Netflix necessary? Again. It’s debatable. I would need to see the prices every comedian is getting for stand up specials. But I’m sure there’s a huge difference in pay between men and women in that business. Shit I don’t even watch much Netflix. I only watch when a show they have that I like is back with a new season other than that I could live without it. Netflix almost $20 a month and I see people cancelling that shit now. Here’s the punchline though. Even if everyone felt Mo’Nique was right they still wouldn’t cancel Netflix. We can’t boycott shit because we don’t value each other or ourselves. We’ve placed entertainment companies higher than integrity and once that happens it’s game over.


Instead of going to bat for her. We shitted on her. I saw Whoopi Goldberg shit on her. I saw Steve Harvey shit on her, a man she considered a friend for over 30 years shitted on her on national television. Think about that for a second. The Breakfast Club is one of the highest rated radio shows ever shitted on her. Everybody sided with the machine and high profile celebrities against her. 



I watched all of those major interviews and I felt sorry for her because she was talking to people who have agendas with the machine she’s fighting against. She was debating with people who like the machine and benefit from it. No matter how wrong the machine is those people believe why rock the boat with the truth when they’re benefiting from it? Mo’Nique had a better chance of getting me to not love titties than to get those people on those platforms understand where she’s coming from. 



People felt they had to choose sides. They chose the side of Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, Steve Harvey, Whoopi Goldberg, Lee Daniels or the side of Mo’Nique, the black female comedian who Hollywood claims is washed up, loud, and difficult to work with. 



Who do you think Hollywood chose? Who did you think my people chose? 



The elites of course. 



Tyler Perry said publicly that Mo’nique was difficult to work with. The most powerful black filmmaker said that about a black woman in Hollywood. She already at a disadvantage for being black and a woman and he threw her under the bus and basically got her blackballed for almost a decade. He did all that shit just to apologize to Mo’Nique and admit he was wrong on her podcast and said he would give her a public apology and never did. If all you gave me was 50,000 for a movie and everything in my contract was fulfilled I would’ve did the same shit. Pay me again to go overseas and work or leave me the fuck alone. Niggas love to handle business until they come across a black woman who’s about her business. I seen it with my own mother growing up. Niggas try to play her cause she a black woman. Fuck all that. Give them their bag or get the fuck on. 




Oprah Winfrey. One of the most powerful figures in history painted Mo’Nique as this negative person without any context to why. Oprah took that woman’s family who’s responsible for her trauma and had them on her show for millions to see after Mo’Nique told her she was not okay with it and did not give her permission to after calling Mo’Nique and asking her was it okay. Mo’Nique reached out privately to discuss the disrespect but Oprah never returned her calls. Mo’Nique confronted Oprah at a Oscar party about the situation and Oprah said 



“If you think I did something wrong then I apologize.” 



That’s not an apology. There is no accountability in that statement. The word “think” should not be present. It should just be “I was wrong for what happened I’m sorry.” 



It doesn’t shock me how malicious and fake people in the industry can be. When I heard the story I just thought “Business as usual.” When Mo’Nique spoke publicly about what Oprah did Oprah just dodged accountability by saying “She doesn’t respond to negative comments” which is hilarious because she’s the one that caused the negativity of the situation.



Steve Harvey. My momma loves that man but I’m sorry momma this gotta get done. I never understood that man’s way of thinking. He has some great quotes and he works hard but the way he thinks is iffy to me. When I was young I didn’t know any better but when I became an adult I started to have questions about him. It’s like that O.G you respected until you grew up and realized they’re just as toxic as the niggas they warned you about. Steve Harvey said publicly that Mo’Nique burned too many bridges and he can’t help her. I don’t give a fuck how many bridges Moe or Cue burn. If they try to take them down they gotta take me down too. I’ll be on the frontline defending my family. Steve Harvey had Mo’Nique on his show and basically implied she gotta sell her soul and integrity to get the bag. He made her look goofy on tv. A person he considers a friend. He told this woman that she needs to play the game with these white folks so she can thrive and those same white folks took his shows off the air. How does the number 4 talk show in America with good ratings get cancelled for no reason? Cause you a nigga and you owned majority of it. That’s why. Don’t matter if you dance to their rhythm and play the game they want you to play you still a nigga and they’ll take your shit the moment they feel you’re not dependent on them anymore. Steve said that shit about the white people in power positions in the interview but he edited it out of the interview and those white folks still heard about it and cancelled his shit quick as fuck. I’m not celebrating that shit either. They did that man wrong. People should’ve been outrage for Steve’s shows being cancelled. I’ve seen mediocre shows last for a decade with nowhere near the success Steve Harvey shows had. 



Whoopi Goldberg told Mo’Nique to not worry about the next generation of black women that’s coming behind her and worry about herself. Like what the fuck? Instead of going to the trenches with Mo’Nique she tried to downplay what Mo’Nique was fighting for on one of the biggest platforms in the world. Can’t say I’m surprised. 



Lee Daniels I don’t have to say much. You saw what Dame Dash did and has been saying about him for years. He did the same shit Tyler Perry did and publicly put Mo’Nique in a negative light. He too lost his shows.



The lesson in all this is…… When people can’t control you they then try to control how the public view you and the narrative about you. We never gave her a chance and we dismissed everything she said about the icons our people idolize. I seen a lot of people drag Mo’Nique through the mud. Saying she was a nobody and hasn’t done anything in years when the whole time people who are icons to many who are the same color as her put the hurdles in front of her before a white person in Hollywood could. All of them ended up being wrong and we never held them accountable for it. We failed Mo’Nique when we thought she was wrong in the beginning and even when she was proven right and proven not to be crazy we’re still failing Mo’Nique. 



Peace


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