On the morality of celebrities: When integrity no longer matters.

Written by : Alexander Hamilton

ON THE MORALITY OF CELEBRITIES: WHEN INTEGRITY NO LONGER MATTERS

Steve Harvey: "Tell the truth. You have to deal with the repercussions of the truth. We black out here. We can’t come out here and do it any kind of way we want to. Listen to me Your husband can’t be the Sidney he really is out here. That flexing. We gotta flex a different way, We out here in a game. This the money game., This ain’t the black man’s game. This ain’t the white man’s game. This is the money game. We in the money game. And you can’t not sacrifice yourself. The best thing you can do for poor people is not be one of them. You can not help them all. You can not help them like this."

Monique: "Before the money game, it’s call the integrity game. And we’ve lost the integrity worrying about the money."

Steve Harvey: "But mo’ if I crumble, my children crumble, my grand children crumble. I can not for the sake of my integrity stand up here and let everybody that's counting on me crumble so I can make a statement. There are ways to win the war in a different way."

Read the above transcript out loud (or listen to the video for yourself below). Steve Harvey is telling you integrity doesn't matter. If Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Fannie Lous Hamer, Rosa Parks, and the plethora of other black American heroes and sheroes had Steve's Harvey attitude about honor and integrity, Mr. Harvey would not enjoy the celebrity and opportunity he has today. Furthermore, the civil rights movement would have failed. Monique has dared to have integrity in world lacking it.

If you think I am off kilter, consider the fact that one of the original Kings of Comedy, Bernie Mac, for which Harvey was also a member, had a long standing feud with Steve Harvey over this very issue regarding Harvey's lack of integrity. Bernie Mac and Steve Harvey fell out because Steve lacked something that both Monique and Bernie Mac possessed: integrity. Bernie Mac saw Steve Harvey for what this interview has shown him to be. Mac went to his grave never having made any amends with Harvey and I personally don't believe he lost one ounce of sleep over it. Look it up. Fellow King of Comedy D.L. Hughley recently spoke about this in an interview (I think it's on VLAD TV).

People like Steve Harvey are the reason why I am no longer in favor of affirmative action despite having written a pro-affirmative action dissertation almost two decades ago. Full disclosure, I am an American Descendant of Slaves (ADOS = black American), civil rights attorney, academic and clergyman. My research in later years revealed that many of the black Americans given opportunity through affirmative action did not reach back and help any fellow black Americans. They were selfish, like Steve Harvey, and only cared about themselves. Thus, this behavior exacerbated the intraracial wealth gap and many wealthy blacks fled black inner city neighborhoods to wealthy white suburbs.

I could go on and on about this phenomenon, but put simply, Dr. King said "either we go up together or we go down together." This was the essence of Dr. King's ethics, morality and integrity. Harvey believes the opposite, "I only care about me and mine." That right there is the consequence of "diversity," affirmative action and other race conscious policies that allow people like Steve Harvey to walk through doors that poor people opened through their fight and sacrifice. These people were willing to sacrifice something Steve Harvey wasn't. Yet he reaps the reward of their fight.

There is a cost to standing on principle. Integrity costs. Martin, Malcolm and Medgar all took bullets. Fannie and Recy were brutally raped. Jesus gave up his life. All. On. Principle. Integrity par excellence. Look at what Monique's integrity has cost her. Look at how much Steve Harvey's lack of integrity has gained him. But "what is it for a man to profit the world and lose his soul?" That's a question for Mr. Harvey to answer. Never forget Harvey was the one of the first black celebrities to first meet with Trump after the election. He was looking to profit off of a newly elected president. There was no internal moral compass to steer him clear of such a narcissistic move. He and Trump share that trait in common.

Judge people by how much they are willing to give up NOT by how much they are willing to take. There are a ton of people who died never sniffing the opportunity gifted to us by their fight. Let our repayment be no less than what they were willing to give up for us. Many ADOS are calling Harvey an Uncle Tom and saying he is a "sell out." I'm not so sure. I'm not sure if one can be a sell out if they never bought in. What I do know is that Steve Harvey is showing you who he is. We would do well to heed the wisdom of the great Maya Angelou when she said, "when people show you who they are believe them."

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