Urban Thought Collective

I like to call this summer “Snub-gate”: Officer Crowley snubbed Skip Gates, Representative Wilson snubbed President Obama and Kayne West snubbed Taylor Swift (all I can say is “Kanye, why, why, why”?). But as summer moves to fall I want to highlight something positive that’s happened in the last few weeks: the charitable work of certain celebrities, that has not gotten the attention or applause that it should have.

While we’re talking about Kanye’s behavior we should instead been have talking about Jay-Z’s September 11th Answer the Call Concert to benefit the New York Police and Fire Widows’ and Children’s Benefit Fund. Now those of you who know me, know that I love Jay-Z’s music. I own every Jay-Z album and raced to download the Blueprint III as soon as it was available on ITunes. But last week’s concert made me much more impressed by Jay-Z the person, rather than Jay-Z the artist. Currently, there is arguably no bigger artist than Jay-Z. Last week’s New York Times Arts & Leisure profile “An Overdog to Root For” confirms that.

As Jay-Z says “I’m not businessman—I’m a business man!”

On September 11th, Jay-Z headlined a benefit show to coincide with the eighth anniversary of the release of the Blueprint. The Blueprint was released on September 11, 2001 a day none of us will ever forget. But Jay-Z was not there to celebrate his success, the concert wasn’t just a victory lap to show his artistry and that he could still “sell out the Garden”. Jay-Z made sure that the fans knew why they were there. As a montage of those who lost their lives on 9/11 played on the stage, Jay-Z said “make some noise for those that lost their lives so we could live ours”. A class act.

But Jay-Z is not the only celebrity doing good. Tyler Perry is another. After 65 Philadelphia school children were turned away from a swim club in Pennsylvania this summer, Tyler Perry did the unthinkable: sent them to Disney World. Tyler Perry decided that a small act of kindness can change a child’s life. Its great that Tyler Perry allowed these children to have a happy ending to a horrible experience.

And let’s not forget Ludacris. Ludacris recently gave away 20 used cars to Atlanta residents during his annual LudaDay weekend. Ludacris asked individuals to write a 300 word essay on his website and awarded the cars to the those with the most compelling stories. Good stuff!

So much of our popular culture is spent dissecting the bad behavior of our celebrities and doesn’t acknowledge their good behavior. We shouldn’t be talking about the bad examples that Chris Brown and Kanye West set, we should be talking about the good example that Jay-Z set by using his celebrity for a cause he cared about through his September 11th concert, Tyler Perry’s donation of a Disney World trip and Ludacris’ LudaDay Car Giveaway.

So here’s a suggestion: wouldn’t it be great if every musician held one charity concert during each of their tours or if each artist would underwrite some type of service for a nonprofit or make a donation of cars to those in need? Imagine how much money and awareness these acts of kindness could create. Jay-Z, Tyler Perry and Ludacris did it; other artists should too. Follow their example; follow the leaders.

Angelia Dickens is an attorney and author with lots of thoughts and opinions, and now a place to share them (other than with her friends and family). Her blog is a compilation of her musings and commentary on charitable giving, volunteerism and philanthropy from an African-American perspective. Her writings have appeared in the Nonprofit Times and the Root.com. She can be reached at speakyourvoice@gmail.com. Read, comment and circulate.