10 Black Celebrities That Disregarded Their Race Consciousness For Fame and Fortune

Kanye West The superstar rapper/producer has said a lot ... too much, in fact. But when he broke out, he was a proponent of Black empowerment. Lately, Mr. Kardashian seems to have lost his way. On racism, he recently said on Clique TV: "It's like a bouncing ball in a room with two cats, or something, when you don't feel like playing with a cat," he said. "Let them literally fight over the bouncing ball. And the bouncing ball has nothing, no purpose, anything other than that: It bounces. That's racism. It's not an actual thing that even means anything." Seriously? Common Known originally as a rapper who spit strong lyrics that made you think, Common has derailed. His mumble-jumble about “extending a loving hand to white people” stunned and disappointed many. Here is his full comment on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart: “We all know there’s been some bad history in our country. We know that racism exists. I’m … extending a hand. And I think a lot of generations and different cultures are saying ‘Hey, we want to get past this. We’ve been bullied, and we’ve been beat down, but we don’t want it anymore.' We’re not extending a fist and saying, ‘Hey, you did us wrong.’ It’s more like ‘Hey, I’m extending my hand in love. Let’s forget about the past as much as we can, and let’s move from where we are now. How can we help each other? Can you try to help us because we’re going to help ourselves, too?’ That’s really where we are right now. Me as a Black man, I’m not sitting there like, ‘White people — y’all did us wrong.’ I mean we know that that existed. I don’t even have to keep bringing that up. It’s like being in a relationship and continuing to bring up the person’s issues.” Pharrell The recording genius who used to represent the young, hip, progressive crew has turned. He said, mindlessly, during an interview with Oprah Winfrey: “The New Black dreams and realizes that it’s not pigmentation: it’s a mentality, and it’s either going to work for you or it’s going to work against you. And you’ve got to pick the side you’re going to be on.” A$AP Ferg Somehow, for some reason that goes beyond comprehension, this rapper actually said, "There is no racism with the Internet" and that "racism is over." The level of his ignorance is scary. Here is his comment in its entirety to NPR: “We all the same. That’s what it is about this culture of the Internet. Is everything is merged. There’s no racism with the Internet. Racism only was — is probably, like, five generations ago ... Racism is for — I wouldn’t say generations. Yeah, like five generations ago. Racism been over. It’s the old people that keep on holding on to it. We don’t hold on to that s**t. We don’t know racism. We all like having — like, my brother had white — my little brother had white girlfriends. And that’s regular, like.” Charles Barkley The former NBA star, adept at putting his foot in his mouth, was at his out-of-left-field best in speaking about the Michael Brown shooting — and this after saying George Zimmerman should not have been found guilty of killing Trayvon Martin: "We as black people, we have a lot of crooks. We can't just wait until something like (the Brown shooting) happens. We have to look at ourselves in the mirror. There is a reason that they racially profile us in the way they do. Sometimes it is wrong, and sometimes it is right." Whoopi Goldberg The Ghost and Sister Act actress says racism in the U.S. is gone, poof, like magic. In December on the daytime talk show The View, she actually fixed her mouth to say: "Racism is when someone comes up and says, 'I hope you die.' The difference is, my mother (goes) into a place, and they would follow (her) around. Do I think that is racism? No. That's ignorance." Really? Terrence Howard The Empire star sold out Black people when he said he received criticism for his interracial marriage to an Asian woman. (They are now divorced.) Howard said during an interview with Hip Hollywood: “We have a crab mentality where we still pull each other down because of choices that we make, because I choose to marry an Asian woman instead of a Black woman. I think as Black people we have to start helping each other. If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say nothing at all.” Maybe Howard shouldn't say anything at all. Young Thug The Atlanta-based rapper offended many last year when he was asked about Michael Brown's death at the hands of Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson: "Leave that up with the critics and the laws and all that other (expletive). We having fun, we iced out, we having money. That's how we doing it." Not cool. Don Lemon The CNN anchor has said a lot of out-of-bounds stuff. Blaming Black people for singer Justin Bieber's issues is just one: "Very frequently I hear young people of all ages, in public, who can barely get through a sentence without using the word; even calling each other n-words — of all different ethnicities. Clearly Justin Bieber, a young man who, by the way, has immersed himself in Black, hip-hop culture should not be saying the n-word. So the question is, if you want people like Justin Bieber to stop using it and to stop making excuses for using it, shouldn't you do the same?" Morgan Freeman Having "made it," the actor in 2014 told a CNN audience that his and Lemon's success is an indication that racism no longer exists. “Today? No," Freeman said. "You and I … we’re proof. Why would race have anything to do with it? Stick your mind to what you want to do and go for it.”

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