(Todd A. Smith)
My family can relate to the people of California who have lost everything due to a natural disaster like a wildfire.
Approximately eight years ago, the house where my mother, aunts, uncle and cousins grew up got struck by lightning and burned to the ground.
No one lived in the home at the time because my uncle had died a few years earlier.
However, all the memories, including my grandparents’ belongings such as furniture, family heirlooms and old pictures instantly vanished.
While people felt pain for our loss, even offering to travel from Houston to Abbeville, La. to help clean up the debris, many people have responded with amusement as many Hollywood celebrities have endured the same heartache that my family endured years prior.
Why is that?
That is so because my family is not rich.
In fact, my grandparents were very poor.
Therefore, people felt empathy for my relatives even if the only things we lost were memories and inexpensive belongings.
As celebrities like singer Jhene Aiko took to social media to inform their fans that they had lost everything due to the wildfire in California, many social media users laughed at their misfortune.
Many dismissed the impact that the fires had on celebrities because many are rich enough to simply rebuild.
But as rapper Willie D of the Geto Boys said on his YouTube podcast “Willie D Live,” money cannot replace everything that stars like Aiko lost due to the disaster.
The Houston emcee said that money cannot replace the lost lyrics or ideas that Aiko had written down in a notebook.
The native of Houston’s Fifth Ward neighborhood said money cannot replace lost family photographs.
Additionally, the outspoken podcast host said that money cannot replace that cherished piece of furniture passed down to family members from generations past.
The rapper born William Dennis also said that until a person earns a lot of money, they will not truly understand that money does not bring happiness.
Furthermore, money does not eliminate all problems.
Additionally, he said that fans forget that celebrities feel pain and heartache just like non-celebrities.
Wille D said that he believes that many people do not have much success in life because they hate on other people’s success, therefore stopping their own blessings.
But most importantly, Willie D pointed out the biggest irony with people celebrating the misfortune of celebrities and the wealthy.
He said that non-celebrities do not care about celebrities losing everything.
However, they often want celebrities to care about them during the times of their misfortune.
I totally agree with everything Willie D said during that recent podcast episode.
Even before social media began ruling people’s lives, many often complained about the rich and famous.
People complained when people made it out of the ghetto and did not reach back to pull others up.
People complained when the rich did not give enough of their money back to the less fortunate.
Many people complain when celebrities do not speak out against society’s ills from a political standpoint.
Often, they call them out of touch with the real world.
But the real world touches everyone.
Everyone hurts.
Everyone goes through trials and tribulations.
Everyone must overcome fear and doubt.
Everyone must deal with health issues.
Everyone must deal with loss.
And everyone must meet their Maker one day.
Money and fame do not exclude a person from any of the real problems in life.
Furthermore, what many people do not realize is that many celebrities are not wealthy in the first place.
Many live from gig to gig like many non-celebrities live paycheck to paycheck.
Many celebrities are contract workers.
Therefore, they have no healthcare or retirement plan.
Many entertainers drive regular cars, not the luxury cars that their fans think they drive.
Actress Tatyana Ali told me personally in an interview that she drives a Toyota Prius.
Some celebrities make just enough money to appear like they have money so that they can protect their brand and image.
Many do not even own the luxury homes in which they live like Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick.
They just rent the homes because they are working on a project in a certain location.
The late comedian John Witherspoon lived in an apartment for a long time during his career.
He told an interviewer that when he got a good gig, he would pay his rent six months in advance so that he knew he would have a roof over his head when comedy gigs slowed down.
That does not sound like the lifestyle of the rich and famous.
But people in the entertainment industry know that fame does not always automatically equate to wealth.
Witherspoon went on to make good money with movies like “Next Friday” and “Friday After Next.”
But some hater probably looked at him on television in the 1970s and 1980s with disgust, not knowing that they might have had more money in their pocket than him.
The entertainment business is the scariest roller coaster in the amusement park of life.
A person is up for one minute.
Then the next minute, the industry and the public forget about them.
So even if a rich person has it today, that does not mean they will have it tomorrow because of the volatility of the industry.
More importantly, people must realize that money only solves some problems in life.
No matter how much money or fame a person has, they are still human.
They still have the same emotions that all of us have.
And if you expect them to care about you and your community the next time you deal with a natural disaster, extend to them the same courtesy.
People cared about my family during our loss.
And I will always care about other people enduring the same hardship, regardless of their socioeconomic status.
