(Todd A. Smith)
God works in mysterious ways.
I often appear on “The Isiah Factor Uncensored” on Fox 26 Houston and Fox Soul.
Previously, I discussed sex trafficking and domestic violence allegations against Diddy.
Actually, I tore Diddy a new one in response to those allegations.
Therefore, it was no surprise that producers from the show called me to appear on the show on May 17 to talk about the video that surfaced of Sean “Diddy” Combs beating and dragging singer, Cassie.
But because of the bad weather that swept through Houston last week, I missed that text message.
It’s all to the good though because if I had appeared on “The Isiah Factor Uncensored” on Friday, I probably would have used profanity on television for the first time, which would have violated FCC rules.
As a result, my appearances on Fox might have been over.
Luckily, my career and reputation are still intact.
However, I cannot say the same thing for Combs because, like I said previously on “The Isiah Factor Uncensored,” it is all over for the founder of Bad Boy Entertainment and good riddance.
When people think about all the allegations through the years of Diddy abusing power, stealing musicians’ publishing, stealing other people’s percentage of his record label, allegedly setting the stage for murders and ruining careers when people did not go along with his shenanigans, he should have been canceled decades ago.
But the video of him brutally and viciously assaulting R&B singer Cassie was one of the most horrific things I have seen in a long time.
There is no reason for a man to put his hands on a woman unless a woman is about to pull a trigger on him.
Then, all bets are off.
But it takes a coward to do what Diddy did in that video.
That was abuse to the infinite power.
And while I usually love to see a Black man rise from the mud and become a billionaire, I cannot get upset if this behavior leads to his downfall.
And no, Diddy’s predicament is not about racism.
This is not about double standards.
This is not about the White man trying to bring the Black man down.
Diddy’s downfall is him bringing himself down.
His downfall is what happens when someone has too much money and too much power.
This is what happens when a person has someone else’s career in the palm of their hands, and success can come down to putting up with abuse or not putting up with it and seeing themselves blackballed.
Diddy once had the power to get radio personalities like Wendy Williams fired from a station in New York.
He was so arrogant that he would get mad at the legendary group New Edition about the direction of their “One Love” album and send them home, shelving their album until they got in line.
In essence, Diddy was a gate keeper for urban entertainment.
As a result, for years he got away with alleged bad behavior.
And if aspiring artists wanted to get into the game, they had to put up with the bad behavior of gatekeepers like Diddy, Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby and others.
Like Cosby, allegations have surfaced for years that Diddy, or people in his entourage, would spike drinks and drug women at parties.
But like Cosby, Diddy had built up enough good will, especially in the Black community, for many to dismiss the allegations as hate or the tearing down of another Black man.
Despite Black people facing obvious discrimination in the justice system, past racism does not excuse bad behavior.
Just because Black people have dealt with centuries of racism in America does not give a Black man the right to assault a woman, or anyone else for that matter.
And just because some White people might get away with similar behavior does not mean that all Black people will get away with similar behavior.
Right is right.
And wrong is wrong regardless of skin color.
Therefore, anyone using skin color to defend Diddy’s actions are doing a disservice to all our ancestors who dealt with real racism and oppression.
In fact, people like Diddy, Cosby or the late O.J. Simpson did not have the same experiences as regular Black folks anyway once they achieved a certain level of success.
They were the darlings of the White elite and that’s why they got away with their foolishness for so long in the first place.
Plus, in Diddy’s case, his bad behavior was aimed at people of color so why would the White man hold their boy accountable for wreaking havoc on people of the same hue as him?
Money and power can shield many Black men from the racism that ordinary Black folks face every day.
Therefore, feeling sorry for a rich Black person that finally must deal with the consequences of their alleged crimes is the equivalent of feeling sorry for those that get away with their crimes because they are White.
It is great that the Black community often runs to the defense of our brothers and sisters when they find themselves engulfed in controversy.
But after a while, we often look foolish because loyalty towards a person or group can often lead to people turning a blind eye to reality and criminal behavior.
Luckily, Cassie got out of her relationship, business and professional, with her life.
But how many women have not because we want to remain loyal to the Black man because all the racism our ancestors experienced in the past?
Our ancestors experienced racism when they demanded full citizenship and equality.
Do not ever equate equality and full citizenship with abuse because it tarnishes everything our people went through.
Centuries ago, many truly oppressed Black people could have never imagined scaling the heights of corporate America like Diddy did.
However, they often gave their lives so that one day a generation of Black people could climb that ladder.
It is just a shame that when some Black people climb that ladder, they use the same ladder to abuse those under them.
More unfortunately, those people often look just like them.
And then foolish Black people do everything in their power to defend that egregious behavior, putting the blame on the system.
It was not the system.
It was a very flawed and evil man.
That is like if I went to “The Isiah Factor Uncensored” and cursed like a sailor, subjecting Fox 26 Houston to FCC fines.
How many viewers would say that journalist Isiah Carey or Fox 26 Houston and Fox Soul General Manager D’Artagnan Bebel were Black men trying to hold another brother down?
None because people would say I was just a fool and blew my career.
That is all they should say about Diddy too.
