In the words of the great philosopher, Radrick “Gucci Mane” Davis, every week day is “scressful.” Mondays are filled with self-pity, Tuesdays are filled with exams and the rest of the week is spent trying to get to Friday. To counter Mr. Davis, Pittsburgh poet, Mac Miller claims that “it will all be good by the weekend.” For the most part, Mac is right. Everyday closer to Friday is a little bit closer to heaven and last week was no different. Last weekend was a gumbo of excitement and fear. I spent Friday basking in the moment that was Fetty Wap’s D.C. concert at the Fillmore and Sunday cheering on my Broncos in the Super Bowl. For most people, these seem like fun, but normal things to do on the weekend for a college student. That was not the case for me.
I am a New Jersey native by way of JFK Hospital in Edison, New Jersey, so seeing Fetty Wap is a little bit different for me than the average person. Growing up as a person of color in northern New Jersey, there’s a sense of familial ties that are difficult to explain. You know all the great places to eat. You know about the perpetual disappointment that is NJ transit and you know about Jersey Club music culture. Above all else, you know what it’s like to live in the shadow of the New York City bright lights. Every day is a constant reminder that you’re not Manhattan. You’re not Times Square. You’re not Madison Square Garden and you never will be. You’re the little brother that doesn’t get any shine. You’re Eli Manning, now that Peyton Manning has won as many Super Bowls as you and has two more MVPs. Luckily, that narrative has changed for the millennial generation in recent years, thanks to people like Michael B. Jordan and Fetty Wap. I’ve always been proud to say Jersey with eight y’s at the end, but Fetty Wap represents a culture that I am proud to be a part of. He gives back. He comes off as likeable. He’s not perfect, but he’s not trying to be either. He is who he is, a living a representation that any Black kid from northern New Jersey can make it to the top.
The same sense of pride I get from watching Fetty Wap, I get from the Broncos. To be clear, I’m not a bandwagon fan. I’ve been there since Elway’s final game. I went through Plummer, Tebow, Cutler and Osweiler, so having Peyton Manning, injured or not, is an improvement from what I’ve seen in the past. Watching them during the Super Bowl was an emotional rollercoaster. I had a silent confidence that Von Miller and that defense could handle just about anything, but there was also the fear that CJ Anderson or Peyton Manning would turnover the ball and give Cam Newton a chance to score. Luckily, that didn’t happen more than once. From start to finish, it was an uphill battle, but I survived and got to see my team finally win a Super Bowl.
In addition, I was there for the halftime show like everyone else. Unlike most people, I’ve never been a Beyonce fan. I don’t dislike her music, but I don’t like it either. With that being said, I was definitely there to see her perform her new single, “Formation”. Actually, I was there to see if the “always play it safe” NFL would even let her perform it, but I guess Beyonce just does what she wants and she performed it anyway. I’m glad she did. I may not be a fan of her music, but I can always get behind something that displays Black pride, which is what she did.
Shortly after the halftime show ended, I scanned Facebook for reactions and responses to her performance and I came away with the sense that most people felt that Coldplay shouldn’t even have been there. To put it simply, Chris Martin was the guy in the group project that got an A for doing nothing. While harsh, the criticism was fair. After a few minutes of further scrolling down my timeline, I found an article headline that read, “Beyonce’s Formation Tour Will Support Flint, Michigan Water Crisis”. At that very moment, I gave my cell phone screen a smile. I was happy that Beyonce was giving back to Flint in the sense that she was doing something positive with her presence, but I was also happy that it felt genuine. Above all else, in comparison to other crisis, the responses of celebrities has been large in number and come across as genuine. While the efforts of local organizers is always more important than the work of a celebrity removed from the situation, it can’t be ignored that when celebrities tend to get involved, media attention and public pressure tends to build. With that being said, I wish celebrities cared about my home state of New Jersey the same way that they cared about Flint, Michigan. More specifically, I wish someone like Fetty Wap would add to the mounting efforts that are being built in New Jersey to reduce the amount of lead poisoning in New Jersey neighborhoods.
If you’re not aware, there are 11 cities in New Jersey that are experiencing higher levels of lead in their living environments than Flint, Michigan. In many low income neighborhoods in New Jersey, kids are exposed to lead not only through water, but also through paint on window frames, doors and sometimes in their own homes. The director of Environmental Health for Isles, Inc., a local community building organization based in the state’s capital, is quoted as saying, “You can breathe it in from dust and you can swallow it.” The state could begin to solve this issue by setting aside funds, but state government continues to ignore the problems. In fact, just two weeks ago, Presidential candidate and New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie pocket vetoed a ten million dollar bill that would assist the lead control assistance fund. As a result of the governor’s continued lack of responsibility, 225,000 young children have been affected by elevated levels of lead since the year 2000. To put it in comparison to Flint, 3.40% of children in Flint have tested with lead levels above the Centers of Disease Control’s standard for acceptable lead levels in one’s body. Meanwhile, in more than 11 New Jersey cities and towns, 3.40% or more children have tested above the CDC’s standard for lead levels in one’s body. I make the comparison between Flint and my home state of New Jersey not to say that one is more important than the other, but rather to say that if one city can get some attention and support, an entire state deserves a little attention. Moreover, while I admire the work that local advocacy groups have done, nothing is going to change until their is public pressure. This has been going on for almost sixteen years and nothing is being done about it.
While it’s not necessary, I wish someone like Beyonce or in this case, Fetty Wap, would make a donation to the area he grew up in. At the very least, I wish he would bring attention to it. To his defense, he may not be aware of what’s going on and he’s done so many charitable things in the past that other natives haven’t. I’m not begging for public attention because that’s not the answer, but it would be nice to have. It would be nice to have this article revised and published in the New York Times or have Rihanna donate some of her tour profits to New Jersey. At the very least, share this story on Facebook. Raise some awareness. That’s all I ask. That’s all these kids are asking for too.
