The Mass Marketing of Tragedy

I need to address an issue that has been swirling in my mind for years. When did we decide it was cool to market tragedy and by that I mean, why in the good graces of heaven and earth does one need a funeral shirt or a FB memorial page with all those horrific Print Shop homages to "My Big Homey".  I mean really do we need to air our grief in such a tragically distasteful form? What makes this matter worst for me is that typically the person covering the front of this long white t-shirt is someone young. Who left this life in some horrific scene. So to honor that we plaster their face on a shirt with money, cars and don't forget the airbrushed angel wings. I mean really? Is this what life is about? You live, you ball, you die, you end up on a t-shirt....THE END.

I understand grief very well. TRUST me. I get that you want to place this person close to your heart, but wearing a dead person on a shirt that says "My Nigga 4 Life" will not in fact bring that person back or in anyway add solace to your grief. Instead of t-shirts and all the other non-sense, especially in the cases of those murdered, let's spend that money on violence prevention so that "Lil Pookie's" brothers, cousins or neighbors can perhaps stand the chance of not having their most famous moment be the time their precious faces adorned shirts outside of your neighborhood funeral home, church or liquor store.

For me it's the mass marketing of tragedy. The moment something goes retail, the first time you see the words "discount for RIP shirts" you are looking at a business, that needs customers. Let's close out the customer base for this money maker. Instead let's spend our time making sure that the faces of our children don't grace shirts at funerals, but reach the halls of education. Let's work to not make a tragic life or situation "cool", or worst, nothing more than a fashion statement. Use what life has given you in first hand knowledge to reach someone who might seek the some undesirable path. Let's shine light into our inner cities and not the gloom and despair I feel every time I pass another funeral home with tons of young black men all wearing a uniform that reeks of the mass marketing of tragedy.

Musical Inspiration
Artist: Mos Def
Song: Umi Say
Album: Black on Both Sides