Modern Day Minstral Show

Today at work I had a conversation with a co-worker about our respective alter egos and it got me to thinking about the alter egos that we all carry with us. Of course we appear to be someone on the outside but there also seems to be a person that we all carry around that only comes out at certain times and with certain people.

Today "Heidi" and I got into a conversation about Flavor Flav. If you don't know him he used to be with the rap group Public Enemy that promoted the uplift of black people as a whole during the 90s. The group disappeared shortly before the arrival of the 2000s but Flav has just recently resurfaced as the playboy mack of Flavor of Love 1, 2 & 3. Before his tyrad on Flavor on Love he was on the Surreal Life and some show with Bridgett Neilson. During the show, Flav tries to find love by inviting vulnerable (excuse me I mean trashy as hell) ladies to his house, where he wines and dines them in the pursuit of love. The ladies that they cast for the show are just short of completely desperate with half of them only degrading themselves in an effort to be on television.

It seems that people in the world today will do anything for the almighty dollar. Case in point, Flav (and I feel so comfortable calling him that considering that's his nickname on the show), used to be all about the message and uplifting black people through empowerment but it seems today that he has turned his efforts into putting on a modern day minstrel show. He's like a puppet, VH1 tells him what to do, and he agrees to it. Why? Because VH1 is breaking off that bread straight into Flav's pockets. Last season on the show, he brought out all of his children, all 6 or 7 of them. God only knows how many baby mama's he's got. It seems he has no respect for any of his children considering he would bring them on his trashy show or expose them to the asstasticness that made up the show (and yes I just made up that word!) Secondly, he has absolutely no respect for himself if he would even allow himself to be a complete man whore in front of the whole world so that his children can go to school and be ridiculed because their father is an ass. What kind of example does he really think he is setting?

But I digressed, the point of this whole post is about alter egos. I asked Heidi what would make a person do that. He's probably a completely different person around his children. And it all boiled down to the fact that he has a television ego and a home ego. And the television ego is ruled by the all mighty dollar. My question is, does it make it okay? Can I keep my great job here as a designer for a great publication, but at night go out and shake my ass on a pole for the sake of making more money or satisfying my alter ego?

The angelic and moral side of me says hell to the naw (thanks Whitney H.)! It's wrong, its immoral, and just down right disgusting! But the side that stays damn true to me says you never know what you would do for a money. And that goes for anyone. Not just me. So before you criticize what someone does with their spare time, think about how far you would exploit yourself to increase your net worth. I'm sure that's what Flav has to sleep with every night he catches as many reruns as I do.