Meek Mill Degrading a Homeless Man

The following article, which is one of many posted on the web since last Friday, sums up the behavior of Meek Mill. I have a major problem with the behavior described in this article for multitudinous reasons. While some attempt to mitigate his behavior by pointing out that the homeless man was not black, the fact remains that this dude decided to degrade someone significantly less fortunate than himself. If he had a problem with Whites, which is understandable, he had the option to refuse the request or walk away. Has he forgotten that we have Blacks who are homeless, and statistics reveal that they are more likely to be aided by someone who is White than by another Black person? Maybe he does not know, because he is obviously detached from the reality he should be passionately connected to.

At the end of this article, I provide my insight on why this is bad in so many ways. Feel free to leave your opinion in the comment section. ~ Rick Wallace, Ph.D., Psy.D.

 

Over the past two years, Meek Mill has been called every name under the sun, including a “special kind of stupid,” a “loser,” and a “lame.” Some of those barbs he deserved, some he did not. After the stunt that he pulled this past Friday evening (February 24), however, he absolutely has earned the title of “asshole.”

In a string of videos uploaded to his own Instagram Stories account, Meek captures an interaction with a homeless man, who asks the Philly rapper and his entourage for money. Instead of kindly giving the man a few bills, politely refusing him, or just simply walking the other direction, Meek thought it would be amusing to make the man do work in order to earn a handout.

“Give me ten pushups, and Imaa give you $20 right now,” Meek tells the man. “We ain’t givin out no free money.”

As you can see in the video, the man agrees to the physical challenge—which somehow ballooned from 10 push-ups to 20—knocking out each one as Meek counts them out loud.

Meek clearly believes his actions are entertaining—Why else would he record it and then go live on Instagram?—but they’re actually disgusting, degrading and further prove he’s learned nothing from his past social media transgressions.

Depending on which source you believe, Meek Mill’s net worth is estimated to be somewhere between $2 and $3 million. If you follow Meek on Instagram, he routinely displays signs of his wealth, including diamond necklaces in excess of $100k, empty bands next to a calculator, and his Bentley—and that’s just in the past five weeks. If you don’t follow Meek on social media but you listen to his music, you’re probably familiar with a handful of the 22 records or freestyles that feature Meek’s vocals that include the word “money” in the title.

While Meek has made a career out of bragging, boasting, and making clear he isn’t hurting for money, he couldn’t just fork over a Jackson to a panhandler who was clearly down on his luck. As someone who has spent time behind bars, Meek should be extremely familiar with the feeling of despair.

We know Meek has a philanthropic side, his track record includes hosting a turkey giveaway for Thanksgiving and donating 60,000 bottles of water to Flint, Michigan, but when an unplanned, spontaneous opportunity presented itself, instead of doubling down on his previous good will, he opted to go full-on WorldStarHipHop.

For a man who has a long history of taking one L after another on the world wide web, Meek blew a great opportunity to broadcast a much-needed W.

Not only were Meek’s actions unbecoming, but they were blatantly hypocritical. In an interview last year, Meek maintained that negativity on social media doesn’t affect his real life. Yet, in his real life, Meek decided to amuse himself by embarrassing another human being, filming the embarrassment, and then streaming it to social media in real time. Insert shaking head gif.

Of course, Meek’s fans won’t care—in fact, they probably watched the videos snickering just as loud as Meek—and thanks to the collective attention span of the internet, nobody will remember this story in a few days. But as a culture, we should be concerned because hip-hop is almost always judged by its most unpleasant and unflattering moments and worst behavior.

Thankfully, for every Meek Mill, there’s a ScHoolboy Q to balance the scales.

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By Z, who loves to argue with you on Twitter.

Photo Credit: Instagram