Willow Smith’s Role Model Is Paris Hilton

Willow Smith is seven and her father, Will Smith, is already trying to put a curse on her. In a recent interview Will Smith said his daughter wants to be the new Paris Hilton. There is a word for this and I believe it is “Damn!” If I had a daughter I would rather she be compared to Wilma Flintstone instead of the billionaire heiress of the Hilton empire. Both are caricatures of humanity. Wilma Flintstone may be a cartoon character. But compared to Paris Hilton she has all the integrity in the world.

Paris Hilton is the epitome of narcissism. With all the zeroes in her undeserved bank account I doubt very seriously if she’d spend a dime on helping others in need. Her anti social behavior led to one of the briefest stints in jail because she had a mysterious illness that prevented her from serving her full sentence behind bars. The mysterious illness turned out to be claustrophobia. There are women who are pregnant in prison and are practically dropping their babies on their cell floor who don’t get that kind of compassion from our blind justice system. And this is the person Will Smith encourages his daughter to emulate.

Despite his performance on the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air I actually liked Will Smith. He’s done a few good movies. I enjoyed Independence Day in spite of all the flaws. Men In Black was tight despite the fact that Mr. Smith’s character Agent J acted more like Tommy Smothers against Tommy Lee Jones’ character Agent K. Enemy of the State was cool but for some reason I’ve never been able to catch the first ten minutes of the show.

After Mr. Smith turned down the part of Neo in the original Matrix in order to reprise Robert Conrad’s character James West in the Wild, Wild, West I pretty much suspected that Mr. Smith has gone off the deep end. A black man is a civil war hero in nineteenth century America and becomes a top marshal of the United States. Yeah! Right! This adaptation of the old television show appealed to Will Smith’s ego more than the experimental Matrix.

Since then Mr. Smith and I went our separate ways. I did see I, Robot on a cable channel. But I thought the movie was dumb. His character, Del Spooner, hates robots because a robot saved his life. Every time he thinks about the day the robot saved his life tears well up in his eyes. Double dumb. Mr. Smith and I have too many irreconcilable differences for us to come to terms. It’s better if we just stayed going on our separate paths.

Willow Smith is a beautiful little seven year old African American girl. Instead of her parents doing their best to develop a strong sense of African Americanism the girl is being guided in the likes of a white billionaire snob of a woman. It’s pretty obvious that a strong affiliation with the black community is the last thing on the mind of the Smiths. Said Mr. Smith of his son, “Jaden is Johnny Depp. He just wants to do good work. He loves acting, he just wants to make good movies.”

Now I don’t have a problem with Johnny Depp. Mr. Depp has done a number of good movies himself and appears to be a much better role model for children than the woeful Ms. Hilton. But again, this role model has nothing to do with being black or helping a nine year old develop his appreciation for and affiliation with the black community. Mr. Depp may be a good example for children to follow. But I do believe it is important that black people do their best to develop their black children’s identify with a priority on black role models. The disassociation from the black community by the Smith family is well underway.

I’m pretty sure that plenty of people will see the need for parents to choose the role models for their children carefully. Good role models can be invaluable in helping children develop a sense of self as well as a sense of community. But, personally, I think parents who allow their children to develop acting careers at such early ages are playing with fire. But their child’s future is their prerogative and not mine.