Don’t celebrate the imfamous

By Devin Ramos |Staff Writer|

The proposed boxing match between George Zimmerman and rapper DMX was a poor choice by the event’s promoters as it glorified Zimmerman for his infamous trial in 2013.

The fight would boost the already infamous Zimmerman into the celebrity spotlight by glorifying his acquittal for the death of Trayvon Martin.

There was anger and pleas that sought justice for Martin after Zimmerman’s acquittal, which added fuel to the media frenzy.

In my opinion, we need to be aware that putting Zimmerman on display is not the way to go about giving him what the public thinks he deserves.

CNN reports that Rev. Al Sharpton said that he was concerned about the precedent it sets.

Sharpton said, “We must be very careful not to glorify or in any way sidestep the implications of making someone whose only claim to fame was killing an unarmed young man.”

The public’s response towards media coverage and viral videos often draws in a response that glorifies those that are involved.

People are addicted to the attention that arises from the daily lives of the infamous and can’t help but tune in and watch.

I suspect that there would be a handful of people that were opposed to the fight who would still watch the two duke it out.

The popularity of fight videos on YouTube and Worldstarhiphop.com draw up to two million views each.

I can imagine that the prominence of these two individuals on the Internet and television would have easily drawn in more viewers even if they opposed the fight.

The proposed event caused controversy when the fight between the two was proposed on Feb 5.

CNN reported that the fight was initially Zimmerman’s idea, and that he initially contacted the owner of Celebrity Boxing, Damon Feldman.

Feldman shouldn’t be held entirely responsible for promotion of the fight between Zimmerman and DMX because support was already forming before he signed on.

The website Twitchy is reporting that there are many people on Twitter that are calling for the rapper to kill Zimmerman.

DMX, no stranger to the negative perception of legal troubles should have used more common sense and stayed out of  the Zimmerman controversy.

With both potential boxers in a bad light the fight was cancelled on Feb. 8 and I think Feldman made a good choice in doing so.

According to USA Today, Feldman tweeted, “There’s more to life than money. I walked away from a million-dollar payday with this fight but to be honest I’d rather be happy and make people happy.”

We need to be aware of how events like this can skew the perceptions of people like Zimmerman, because our best interests are not in the minds of those that put these events together.