The privilege afforded wealthy white men like Charlie Sheen ...

[Liberal_in_LA]

The privilege afforded wealthy white men like Charlie Sheen may not be a particularly new point, but it’s an important one nonetheless. Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears are endlessly derided for their extracurricular meltdowns and lack of professionalism on set; the R&B star Chris Brown was made a veritable pariah after beating up his equally, if not more, famous girlfriend, the singer Rihanna. Their careers have all suffered, and understandably so.

This hasn’t been the case with Mr. Sheen, whose behavior has been repeatedly and affectionately dismissed as the antics of a “bad boy” (see: any news article in the past 20 years), a “rock star” (see: Piers Morgan, again) and a “rebel” (see: Andrea Canning’s “20/20” interview on Tuesday). He has in essence, achieved a sort of folk-hero status; on Wednesday, his just-created Twitter account hit a million followers, setting a Guinness World Record.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/04/opinion/04holmes.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

[wtmusic]

1. Mel Gibson is toast

and so is Charlie's career, at this point.

[Donnachaidh]

2. that *show* of his was nothing more than a half hour of penis jokes

And it doesn't take much of a stretch to figure the mentality of his *audience*. Sheen is going to wind up on celebrity rehab, and slide into d list wannabees pretty soon.

[lapislzi]

4. SO glad I don't watch TV

Looks like I haven't been missing anything. I have no idea what a Kardashian is or why it's on TV. Or a Snooki. Is that someone's little dog?

[JBoy]

5. Don't overestimate the length of the penis-joke show. More like 22 minutes.

[seabeyond]

6. i thought it kinda cute the first year... then it morphed to what you said. saw the kid included

in all this males stuff and that is when i was bothered by the show. havent seen it in years.

[Liberal_in_LA]

7. The Drew Carey show went that way...kinda cute at 1st, then sexual inuendo took over

[seabeyond]

8. yup. same thing happened. a little and tasteful, cute. vulgar and insulting, not so much.

i dont know why that is so hard to get

[Liberal_in_LA]

10. yup, very vulgar & insulting, especially with respect to the woman with the extreme makeup

[Romulox]

3. Counterpoints: Lil' Wayne, Michael Vick, Kobe...

:shrug:

[MellowDem]

9. Exaaaaactly....

Trying to make it just about his race and gender is missing the biggest point.

He's rich.

That matters more than anything else. If he was a white male who made $40,000 a year, he'd be in jail for the stuff he has done.

Maybe white male rich people do have it easier than black male rich people or white female rich people, but it's parsing a point that ignores the chasm based on economics.

Not to mention, lots of people love Britney and Lindsay and quite a few find Sheen disgusting, so I don't really think your personal perspective of how they are viewed or treated is all that accurate. (to the OP)

[Liberal_in_LA]

12. thread title wasn't necessary my opinion. Throwing it out for discussion. I'd forgotten about

Kobe. I see the $$ connection if important.

[Liberal_in_LA]

13. didn't 2 of these 3 go to jail?

[Romulox]

18. I was reacting to the contrast implicit in"Their careers have all suffered, and understandably so."

The article wasn't really about Sheen's skirting of jail, but rather his continuing popularity in the face of various allegations...

[amandabeech]

16. Michael Vick. Disgusting!!!

I don't know that time in prison actually cures anyone with a mind sick enough to torture helpless dogs.

I simply cannot forgive that kind of behavior.

But it seems like a lot of people do, including you know who.

[Romulox]

20. He's lucky that his life and livelihood don't turn on my forgiveness.

He'll never get it.

[JoePhilly]

21. Vick actually went to jail for about 18 months.

So it is not like he got a pass.

[amandabeech]

27. Considering what he did, that simply wasn't enough.

If I were running the NFL, I would have banned him for life.

The only thing lower than what he did is torturing children to death.

[JoePhilly]

30. Can you tell me what job you would allow him to have?

A key part of American justice includes allowing a person who commits a crime to return to society.

Vick was arrested, tried, found guilty, was sentenced, and went to jail. That is how it works.

Now, if you have committed certain crimes, you can be banned from the related profession. So if you are a lawyer, and you break certain laws, you can be disbarred. If you work for a financial company, and you get caught doing insider trading, you won't be going back to that career.

But for Vick ... his crime, and his profession, are unrelated.

So ... let's say Vick wasn't a football player. Let's say he was a house painter. In your opinion, could he go back to that job? What job would you say he could have? Or, can he never work in any field?

Certainly Vick has earned the hate he receives from many. But he went to jail and served his time.

After doing so, in this country, a person gets to return to society and try to do better. If he returns to dog fighting, I hope they throw him back in jail.

Regardless, this thread was about who gets to "walk". Vick did not get to "walk" he went to jail, which is what is supposed to happen.

[nessa]

29. Torturing dogs or abusing women ...

Which is worse?

[Number23]

33. So surprised that you didn't get an answer to this excellent question

Even in this thread on CHARLIE SHEEN'S disgusting, misogynistic idiocy, folks are still screaming about Michael Vick and how what he did was so horrible with hardly word about Sheen's frequent, DECADES long mistreatment of women.

How very telling.

[walldude]

11. What?

Funny I can't find a single person that is viewing Sheen as a "folk-hero". Not one. I see a bunch of rubberneckers watching a train wreck. Probably mostly the same million people who are right now watching Maury Povich...

[WolverineDG]

14. I realize this may come as a shocker to some but

Charlie Sheen isn't white. He's Latino.

But otherwise, yeah, he's on the receiving end of privilege extended to the wealthy.

dg

[Erose999]

15. He isn't even Charlie Sheen. His real name is Carlos Estevez.

[yawnmaster]

23. One can be Hispanic/Latino and also be white. Racially, Hispanics/Latinos encompass a wide...

racial range, which includes "white" in that range.

[Dappleganger]

25. If you look white you get treated as white...

people go by looks and not by the name. That's why the president gets treated as a black man because he looks like one, although he is half white.

And I highly doubt that Sheen identifies more culturally with latino culture than he does white.

[yawnmaster]

26. And in the case of Charlie Sheen, he is "fully white", that is, racially 100% white. eom

[JVS]

17. Charlie Sheen is a stage name, he was born Carlos Estevez. So that begs the question of whether...

you're right to even label him a wealthy white man. Maybe he's a demonstration that America has come so far that a wealthy hispanic man can make a total ass of himself and be described as a "bad boy".

[yawnmaster]

24. you are confusing ethnicity with race. Sheen's grandfather came from Spain/Cuba...

and his grandmother (these are Martin Sheen's parents) came from Ireland.
For what it's worth, and that's probably nothing, Charlie Sheen is white.
(and Hispanic).

[aikoaiko]

19. nytimes has failed to recognize that Charlie Sheen is handling this very differently than the others

that they mention.

[fittosurvive]

22. I don't understand the fascination with his whiteness.

Are you suggesting that he is receiving special treatment because he is white?

Robert Downy got hammered pretty hard, and he is white. On the other hand, Puff Daddy slid around the corner when he misbehaved.

[JCMach1]

28. Why are we even talking about this? For the love of ...

:wtf:

Sheen I mean!

[Liquorice]

31. If you've got enough money race doesn't matter, especially

when it comes to abusing women. A man, regardless of race, has a good chance of getting away with doing harm to a woman, including murdering her, if he's got the $$$. Money will not help a woman get out of trouble however. I don't know why that is, but it is a fact.

[dionysus]

32. really? everyone i know thinks he's a crazy douchebag and a jerk.

[Scurrilous]

34. Wealthy white man?

I thought he had tiger blood.