A serious issue in America today is the “Celebrity Role Model”.  If you ask individuals from this generation who they look up to, you’ll hear names like Kim Kardashian or Lil’ Wayne. I am tired of going on Twitter and seeing the ignorance young people are retweeting from celebrities. But what makes me even more upset is the fact that parents blame celebrities for not being a good role model for their children.

I don’t know if anyone remembers the Nike commercial featuring Charles Barkley in the 90s’. In the commercial, Barkley says “I’m not paid to be a role model; I get paid to play basketball.”  I don’t think a better statement could have been made.

For some celebrities, being in the spotlight is inevitable–take people like Mike Vick for instance. He gets paid to have millions of people watch him play football. But when the dog fighting incident came up, people said Vick was a bad role model–why? Because he is a human who made a mistake, and it just so happens he’s a football player? If you think about it, Vick never really tried to be a role model.

It’s not his fault—what about the parent that allowed the television to stay on?

 Reality television stars are the worst. These people are on TV to “act a fool” basically. When the parent allows their children to watch shows like Bad Girls Club and Basketball Wives, it gives a false perception to their children of how to act. Let us just be honest, if you are in college and you look up to Judi from BGC  that is a problem.

Evelyn Lozoda from Basketball Wives is now trying to be a role model for women who have been “battered”. We have all seen Evelyn and her antics on her show, but now we have to “look up to her” because an altercation with her former husband Chad Johnson? Some things just make no sense.

To be a positive role model requires one to actually be a positive person. Parents have to be there to show children how to grow up in life. Be the example. Don’t let the television and celebrities raise your child because then you are to blame–not the TV stars.