Prince passed away little over a week ago and it seems every dog, snake and Scarlet Pussy is itching to make a dollar or thousands out of his death. Memorabilia on Ebay, shops double promoting anything purple, record stores finally displaying a wider range of his albums, pubs/bars pulling in the punters to sing Purple Rain on the karaoke, tacky home made mementoes for sale flooding social media sites, the list goes on. In the midst of the raw shock of trying to accept that Prince has left this world, I've done my best to keep silent and ignore the BS...until today.
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| Prince in Atlanta, April 2016 |
*To save myself being lynched, or causing offense, I have purposely not mentioned names or added images of the "charities" pursuing Purple Funding.*
Barely 24 hours after
Prince's time of death was announced to the world, my Facebook timeline began dripping suggestions to donate to
various charities that Prince “would want you” to donate to or
contribute to a tribute idea. As the days passed the suggestions,
the number of charities and the 'peer pressure' to pursue, in honour
of Prince's memory has upped. I think it's fair to say that I'm in
the angry phase of mourning and along with a lot of other ish I'm
seeing, I've had it with the Purple Chuggers – Charity Muggers
cashing in on Prince. Jeez, the guy hasn't even kicked off his heels
in his eternal home yet but the serpents are hissing.
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| 2001 Secret donation Prince made to Louisville Free Public Library |
There's no doubt in my
mind that Prince was a generous and supportive soul. The endless
tributes from his fellow contemporaries, folks within his
Minneapolis community and talk of secret donations testify that and I'm proud of him for it.
However, Prince kinda money is not my kinda money. I'm a single
mother with health issues, fretting every time the postwoman walks up
my path. Like many other fans around the world, following and
supporting his career has been costly, emotionally as well as in the
pocket. I'd do all 29 years over again without question but when a
Prince show was announced in a town near me, I didn't have no credit
on my card to nonchalantly buy the best ticket. To see my idol meant
putting off a few bills and having less food in the cupboard for a
couple of weeks. When I walked out of a concert on a Purple High, I
couldn't scoop up the merchandise on offer after scraping my purse
for enough to buy a tour book. I know I'm not the only Prince fan in
the struggles so I hope any reading this will understand that I don't
wanna hear about donating to one ex wife's animal sanctuary, the
other ones school, vegans or any of the 1999 plans to mark his birth
date with a “small contribution”.
No offence to either
lady as the pledge for their causes has been
urged by others and I don't wish to upset any genuine charitable cause either. I'm pro charitable acts and admire those who offer
their time and hard work to causes they believe in. Hey, I donate
(small, but every little helps) regularly to a cancer charity and a
project for deaf children, but I despise Chuggers. Here in the UK
we're plagued by “volunteers” who's goal is to get hold off as many
donor's personal details as possible, guilt tripping them into donating, so they can sell the info on to other
“fundraisers” to gain profit and the donor is then harassed further by these third party companies. Now I'm not suggesting either of
Prince's ex's handle their business any wrong way, but I'm sorry,
nobody ain't using me to get their slice of the Purple Pie.
Remember, I'm in my angry stage of grief so forgive me if I speak out
of turn but if Prince had wanted and/or intended to support these
charities he would've left a damned will (which in my hours of self
deliberating, still cannot comprehend, but that's for another post!).
If I was to donate to
any cause in his honour, it would be to preserve his legacy so it
carries on honestly and tastefully to a level of which he would
approve, for the years to come. There's not just his music, there's
the instruments, the clothes, the whole of Paisley Park that I want
my great grandchildren and their children and any future little music
genius to learn and be inspired from. In this moment, that's what I
worry about. Any Purple Chuggers can frig right off.
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| BEWARE OF THE #PUGGERS |
And with the conclusion
of this post I will now refer to all people cashing in on Prince
#Puggers... Purple Family be aware.
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