Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, entertainment, michael davis, michaeldavis, milestone

I Won't Do That – Michael Davis, From The Edge

Michael Davis is an artist, writer, mentor, and entertainment executive. He writes,

Oh I would do anything for love,

I would do anything for love

But I won't do that

No I won't do that

From Meat Loaf's "I'll Do Anything for Love"

Everybody wants to be loved.

Everybody, including the self-proclaimed Master Of The Universe, needs love in their life.

Fun Fact: At the height of my "anything I wrote Bleeding Cool hated" phase, I really thought I couldn't give a damn. In fact, I went out of my way to fuel the fires of troll dissatisfaction.

Then something I never expected happened: I wrote an article about Hollywood and fully expected a torrent of hate, but instead there was support and real solid insight from some of the posts.

That's when I knew I did indeed give a damn.

That does not mean I won't say what I'm thinking or water it down. That means I was wrong in assuming most on Bleeding Cool were trolls. They aren't. In fact, given my actions on occasion, the biggest troll has been me.

Just like I assumed wrongly that Bleeding Cool readers were mostly trolls, many in the industry, both fan and professional, assume sooner or later I'm going to lose my temper and declare war on Milestone 2.0.

And maybe I'm crazy

Oh it's crazy and it's true

I know you can save me

No one else can save me now but you

Some really believe the hype that I'm out of control at times or that I'm simply crazy enough to do anything, regardless of the outcome of my actions. The truth is, I'm never out of control. No, my behavior is not an act; people think I'm out of control because I don't hide my indignation. No one puts it out there like I do, so what's that make me when I go off in public?

It makes me that crazy nigga.

Or it makes me too much trouble, a loose cannon, difficult to work with, or (the one I like) a force to be reckoned with. Seldom do I get the latter, and as for the rest, I'm fine with it, all of it. In fact, like I once did at Bleeding Cool, I encourage the noise.

That noise does not stop my objectives — what it does is weed out any and all pretenders who seek to be in business with me. At the very root of my 'brand' is the very real fact that when I say I don't give a f—, I don't. My public persona saves me quite a bit of time and money.

But sometimes my public persona scares the wrong people. A meeting usually clears that up. Sometimes during such a meeting I decide it's just not worth the effort to convince some people I'm not crazy, but most times it is.

Either way, I get to decide whether or not I want to be in business with whomever. 99% of the time that 'I'm not crazy' meeting is not necessary. I do little co-venturing these days as my dance card is and has been full for 4 years.

One of the few projects I'd made time for was Milestone 2.0, and during the last 4 years I've done a great deal on the project.

Didn't matter.

The deal became something I could not be a part of because how I saw myself was not how I was seen.

Fair enough.

It's called show business, NOT show friendship.

Ironically, it's that business which has cost me three friends, but not for the reason you may think. It's not about money and it's not about ego (on my end it isn't) — its about perception.

Recently, I wrote a silly post on Facebook. I'd gotten a credit card offer for a "we know your credit is ALL F—ED UP" credit card. Oh, hell no it's not. MY credit is so golden it's platinum. I pointed that out in my post, posted the credit card offer, and wrote something along the lines of "Milestone 2.0 is now trying tell people I have bad credit" because they sent me A MILESTONE gold card.

Milestone is the name of the type of card offered by a bank whose name I couldn't care less to know. It has nothing whatsoever to do with M2.0 and only an idiot wouldn't get the joke.

Whether or not anyone got the joke was lost on me when, in lieu of comments telling me how darn funny I was, I instead got a slew of instant messages, emails, texts, and one phone call all zeroing in on the war I'm having, had, or will have with M2.0.

Most asked and/or pleaded with me to call a truce before the big M 2.0 reveal at Comic Con. Look at that, I just gave them a nice little brand extension (M2.0) to go along with the name I came up with. Yeah, I admit it, calling out how I came up with the name Milestone 2.0 and now the brand extension, M2.0, will be seen as a dick move to some, but the truth is the truth.

The truth also is there is no war.

Oh, there could be, if I were the nigga some people would like others to believe I was.

But I'm not.

Let me school y'all a little on black power in the media. When he died, Don Cornelius was remembered in the media as the creator of Soul Train, but he was much more than that.

Don was a powerbroker who told me what he told most African-Americans coming up in the game, and that was to own your shit, take no shit.

Hollywood has a level of people out there looking to stop what you're doing (after they exploit you, that is). I'm not a conspiracy theory person, but that conspiracy is easy to find if you know where to look.

I'll make it easy for you to understand how real this is. Think about how many big-time heads of companies or media superstars have had to apologize for racially insensitive remarks.

Why do you think that is?

You think, the rich, white, and powerful just decided one day that Kevin Hart is a "whore"? That's the same day they decide to make a racist joke about our president, and while they're at it, decided on that day to tell their girlfriend she's going to be raped "by a bunch of niggers"? That must have been the day they decided to silence some Black hecklers at a comedy club by suggesting a "lynching" for those "niggers."

Think those Sony executives, Mel Gibson, and Michael Richards would apologize for those racist slights if not on tape, in an email, or spoken (Richards must have been HIGH) in front of an audience? If none of these antics were made public (HIGH AS A KITE), you think any of those Hollywood movers and shakers would have came clean?

No. No way in hell. I wouldn't, you wouldn't. Who would? I don't think in the history of racist remarks has someone from Hollywood or Washington come forward, admit to and apologize for being racist, without having been outed.

THIS IS A CNN SPECIAL REPORT: TED CRUZ ADMITS HE HATES BLACK PEOPLE.

Brian Williams: Senator, why have you decided to reveal your dislike for African Americans? There was no reason to do so. Again, why did you make your feelings public?

Ted Cruz: Brian, I didn't say I dislike African Americans. I said I hated jungle bunnies. As to the "why" of it all, I did so because it's the right thing to do.

Brian Williams: Senator, I must say admitting your prejudice because it's the "right thing to do" is a noble gesture.

Ted Cruz: Williams, no wonder you got caught lying, boy! You don't listen! I'm not making a noble gesture — I believe the right thing to do is hate the darkies.

Just to be clear, I'm referring to a Ted Cruz I met at the IHOP in Compton, California, not the Ted Cruz who is running for president as a Tea Party candidate. Any similarities between the two are completely random, coincidental, the luck of the draw, and magic.

The Brian Williams I refer to is the former anchor of NBC Nightly News.

Take a moment and Google "racist remarks" and "Hollywood" or any such combination of the key words "race," "Hollywood," "racism," "racial slurs," etc. Millions of links say the same thing, that SOME in Hollywood think if you're African-American, you're not welcome at the table with the white folk.

When Don schooled me on what to be prepared for, I thought I had a handle on the extent of the race problem. No, I did not.

Don shocked me into realizing how just how large the problem is.

Put another way, what happens when you change the game and the world looks to you for the next big thing and you're black? I'll tell you what happens. If you're the greatest entertainer in the history of the world, you become a child molester.

If you're an incredible voice actor and you are responsible for Elmo and you piss off some white boy in power? You become a child rapist and when you're cleared, that shit gets no press.

I have not the slightest idea if Bill Cosby did what he's accused of doing, and unless you're Mr. Cosby or a woman he (may have) sexually violated, neither do you.

If true, a hammer of righteous pain should be dropped on his ass.

I wonder how did something as horrible as those accusations exist for decades yet seemingly like magic a perfect storm of, print, broadcast, and social networking, somehow find its way to every major news outlet as if on cue?

Because it was on cue. On cue and calculated.

Regardless if he did it or not, Mr. Cosby is done. He is no longer America's dad. If Cos did it, he brought it on himself, but consider for a moment, JUST for a moment, if he didn't.

You can't.

Those voices are too loud, so he's already guilty.

Very often when a black person becomes the standard bearer, that standard is attacked. The only way to withstand that attack is to stand your ground. That's what Muhammad Ali did, Malcolm X, James Brown, Ray Charles, Berry Gordy, Master P, and every hip-hip hop artist who changed the game then and who's changing the game now.

People don't hate Kanye because of his music, people hate him because he's a non-apologetic Nigga with a following. That's why they hated Ali, that's why they killed Malcolm, and that's why the greatest entertainer in the world will never be the GOD Elvis is.

Gods don't f— kids, and neither did Michael, but I can hear the debate raging before I finish the sentence.

Ali, Malcolm, Michael, and most any Black force will at some point each get the tag "crazy nigger." Crazy is what they had to be to dare dream of a life above the station "the Man" placed them in.

And maybe I'm crazy

Oh it's crazy and it's true

I know you can save me

No one else can save me now but you

I'm not crazy.

I'm my mother's son, and she taught me to stand my ground, to be who I am.

Don Cornelius, Clarence Avant, William T. Williams, Berry Gordy, Bill Duke, Tom Joyner, Maya Angelou, Richie Havens, Betty Blayton Taylor, and every great Black elder I've been lucky as hell to meet all said the exact same thing to me.

Create it, own it, and be aware — ALWAYS — aware that the deck is stacked against me as it was them.

They used different words and different examples, but the message was the very same. Black creators who came before me all seem to have witnessed the same crime, but describe it slightly different.

They also said something I'm ashamed to admit I thought was just bullshit. E. Van Lowe said this to me a year or so ago and I dismissed it then as well. Tatiana El-Khouri said it to me 6 weeks ago, and I ripped her head off.

Tatiana, who cornered me a decade ago and MADE me take her under my wing. Tatiana, whose network and reach is so strong now, I'm lucky she takes my calls, echoed what those great mentors said.

Let it go.

If faced with a choice between family and business, let the business go. If part of something and circumstances dictate you have to get out, or you're left out, voted out, or shut out — as hard as it may be, don't speak out in such a manner, it becomes the fight everyone thinks it is or will be.

The last thing Black creators need is that noise.

It's sickening to think that Michael Davis and Denys Cowan would be at each other's throats. But that's what people think and that's what people expect. It's not true by the way. Denys and I haven't spoken in two months, not because we're at each other's throat but because life is what happens while you're making other plans.

John Lennon, said that he also said, this.

Imagine no possessions

I wonder if you can

No need for greed or hunger

A brotherhood of man

I don't need Milestone 2.0. I don't need to sue anyone, I don't need to fight anyone. I do, like everyone else just need love. Most people will, as the song says do anything for love, and I thought I would also.

I was wrong.

I won't wage a war against a man once a best friend. I won't create a or engage in a interchange of rumors and lies. I won't participate in helping those who would use their influence and power to keep black art from the mainstream.

I'll do anything for love but-I won't do that.

That said, there's only so much I can take. I've lost much in the last year and the pain is simply overbearing at times, so I'm done. DW, stop rewriting history or as Dr. Dre said;

Y'all are gonna keep f—ing around with me and turn me back to the old me.

Don't think for a moment I won't obliterate your bullshit narrative.

I would do that.

Michael Davis PhD

April 2015

Somewhere over the rainbow

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