Transnational Celebrity Activism in Global Politics by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781283162845
Goodreads: 16973212
Publisher: Intellect (UK)
Published: 2011-08-03T00:00:00+00:00

Bling: The Hip Hop Community and Conflict Diamonds

The release of Blood Diamond met with a multi million-dollar public relations campaign from the diamond industry to counter negative publicity (Hollar 2007). De Beers hired PR firm Sitrick and Co. (which specializes in celebrity scandals), while the wider diamond industry launched a website (diamonfacts.org), and ran full-page ads online and in the press (Snead 2006). On one hand, this illustrates that pressure regarding the issue of conflict diamonds forced those who profit from the trade in diamonds to publicly frame the possibilities of both ethical consumption and extraction. On the other, it channels the issue of ethical consumption into the purchase of ‘conflict-free’ stones. While this is a critical issue, the discursive production of ‘conflict diamonds’ or ‘blood diamonds’ enables unethical gems to be circumscribed to those linked with atrocity. The less sensational or cinematic issues of local and global inequalities around class, race, gender, nation, (post)coloniality, and the paradoxes intrinsic to global capitalism must be sublimated in order for some diamonds to be signified as ‘conflict free’.

Russell Simmons, hip hop and fashion mogul, founder of Def Jam records, Phat Farm fashion, and Simmons Jewellery Company participated in the diamond industry’s PR offensive. Simmons’ personal fortune is estimated to be between US $325 million and US $500 million (Fetterman 2007). He works with the South African De Beers Company on his jewellery line, a company notorious for its history of monopolistic practices, price fixing, and brutal labour practices, particularly under apartheid (Roberts 2003). Bonnie Abaunza, the Los Angeles-based director of Amnesty International’s ‘celebrity outreach programme’ arranged a pre-release screening of Blood Diamond for Simmons (Snead 2006), who subsequently took part in a ‘fact-finding’ mission to South Africa and Botswana from 26 November to 4 December 2006. Simmons’ return, and the publicity his trip generated, thus coincided with the release of Blood Diamond in US theatres on December 8. Simmons claimed that his trip was an attempt to draw attention to the way the countries he visited were benefiting from the diamond industry, and reflected his concern that ‘too much attention was being placed on the illicit “conflict diamonds” that are the focus of Blood Diamond’ (Reuters 2006). Thus, at a press conference upon his return, Simmons announced the launch of his ‘Green Initiative’ range of jewellery, a quarter of the profits from which would be paid into a fund he would establish, the Diamond Empowerment Fund. The fund currently finances education initiatives in South Africa and Botswana.

News coverage around the release of Blood Diamond focused on the diamond industry’s response to the film, and the rift between the film’s director Edward Zwick and Russell Simmons. Zwick criticized Simmons as a ‘PR puppet’ of the diamond industry, and one article hyperbolized this disagreement as Africa’s ‘new civil war’ (Africa Resource 2006). Broadcast journalism also focused on the diamond industry’s response to the film, thwarting attempts of star Djimon Hounsou to use the film’s publicity to draw attention to the issue of child soldiers (Hollar 2007).

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