Why Paris Hilton's Sentence is the Right One

Paris Hilton has been sentenced to 45 days in prison for violating her probation terms. She won't be able to choose her prison, there will be no work releases, electronic monitoring or any other concessions. Just a plain old jail with an hour outside her cell each day. Her mother thought the sentence was 'pathetic and disgusting' and her lawyer was 'shocked and surprised' by it. Why is that? What exactly did they expect when Paris kept breaking the law? Is she special in that regard?

If one disobeys the law one can expect retribution. What is the point of having laws which some people ignore or which only work with some types but not others? If the law is not applicable to all, can we expect it to work to society's benefit when we want it to do so? If we give no respect to the law we are actually condoning a lawless society and one dreads to think of the consequences of that. The law can only be effective if it is taken seriously, treated with respect and applied to everyone, whether rich or poor, high or low, famous or unknown. If those three elements are not in place, judges and lawyers might as well pack up and go home.

There are four reasons why this is a just sentence. First, Hilton was caught for alcohol-related reckless driving in 2006, and reckless driving costs lives. Simple and unequivocal. She could have killed someone in her state. She was given 36 months probation, $1500 in fines and mandatory alcohol education. All of which she accepted, especially reporting for enrolment in the education programme. Yet she never did enrol and, worse still, she took to driving again and was stopped twice by police when she was not even supposed to be in her car! She said she didn't know she was banned! Wow!


The Responsibilities of Being Celebrity
Second, Hilton is a celebrity role model, whether she acknowledges that or not. Millions of teens and other women across the world who look up to her would be watching, and even emulating, what she does. Flouting the law is not behaviour to inspire, or even reassure, such fans and followers, neither can she be allowed to disregard her probation by placing herself above it.

Third, for the law to work effectively, its application has to be consistent and perceived to be fair, no matter what the actual reality says. By ignoring whatever Hilton does in her case, a strong message of bias would be sent out to the general public regarding favoured people and their ability to ignore the law. The effect of that kind of action on others who are similarly sentenced would be disastrous, for upholding the law, for respect of it or instilling a sense of fairness in its jurisdiction. Worse of all, it would weaken the legitimacy of that law.

Finally, no one is above the law. Ignoring her actions would have encouraged others to do the same, especially when there are many people caught daily drinking and driving. How would such similar resistance by the public have been contained if it got out of hand? If a celebrity is going to behave as if a legal ruling doesn't apply to her then she must be prepared to take the consequences. One cannot flout the law then expect any mercy because the very act of doing as one pleases is to put one's self outside of its orbit. And if the law ceases to apply to our lives, what kind of state are we heading for?

At least one thing will come out of this. All those on similar probation who might be tempted to do the same will probably think again if they don't want to go to prison. Well done, Judge Sauer! Common sense is beginning to rule at last! There really should be no appeal to waste taxpayer's money any further.

Does Obama's Audacity Carry Lessons for Britain? (2)

(This is a comment on my article below on Barack Obama and my reply to it.)

Elaine, I agree with everything you have said. This article is on the ball. It also goes to show that you don't always have to marry outside of your community to be successful. To me that is the most salient point. While love is more important than race, the fact that he has chosen a Black woman to be his wife speaks volumes. A lesson that Black leaders in the UK need to embrace as opposed to scorn in the name of acceptance. Delroy Constantine-Simms


Thank you so much for taking the time to read and comment on my article, Delroy. It is appreciated.

While I see the point you are making, and thank you for making it, about Barack's choice of a wife, White members are 'his community' too. We cannot disown one half of his heritage to suit ourselves. Just because he looks more 'black' than 'white' does not mean he should just relate to the Black part of his life. He is both Black and White, and disowning the White part means disowning his dear mother! We seem to expect this kind of action from any mixed-heritage, successful person in our community. They are then put in an unenviable position of being treated negatively, as extraordinary beings on probation of 'acting Black', instead of ordinary humans with their own feelings. Yet we do not lay this extra emotional burden on White peers. They are not judged by their choice of mates. They are just left to prove themself.

I think it is time for us to leave such colour codes out of love. People fall in love for all sorts of reasons across personal, professional and geographical lines. Though he obviously gravitates towards a Black wife, with a White mother as a role model he could equally have settled for a White wife too. Would that have made him less of a passionate, caring human being to other Blacks? Would you have marked him down for that and treated him with less respect? Are we still feeling so inferior as a group that we can still regard any mixed partnership as a threat? I am speaking as the product of a White grandfather and the ex-wife of a Sikh. That has not made me any less conscious of being a Black woman in my world, neither has it tempted me to disown my very fair mother to show how 'black' I am!

Time to extricate ourselves from superficialities in the 21st century, Delroy, if we are going to fight the real battles of exclusion that we still face. We are too wrapped up in colour when we should bear it in mind, yes, but realise that colour is only one major part of our make up: the rest are gender, religion/beliefs, class, self-love and aspiration. In fact, self-love, aspiration and self-confidence are far more important in our life journey than colour because they have given us successes like Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, Denzel Washington, Halle Berry and, above all, Oprah Winfrey, the richest Black woman in the world. Her colour did her no favours, along with being the victim of violence and sexual abuse, but she rose above it to show that, no matter what colour you are, achievement, money and power speak far above that.


Main Reasons Behind Failure
The same absence of self-love, confidence and aspiration has incarcerated millions of Black brothers and sisters in prison. People who would rather blame their White peers for their current underachievement while they deal in drugs, rob, kill and maim, instead of raising their aspirations and getting an education to progress their life in a more self-fulfilling and self-empowering way. We love to show how 'black' we are at certain times but loathe ourselves at quiet moments- like our hair, our physical features, our luck - because years of slavery, repression, imposition, exclusion and confusion have robbed us of our identity and our soul. Our obsession with failure, blackness, and discrimination is what has kept us down. They have stopped us from seeing what is possible and blighted our success. We fail to see a balance in our life by always pointing out the negatives when they should also accompany the positives in some way.

People like you can change perceptions, Delroy, but you have to adopt a new approach for a new millennium. Not still harking back to the past and living there, judging everything on negative colour lines while the present rushes past us and denies us a future. Point out discrimination and grievance, by all means, but let's stop turning on our brothers/sisters and give them some slack. We cannot return to the past to change a single thing but we can learn from it in some way to make our present and future more glorious than anything before them. Barack Obama has done that. It is all about the present and the future for him.

But that choice is ours. Only by changing our way of seeing the world, those personal perceptions which harp on negativity and seek scapegoats, can we even begin to take advantage of the opportunities available, let alone fulfil our true potential.