Much like @DeeMarleyy420, when I recently logged onto Twitter, I wondered, “Aint Kevin Samuels Dead?? Why he trending…”
Due to the fact that I’m Black and have internet access, I’m familiar with the so-called relationship guru who died of a heart attack last month, after making a living by publicly putting down Black women and spewing chauvinistic bullshit. His content was not for me, so I never purposely indulged.
However, I know Kevin Samuels has many passionate fans—the Samuelites as I once heard them (mockingly) called at the barbershop—so, like others, I noticed his presence in many of the tweets surrounding the breakup of Michael B. Jordan and Lori Harvey, the latest reason for his name once again posthumously trending this week.
People can have their theories about why two strangers end a relationship, but most rational folks should grasp that there’s only so much you can infer about folks you don't actually know, celebrities or otherwise. Unfortunately, when you combine rampant misogyny with the devastating impact of No Child Left Behind on the critical thinking skills of an entire generation, you’ll find a lot of dim men projecting their insecurities onto a woman they’ve never met.
Recalling some of what Samuels used to say when he was alive, it’s no wonder some fans of his started posting comments such as: “Kevin samuels was right when he said single women keep women single.”
Or the “hurt n*gga tweets” like: “They don’t want a GOOD GUY. They want a man with a criminal record, a lot of money, and a bunch of kids they don’t take care of. A man that won’t have time to be there for them but, will send them money unlimited. A good man isn’t their type period! #LoriHarvey #Useless”
The first tweet is fake-deep. As for the second: Boo, hoo, hoo, nigga. Boo, hoo, hoo. Meanwhile, Michael B. Jordan, famous millionaire celebrated for his looks, will be aight, y’all.
Sadly, there are a lot more posts like these on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and anywhere else hurt men go to bitch about women.
I thought of Kevin Samuels as a discount Steve Harvey for the YouTube era. How did he become Malcolm X to the goofiest wing of the Black community?
Others took the trending time to reminisce about Samuels or play revisionist history: “Kevin Samuels was giving us women free game!! But YET, some how, some way. Yall fumbled the message, couldn’t take accountability, or learn from him. But yall chose to celebrate his death ….. I’m embarrassed for y’all man.”
You can’t see it, but a part of me just died inside.
Now, when a person describes Black women over 35 and unmarried as “leftovers” and publicly argues that a mother shouldn’t believe a child who claims to have been molested by the mother’s romantic partner, said person should anticipate being spoken to in kind by others, whether dead or alive. I agree with the idea that no one owes a dead Kevin Samuels the respect he didn’t give to others while he was here—especially not Black women, who were often the targets of his most toxic vitriol.
No, not every Kevin Samuels fan is intellectually deficient. Not every fan of his hates women to their core. However, much of what Samuels had to say about women and relationships was delivered with a stench of misogyny and a side of stupid.
So, God rest his soul and shit, but his comments were what they were and while they might have found him an audience, some Samuelites scare me when they write shit like, “I honestly think he was killed.”
It’s one thing to read some random shit on Twitter, but I’ve heard this said out loud by an adult allowed to freely roam the streets. And others agreed! Let some people tell it, when it comes to Samuels, “He was a form of the black messiah. He wanted greatness for the community and you know what they do to those.”
I thought of Kevin Samuels as a discount Steve Harvey for the YouTube era. How did he become Malcolm X to the goofiest wing of the Black community?
Black people will talk all fucking day long about relationship issues (especially the straight ones). I get that Samuels provided a lot of material in that regard. And, for better or worse, a lot of Black men feel misunderstood and piled on, so some will value anyone who comes across as an advocate of them. I get that some felt heard. Still, many men just want their biases preached back to them and will take it in any form. Even dead?
I guess I should have known he would live in infamy when he filmed an episode of Atlanta before his death. Or when I started hearing about the tattoos some of the Samuelities have gotten in memoriam. Samuels is even more inescapable in the afterlife than when he was here in the physical—his random trending on Twitter every so often over some bullshit has confirmed it. Either way, if this man is going to haunt my social media feeds from beyond the grave, may the actual Messiah send me good filters to ignore this man in death the way I tried to when he was alive.
And heaven help the Samuelites, even though they don’t want to be saved.