Impactful Celebrity Open Letters

TNT commentator and former NBA player Kenny Smith recently wrote one of the more impactful celebrity open letters when he challenged his co-worker Charles Barkley’s public opinions on the protests and rioting in Ferguson, Missouri following a grand jury’s decision not to indict Darren Wilson.

The open letter has been a rather fascinating format to tackle public issues. When done wrong they can come off long-winded and pretentious. But when executed properly, open letters are a great way for uninterrupted commentary. Here are some of the most hard hitting open letters.

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After completely botching his decision to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2010, LeBron James kept things a bit more low key in 2014 by announcing his return to the Cavs with an open letter in Sports Illustrated entitled “I’m Coming Home.”

True to his word, Martin Luther King Jr. rarely answered criticism about his work and ideas regarding civil rights. But his letter to eight white religious leaders of the South, King laid out his vision. The result was “Letter From A Birmingham Jail,” which was subsequently reprinted in The Atlantic and should be required reading.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has a reputation of being one of the more cerebral athletes, and it’s backed up by his multiple open letters. In September of 2014, Abdul-Jabbar used TIME magazine to address a leaked, controversial email from former Atlanta Hawks majority owner Bruce Levinson about diversifying his fan base.

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After critics at several of the listening sessions for Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange album noticed several songs addressing a male lover in the first person, Frank Ocean took to his Tumblr account and recount an early romantic experience he had with another man.

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Like most of us, after seeing Miley Cyrus have some type of cultural appropriating sexual awakening in public, Sinead O’Connor had something to say. So O’Connor took to her website and blasted Cyrus by admonishing her, “Don’t let the music business make a prostitute of you.”

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Lauryn Hill has faced much scrutiny over her live performances in the latter half of her career as well as her finances after being charged with tax evasion. Before beginning her three-month sentence, Hill posted a missive on her website linking racism, capitalism and her situation.

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Clive Davis is still one of the more powerful people in the music industry. So when he took shots at Kelly Clarkson, the “Since You’ve Been Gone” singer fired back. Clarkson accused Davis of attempting to bully her and outright lying about events.

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Fellow Nickelodeon alum Nick Cannon may have been one of the few people in Hip-Hop’s periphery to defend Amanda Bynes after the actress fell off the rails in 2013. Cannon offered his support to Bynes and called her his sister.

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Comparing a sex act to the mutilation of Civil Rights martyr Emmett Till was a terrible idea. But Lil Wayne took steps to rectify his mistake with an open letter apology to Till’s family via MissInfo.tv in 2013

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After catching some serious heat from the HIV positive community over the movie Temptation and supposedly being outed by a former friend, Tyler Perry wrote an open letter on his website entitled “That Is Your Past And There Is No Future In It.”

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Jada Pinkett-Smith has addressed blended families, Willow Smith’s hair and the perception of her having an open marriage with Will Smith with open letters on Facebook. The latter stemmed from her saying, “Will can do whatever he wants,” which was interpreted by some as endorsing an open marriage.

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The Russian government has been rather intolerant of the LGBT community. So when actor Wentworth Miller was invited to the St. Petersburg International Film Festival, he killed two birds with one stone by declining the invitation via open letter and saying he couldn’t accept it in good conscience as a gay man.

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Beyonce is impressed and inspired by Michelle Obama. In fact, Bey’s respect for the First Lady was so immense that she penned a handwritten letter to Mrs. Obama, calling her the “ultimate example of a truly strong African American woman.”

Kenny Smith vacillates between being the straight man to the comedic stylings of Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal on TNT’s Inside The NBA. But the former Houston Rocket got deep in a USA Today open letter by thoroughly breaking down the negativity and self-hate behind Barkley’s comments on Darren Wilson, Michael Brown and Ferguson, Missouri.