Lauryn Hill started serving her three month sentence for tax evasion this weekend, but, before she left for jail, she had a few things she wanted to say about the IRS and did so on her Tumblr page. First of all, everyone agrees she owed the taxes on $1.8M in earnings, so I'm not sure how slavery and racism played a part in her having to pay taxes. Everyone has to pay taxes. She had not paid any, despite earning $2M, but because she did have to pay them, she thinks the IRS is being racist? I don't get it and think that she has entered the Marley hot box one too many times.
"I shuddered during sentencing when I kept hearing the term ‘make the IRS whole’… make the IRS whole, knowing that I got into these very circumstances having to deal with the very energies of inequity and resistance that created and perpetuated these savage inequalities. The entire time, I thought, who has made black people whole?! Who has made recompense for stealing, imposing, lying, murdering, criminalizing the traumatized, taking them against their wills, destroying their homes, dividing their communities, ‘trying’ to steal their destinies, their time, stagnating their development, I could go on and on. Has America, or any of the nations of the world guilty of these atrocities, ever made black people or Africa whole or do they continue to sit on them, control them, manipulate them, cage them, rob them, brutalize them, subject them to rules that don’t apply to all? Use language, veiled coercion, and psychological torment like invisible fences to keep them locked into a pattern of limitation and therefore control by others. You have to remain focused to cease from rage."
If you would like to read the entire thing, you can read it here.
She's a nutter
ReplyDeleteBless her heart.
ReplyDelete@Libby is that "Bless her heart" the Southern meaning of that phrase? ;)
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DeleteGirlfriend needs to calm down. Jesus.
ReplyDeleteShe is a mental patient. If she don't like paying taxes, she can follow that Facebook dude to Thailand or where ever he went. Aint no one gonna miss her.
ReplyDeleteClassic diversion tactic. Sure i didnt pay my taxes but hey!!!! What about slavery? Wasnt that bad?? Typical nothing-is-ever-my-fault crap. Feel bad for her children, doubt their dad is around.
ReplyDeletemental case
ReplyDeleteI can't stand this crap. Pay your taxes like everyone else. Had she payed her taxes like a responsible adult she wouldn't be going to jail. NO need to try and make it a racial issue. She needs to just shut the hell up.
ReplyDeleteI like her moxy, but, she needs to realise that she lives in a country that provides social services to her and her family, police, fire, military, public education, public assistance, disability insurance, public works, etc, etc, that taxes go towards, it's not about slavery lady. She lives in the greatest country in the world, does she imagine that she'd be where she is if she was born in Africa and her ancestors has never been a part of slavery? Would she have Marley money? Would she be a huge star? She's an American, and if you're going to reap the rewards, you have to realise we've all paid a price. Most of us came over on floating coffins where one out of four lived. My ancestors, not that far back, came over and were indentured servants doing hard labor. Not that it compares to hundreds of years of slavery, but we are Americans, not ex slaves, not ex slave masters, just all Americans. If she's so pissed and has so much anger in her about it, why doesn't she write a book, write a play, write an album, express herself, get that anger out in a constructive way? The IRS has nothing to do with slavery.
ReplyDeletePeople have to pay taxes because it's just what you have to do. But lets not compare struggles ok? It always sounds insensitive when people try and compare slavery to other minorities struggles when there just isn't any comparison. It's comparing slavery and the Holocaust- its a baseles stupid argument that you can never have an answer to.
Delete*Its like
DeletePulling the racist card over everything makes it lose its power. People just roll their eyes at this kind of complaining. It's America. People pay taxes.
ReplyDeleteShe's seems like an idiot on many levels.
I'm so sick of this race-baiting bitch. If this country was as bad as she proclaims she'd be dead by now and not a former millionaire who blew it all.
ReplyDeleteDid Lindsey Lohag ever get up to date on her taxes? Or did she pay enough to buy herself some time?
ReplyDeletetaxation is theft. however, there are more productive ways to send a message.
ReplyDeletelike bringing publicity to alternative solutions, i.e. voluntaryism, free market roads, etc.
Someone should tell her not to let the door hit her in the ass on the way out of the country.
ReplyDeleteShe could always move to a country where there is no racism, IRS, or any social programs........oh I forgot there aren't any. How is paying your taxes racist now along with breathing and everything else? Give it a rest and pay what you owe. I don't love the IRS either but nobody cares that I don't!
ReplyDeleteClassic diversionary tactic-oh look over here --this is racist.
if you look at the people who actually go to jail for not filing or paying their taxes, a much higher percent seems to be african american. it is rather shocking.
ReplyDeletewilly nelson had big tax problems, owed $16 million. he didn't go to prison for it.
I know a white male who didn't file or pay taxes for 18 years. he didn't go to prison, nor was he prosecuted in any way, other than having to file and pay.
the u.s. attorney's office can decide who they want to prosecute for this. and it seems that a much higher proportion of african americans get prosecuted than white americans.
Hill is crazy but if you think about it. Hill and Snipes gets time in jail for not paying their taxes while Cage and Willie Nelson did no time at all but was allowed extra time to pay. I think they all committed some type of fraud while blaming their tax lawyers of course.
ReplyDeleteDitto dawn bee.
ReplyDeleteFuck this. I pay in the 30% bracket, so her entitled ass should pay her GD taxes, as should everyone else.
And let's legalize EVERY worker whose feet are working on our US soil right now, this minute, so THEY can also begin paying taxes on the cash they're earning.
Fucking bullshit in the stupid country. Congress needs to get their heads outta their asses.
/rant over!/
Willie Nelson will be touring til the day he drops dead to pay those taxes. She is going to jail for refusing to pay them, not for owing them. Ditto Wesley Snipes (or for failure to file, something like that)
ReplyDeleteI know a white guy and an Asian guy in prison for purposely evading them. I don't now any black people who evade their taxes.
Most black people KNOW YOU DO NOT MESS WITH UNCLE SAM WHEN HE WANTS HIS MONEY. Period.
DeleteWillie got f'd by his accountant. He didn't embark on some crusade against taxes.
ReplyDeleteCrazy Cabbie got a year in federal jail for not paying taxes on the $100k he got for boxing Stuttering John. He was caught and made an example of because he said on the air that he wouldn't pay the taxes until the government paid for his PTSD. One thing you don't do it piss in the government's face, because they will put the screws to you the best they can.
I fear the IRS as much as the next guy, but come on. The only color the IRS is interested in is GREEN. The way to protest unfair tax laws is through politics and legislation, not simply by NOT PAYING YOUR TAXES.
ReplyDeleteMs. Hill, my fixed-income retired disabled elderly mother paid more taxes than you. Who will make HER whole?
selena---DING! Pro-business, purchased politicians don't want their corporate overlords to have to start actually paying immigrants minimum wage, or giving them benefits or anything. OR for those businesses to have to actually employ Americans, who might demand humane conditions. It's a big secret behind some pols who are anti-immigration reform.
ReplyDelete(Sorry--O/T)
Oh, God, Lauren. Just shut up and pay.
ReplyDeletethere are very few groups that have not been persecuted against. Blacks, Jews, Greeks, Gays ...
ReplyDeleteWhat was done was terrible and it should not happen again. Now move along and take your meds Lauren.
Everything she is saying is true and would be completely valid if she had paid her taxes. Pay your shit then criticize all you like. I pay taxes faithfully so I can complain about how my money is spent. She cannot complain about services and shit when she doesn't even contribute to them. That's like a man complaning to Proctor and Gamble about maxi pad advertising. Shut up Lauryn and let us educated, TAX PAYING blacks do the talking.
ReplyDeleteWell, this explains why we haven't heard from Just Curious in a few days.
ReplyDelete@Madam Chef: +10000000000000000000000000000000000
ReplyDeleteMadam Chef, too funny! You win the internets today :)
ReplyDeleteHopefully there's no access to CDAN in jail, we might get a JC free summer!
I will agree that the IRS does pick and choose who they want to prosecute. I knew someone who did not deposit her company payroll taxes and the shit they told me the IRS did to her would curl your hair (or straighten it depending upon the condition). While she may have owed like $100K her fines and penalties were 5X that amount and as soon as she thought she was paid up they came after her some more. IRS- "How did you get to our meeting today?" My Friend -"I drove". IRS -"Well that's wealth and we'll need to seize your car to sell it for your debt". Seriously, crazy ugly shit like that.
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ReplyDeleteShe sounds like the Damon Wayans prisoner militant character from in Living Color. Lmao
ReplyDeletebitch if you dont like it , leave
ReplyDeleteThis country was good enough to make money tho right?
Well, if I can pay the taxes on the money I earned, bitch can pay hers.
ReplyDeletePlus, I like taxes. You get roads and hospitals and police and firepeople and sewers, and that's a good thing. Now sometimes it's spent a little unwisely, but it's up to us to vote and speak up. But taxes gots to get paid.
First, thank you all for the laughs, I've snort/laughed every third comment or so.
ReplyDeleteSecond, I thought they didn't send crazy people to jail?
She's not nuts. That's how people marginalize those pointing out uncomfortable truths about the country we live in. I would expect white people to disagree. This is why I have to stay focused and not rage!
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