You may have heard of ALS ice bucket challenge, but the orginial challenge didn’t start out with that name. The first ice bucket challenge was open for the participant to pick a charity to donate to. For instance, one could donate to St. Jude’s, an animal shelter or whatever other organization melted their heart. This all changed when Chris Kennedy received the challenge. Kennedy’s cousin suffers from ALS, so he thought donating his money to the ALS Association was a good idea. He then nominated his cousin’s wife and a few other friends. This continued happening and the ALS ice bucket challenge slowly swept the US, raising millions of dollars for the ALS Association.
With donations just topping $100 million, many other organizations are pondering their own ice bucket challenges. Congenital Heart Defect parents are starting a lip-syncing challenge for awareness and Tuberous sclerosis patients are off thinking up a plan. With so many other organizations following in ALS’ footsteps you must wonder weather or not their challenges will spark such debates and controversies as the ALS challenge has. It seems that stars have taken this challenge and used it for their own agendas. For example, in 50 Cent’s video he “fakes out” his audience and tosses his bucket of water over the railing and instead challenges Floyd Mayweather to read, which adds fire to their current feud. At the end of Vin Diesel’s challenge, Diesel challenged James Gunn, director of Guardians of the Galaxy, to plant a tree in honor of Groot, Diesel’s character in the movie. These two stars used the challenge for their own agenda and tore the awareness away from ALS for their own purposes.
Although Diesel and 50 Cent seem to have repurposed the challenge, actor Orlando Jones and an Ohio University student body president, Megan Marzec, have used the challenge to bring forth other current events. Orlando Jones talks to BuzzFeed about his mission to “listen without prejudice, love without limits, and reverse the hate.” He clearly does this in his ice bucket challenge where instead of water he has gold bullets rain over him. After the bullets pour over him, he goes on to talk for a minute about the death of great leaders who have fought for equality and civil rights in this country, rights that Jones feels are lost. The video ends with powerful hashtags #JusticeforMichealBrown and #WeareallFerguson.
While Jones’ video helps bring forth the issues that are arising in our own country, Marzec brings forth issues in the world. The Ohio University student doused herself in blood instead of ice as a boycott of Israel. In her video she goes after other students as well as the university when she states, ”This bucket of blood symbolizes the thousands of displaced and murdered Palestinians- atrocities which OU is directly complacent in through cultural and economic ties with the Israeli state”. Ohio University was appalled by her video and apologized profusely. There is currently a petition to get her impeached as student body president.
Was her video worth it? Were any of these helpful? Yes, awareness does need to be acquired for other issues, but is it right for people to use the ALS ice bucket challenge as an outlet for that? No. The ice bucket challenge, although originally not for ALS, should not become a smorgasbord for other issues. 50 Cent and Floyd Mayweather should have kept their fight at bay. While the challenge has brought in $100 million for medical research, these commanding posts have changed its course making it no longer a challenge about ALS.
*Photos courtesy of allhiphop and jewishpress.