*Keith Lee saw thousands of people in predominantly Black Gary, Indiana, struggling through an extraordinary power crisis and decided to do something about it — with his platform, his time and $15,000 of his own money.
Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton matched Lee’s contribution, bringing their combined commitment to $30,000 as the social media food critic joined a community relief effort Monday to provide residents with food, cleanup kits and other supplies.
But even before the event, some commenters had another question for Lee: What about everybody else?
Keith Lee Turns Attention to Gary
Severe storms struck Northwest Indiana on Aug. 11, initially knocking out electricity to more than 38,000 locations in Gary. Nearly two weeks later, thousands were still waiting for their lights to come back on.
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The crisis disrupted homes, businesses and schools while creating especially serious problems for elderly residents and people dependent on electrically powered medical equipment.
Lee, who was traveling through the Midwest, began using his enormous social media platform to draw attention to Gary.
“I know it’s not turning the power on,” Lee acknowledged while discussing his planned assistance. What he could do was help provide supplies, food and a place for people enduring the crisis to come together.
The effort ultimately became a community relief event at Roosevelt Pavilion in partnership with The Salvation Army, the City of Gary and other community partners.
Lee pledged $15,000. Haliburton put another $15,000 on the table.
Gary’s Crisis is Bigger Than One Influencer
By Monday, the outage had become a political issue as well.
Indiana Gov. Mike Braun called for an investigation into NIPSCO’s response, while Gary Mayor Eddie Melton said the pace of restoration was “unacceptable.” State resources, including the Indiana National Guard, were deployed to assist as crews worked to restore service.
That context matters because the question isn’t whether Keith Lee could fix Gary’s electrical grid. Obviously, he couldn’t.
A better question might be why a food critic had to use his platform to make more people pay attention to Americans who had been living without electricity for nearly two weeks.
Gary is predominantly Black, and Lee himself made that part of his concern. He questioned why communities that “look like myself” could remain without power while receiving what he considered insufficient national attention.
That makes what happened next especially interesting.
Here Come the ‘What About Us?’ Questions
As documented in commentary from OGTV45, some commenters responded to Lee’s Gary announcement by asking why he wasn’t helping Puerto Rico. Others pointed out that Gary wasn’t the only Indiana community experiencing outages.
Those communities may certainly deserve assistance, too.
But Keith Lee is also one person spending his own money.
Helping Gary does not prevent someone else from helping Puerto Rico, Crown Point, Portage or anywhere else. Nor does choosing one community for assistance automatically make Lee responsible for every community experiencing a crisis.
And there’s an interesting Gary-specific wrinkle.
EURweb recently reported how the prolonged outage generated questions about whether members of Gary’s most famous family were doing enough for their hometown. In our coverage of the Jackson family and the Gary blackout, Janet Jackson stood out for publicly acknowledging the crisis and directing attention toward relief resources.
Now Lee — who isn’t even from Gary — has stepped in with money, supplies and national attention, only to encounter questions about whom else he should be helping.
There’s a pattern worth noticing there.
The People Without Power Are the Story
None of the online arguing changes what Gary residents were experiencing.
People lost refrigerated food. Families scrambled for meals and supplies. Some residents went days without water because their homes depended on electrically powered systems. Others worried about medical devices, elderly relatives and the mounting cost of simply getting through another powerless day.
By Monday afternoon, nearly 10,000 homes and businesses across Northwest Indiana remained without electricity, according to CBS Chicago.
Lee never claimed his event would solve that.
He simply saw a community in trouble and decided that whatever he could contribute was worth contributing.
There’s room to debate whether celebrities and influencers have an obligation to respond to disasters at all. What’s harder to explain is why someone who chooses to help one struggling community should immediately inherit responsibility for everyone he didn’t help.
Gary needed food. Gary needed supplies. Gary needed attention. Keith Lee helped provide all three.
Maybe sometimes “thank you” can come before “what about us?”
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MORE NEWS ON EURWEB.COM: Gary Goes 12 Days Without Power and Some Are Mad at the Jacksons — Except Janet
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