It seems like all the time we are being let down by someone. Celebrities, professional athletes, actors, musicians, and others disappoint us when their actions just don’t align with our morals as a society or as a person. Oftentimes we have to make a difficult choice whether or not to abandon their work or to accept it and not give up what you had enjoyed.

These people produced quality media but it becomes clouded when the individual is involved in sexual assault, addiction, racism, or a scandal. When these negative events have occured, I have decided that there needs to be a fine line between supporting a person’s beliefs or actions and their work. This division allows the audience to still celebrate what the person has created, but not have to like them as a person.

Recently Spotify has taken some artists off their Spotify generated playlists such as Discover Weekly and New Music Friday, and if you want to listen to them, you have to search for them. Since the #MeToo movement, R&B artist R.Kelly has been put under the same consequences as part of Spotify supporting the #MuteRKelly movement after numerous allegations against him for serious sexual assault crimes. R.Kelly isn’t the only musician punished by Spotify for sexual assult: rapper XXXTENATION is also being removed from the Spotify generated playlists and recommendations. I think this is a positive response done by Spotify: it draws attention to the choice the audience must make and allows them to make their own choice about who they want to listen to.

However, this puts Spotify in a tough spot to decide what type of allegations are “bad” enough to remove artists off playlists. Spotify and I do agree on the people they are taking off for their serious misconducts, because the artists are not removed completely from the act but the listener has to make a conscious decision to click on that artist. Many listeners have been hoping that Spotify removes R&B artist Chris Brown for sexual abuse. I am not for sexual abuse in any means, but there is no denying Chris Brown can make a good catchy song and I would probably still listen even if he was removed.

In addition to celebrities who have committed or been accused of sexual assault, professional athletes using performance-enhancing drugs have let us down. Spectators are so impressed by these athletes that their errors are a large disappointment. Ryan Leaf was a number two NFL draft pick but had a short season due to addiction, Tristan Thompson, a NBA star, cheated on his pregnant girlfriend Khloe Kardashian.  All these things that people do that make us go “Dang, did they really do that?!” affect us emotionally, but that shouldn’t stop us from enjoying talent, art, and work made by these people.

Just because they may have made mistakes in life as all humans do doesn’t mean we can’t appreciate the talent that they have.