Homeless Youth Accepts MTV Video Music Award

At this year’s Video Music Award (VMA) show, Miley Cyrus’s “Wrecking Ball” won video of the year. However, instead of accepting the award onstage, the singer stayed in her seat. In her place, according to New York Times, a 22-year-old homeless man named Jesse (who did not want his last name used) accepted Cyrus’s award “on behalf of the 1.6 million runaways and homeless youth in the United States who are starving, lost and scared for their lives right now.” Jesse continued with remarks on the wealth of the music industry, contrasting it with the 54,000 homeless on the streets of LA. He concluded by inviting the audience to make a change by going on Cyrus’s Facebook page.
According to the Times, Cyrus’s team shared the fundraising campaign for My Friend’s Place via her social media networks. My Friend’s Place is a Los Angeles organization that helps homeless youth aged 12 to 25 find housing, jobs, health care, among other things. By the afternoon after the VMAs, My Friend’s Place has raised $200,000. For those who donated, they were entered in a lottery to spend time with Cyrus in Rio de Janeiro.
Many claim that Cyrus was pulling a publicity stunt, deterring attention from Ferguson and trying to “outdo” the ice bucket challenge dedicated to raising money to fight ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) a debilitating disease. Some people commented on the New York Times report that Cyrus picked the most beautiful homeless man she could find, instead of someone more “representative.” Regardless, Cyrus’s overall statement on Ryan Seacrest’s show was that after last year’s backlash against her performance of a sexually provacative dance at the awards, she remembered what was truly important: social issues.


Issues |Youth

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