In early August reports of Aretha Franklin, Queen of Soul being gravely ill began circulating, soon after reports that death was imminent followed. Sadly on August 16, 2018 the Queen of Soul lost her battle to advance pancreatic cancer at the age of 76, according to multiple news sources.  Now that the dust has settled, can we talk about the eulogy beloveds? 

Saying farewell was a multi day event that began with a two day public viewing as the Queen of Soul lay in repose at in the rotunda of Detroit’s Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.

On the first day of a two day public viewing, the Queen graced us in a Red suit and matching Christian Louboutin shoes. The red represented her sorority, Delta Sigma Theta. Aretha was inducted into Delta Sigma Theta as an honorary member in 1992.

On the second day the Queen of Soul was dressed in a powder blue dress and matching shoes as she lay in her bronze casket.

For the Queen of Soul’s third and final outfit change, she was put in a rose-gold gown by St. John’s and gold Christian Louboutin heels, according to Entertainment Tonight. The third viewing, which was at New Bethel Baptist Church, was initially meant to be open to church members only, but the private event opened up due to public demand.

Although she had left us on earth, the Queen had one last performance to give. On Friday August 31, 2018 the Queen of Soul graced us with her final and most magisterial stage appearance ever. Although not confirmed, it’s been reported that she planned much of her funeral prior to leaving us and she orchestrated it like a #BOSS.  

 Many came out to pay homage to the Queen of Soul, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. Al Sharpton, Rev. Dr. William Barber, Cicely Tyson, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Judge Greg Mathis, Michael Eric Dyson,Smokey Robinson gave words and song), former President Bill Clinton and many others gave words of encouragement to the family while sharing their fondest memory of the Queen. The honorable Lewis Ferakhan was in attendance, but what seemed odd to many of us, he did not speak. It is unclear whether he chose not to speak or if he was not asked to speak.    

Musical royalty from the gospel, opera & secular world came to pay homage. We heard Shirley Cesare, the Clark Sisters, the Williams Brothers, Vanessa Bell Armstrong, Marvin Sapp, Yolanda Adams, Bishop Paul Morton, Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight, Ron Isley, Stevie Wonder, Jennifer Holliday, Jennifer Hudson, Fantasia Barrino and Audrey Dubois, just to mane a few. It really was a mini concert, thank you Queen!

Several hundred close family & friends and church members  were fortunate enough to be in actual attendance of the home going service at New Bethel Baptist Church. However, I must admit the best seats were those at New Bethel Baptist Cyber Church, yes thousands of us distance, distance, distance family and distance “close friends” attended the service via live stream on Facebook. TV One, BET and many other media outlets live streamed the service. Y’all know we cut up in that comment section for the entire duration of that service and had a good time doing it, I will leave at that!

One source, Roland Martin who was also in actual attendance clocked the funeral as being 8 hours and 50 minutes from start to finish, whew chile!   

Some light heartily joked that the Queen’s home going service was the ultimate troll. 

Did the Queen troll us? We all know Auntie Retha wasn’t just the Queen of Soul, she could at times be the Queen of SHADE & PETTY (giggle)!

The hilarious memes, which I must admit I enjoy thoroughly started while we were still in service. We all knew this poor lady would be a meme, the minute the camera man zoomed in on her. I mean in a deep sleep, mouth wide open! In her defense, it was a long funeral..That camera man was so petty for this!

 Now of course in true color folk fashion the mess started bout 3 seconds after service.

 We have the mess involving the Bishop Charles H. Ellis II and Ariana Grande, many felt that the joke he made regarding her name was tasteless, he said he thought her name was an item from Taco Bell’s menu. Also involving Grande and Ellis, there were some folks who felt he touched her inappropriately while standing right there in the the pulpit, in front of thousands of people and national media. I personally think this entire situation was blown way out of proportion. Lastly, concerning Grande some folks in the congregation felt her attire was inappropriate for the occasion, I must say I agree.

I imagine the Queen is looking down on this situation like, CHILE!

Then we have the mess involving Gladys Knight, when she spoke she revealed that she and Aretha shared the same illness, no more than one second after she made this statement, it was being reported that she also had pancreatic cancer. Ms. Knight has since cleared up any confusion, stating that she was diagnosed with stage one breast cancer, fortunately it was caught early on and she is cancer free. She did not reveal when she was diagnosed. Chile we will put folk in a coffin way before it’s time, folks were already planning the next online funeral. 

Anyhow, we are so glad to know that Auntie Gladys is doing well and is cancer free.

 Now the messiest of the mess involved Rev. Jasper Williams Jr. Pastor of Salem Baptist Church , Atlanta GA. & his unapologetic “Black America has Lost its Soul” eulogy. I won’t breakdown every single bit of the 50 minute eulogy, I will highlight the four or three most astonishing things that were said. Additionally I will be paraphrasing so I’d suggest you go to YouTube to watch the entire speech for yourselves.  

 He started off by singing an old gospel hymn, after which he told us the subject of the eulogy, “my subject today is Aretha the queen of soul” he emphasized soul. He stated that God crowned Aretha the Queen of Soul long ago, before the morning star, before a when, where this or that. Man is made up of three entities, body, spirit and soul. He began to chastised the congregation, stating that the black community has lost it’s soul… Again, he spoke directly to the black community.

 He wet on to tell a story which was set in slavery times of a slave “master” preparing for a seven month trip. He called his best slave to tell him that he would be going away for seven months, he told the slave that he wanted him to take care of his child, take care of his clothes and shoes. Upon returning home the”master” was met by his slave, the slave fell to his knees and cried out, “master” I washed, ironed, and folded your child clothes, I took care of your child’s shoes, but I have lost your child. He went on to equate this story to those of us sitting in the congregation meeting God, wait whet, so you equating a slave owner to God! He said many of us would stand before God and say we have taken good care of our bodies, dressed our bodies in nice things, laid and played with our bodies, but we have lost our souls, wait whet!

He also talked about fatherless homes, asking “Where is your soul, black man? As I look in your house, there are no fathers in the home no more.” continuing in his chastisement, he focused on black women, stating “as proud, beautiful and fine as our black women are, one thing a black woman cannot do, a black woman cannot raise a black boy to be a man.” At one point he described abortion after birth as children being raised without a “provider” father and a mother as the “nurturer.” Many single mothers, men raised by single mothers and “erbody” else took to social media to address his statements about single mothers… After all, the Queen was herself a single mother. Below is a snippet of the eulogy by Rev. Williams, but I would encourage you to watch the full video on YouTube.

While the Rev. touched on many topics concerning the black community along the way,  the most unnerving is what he said about the Black Lives Matter movement… Brace yourselves. Per the good Bishop, “It amazes me how it is when the police kills one of us we’re ready to protest, march, destroy innocent property,” Williams began. “We’re ready to loot, steal whatever we want, but when we kill 100 of us, nobody says anything, nobody does anything. Black on black crime, we’re all doing time, we’re locked up in our mind, there’s got to be a better way, we must stop this today.” Do black lives matter? No, black lives do not matter,” Williams said. “Black lives will not matter, black lives ought not matter, black lives should not matter, black lives must not matter until black people start respecting black lives and stop killing ourselves.He went on to say, we can’t handle our our children, the school teachers can’t handle our children, the preacher can’t handle our children and the police can’t handle our children. At some point Stevie Wonder yelled Black Lives Matter! 

#BlackLivesMatter

He also stated before segregation we had communities where we owned the banks, stores, homes and we understood that WE were all WE had. He quoted the song What the World needs now is Love Sweet Love, “I don’t believe that chillun” “it’s hard to love someone and know that they hates you”, I believe that was his attempt at addressing the person currently occupying the big house on Pennsylvania Avenue. Um, Bishop, Michael Eric Dyson did that, your help was not needed(PLEASE WATCH THE VIDEO of M.E.DYSON). Anyways, looping it all back to the Queen he said Aretha the Queen of soul taught us all we need to have is a little RESPECT! Congress need to respect each other, Democrats need to respect the Conservatives and vise versa, straights need to respect the gays and vise versa. The sermon ended with OoooooooAaaaaa everybody all to give a little respect, before they turned the microphone off on him!   

Chile! In listening to what some are calling the “pound cake eulogy” I understand what message that the Reverend was trying to convey. Unfortunately, he missed the mark by a long shot. Reports say he is not backing down and stands behind the eulogy he gave, stating that the Queen wanted him to eulogize her funeral, he even plans to elaborate providing additional clarity via sermon to his church members for the next two Sundays. I have just one thing to say to the good Reverend… Dear Rev. Jasper Williams Jr., Black Lives DO and will ALWAYS MATTER, don’t you ever forget it! Well, two things…. I don’t think the Queen of Soul is pleased. 

Update: On Tuesday September 4, 2018 the family condemned the comments made during the singer’s eulogy as offensive and distasteful, CNN reports.