Crail had every right to kick Marc off Chocolate, but MC made Marc persona non grata. No other board brand picked him up after the Jenkem article.
What about Adidas? Why don’t they get any shit? They lured him away and dumped him when his stock went down. Plenty of shame to go around.
Dude, please have some humility and perspective. Marc never joined another board company, but you have no idea whether that was due to his own decision or not. It beggars belief to think that
no other brand would have readily, happily, enthusiastically welcomed him. I'm not saying he necessarily had his pick - surely some people would have been wary of his apparent instability - but it's simply not correct to claim that he was forced out of the industry.
Further, claiming that Adidas should "share the shame" is straight up insane. They did not "lure" him away from Lakai - they offered him financial stability that Lakai was failing to deliver. MJ's tenure at Adidas ended because he had disappeared from public life.
Do you not understand what it means for a person to be mentally ill? Do you not understand that a person can lose their ability to think clearly, to manage their own actions, to deal with responsibilities and maintain relationships? By every indication from those close to Marc, this is what happened to him. No outside observer is qualified to literally diagnose him, but you'd have to be a fool to deny that he became consumed by some form of mental health disorder that prevented him from leading the kind of life he lead before. Obviously the turmoil and public backlash of the Lakai exit accelerated this process, but that awful situation was itself caused by Marc's apparent and worsening mental health crisis at the time.
Adidas eventually "dumped" Marc because things continued to get worse for him. The skate industry did not conspire against him; his mind turned against him. If you don't have any idea what that feels like, count yourself lucky.
I personally wish that Carroll had never done that Jenkem interview. I wish that at least one person at Girl-Chocolate had recognized that their friend was exhibiting troubling, altered behavior and that they had intervened instead of allowing things to blow up so spectacularly. I'm sure that Carroll is beside himself with regret and guilt right now. But the
demand to assign blame - especially if you're an outsider, a member of the public who never knew Marc or anyone else involved in these disputes - is genuinely shameful and selfish. It makes you feel fleetingly righteous, gives you a frisson of anger, but it ultimately does nothing but perpetuate pain, rancor, and negativity.
I'm not trying to tell you how to feel or grieve, but just reflect on what you're hoping to accomplish with your statements in this thread, what do you want to contribute to the discourse that memorializes Marc Johnson.
Topic: R.I.P. Marc Johnson (Read 74269 times)