I think there was a headline in The Onion once a long time ago, "5,000 Brown People Die Somewhere"
This was a satire to draw attention to the fact that people in the western world don\'t care as much about mass tragedies that happen in the third world. Basically if you don\'t know the person who died, you don\'t care as much. Many people think they knew Aaliyah because they saw her on television and heard her music. That\'s the only reason her death is treated as more important than the other 8 people on the plane and the other 1,000 people who died that day.
The same thing is done by Aaliyah\'s record label itself. Here\'s their statement: "Blackground is devestated by the loss of our Queen. The example she showed young people will be sorely missed and we hope her short time on earth will be an inspiration to young people all over the world. We are equally distraught by the passing of our Blackground family members Gina Smith and Kevin Wallace. Their hard work and dedication were an invaluable contribution to the success of Aaliyah and Blackground. Our prayers go out to all the families."
They\'re saying: Aaliyah\'s death is really important, the deaths of two of our other employees are sort of important, and the deaths of the other people on the plane are not nearly as important to us. Nothing wrong here, it\'s just human nature.
