James “Jimmy Mack” McNair’s Family Critical of Tracy Morgan’s Emmy Appearance
Sunday night Tracy Morgan had a triumphant return to the stage with a surprise appearance on the Emmy Awards broadcast. Morgan was praised for his emotional and funny appearance, but family members of James McNair, also known as Uncle Jimmy and Jimmy Mack were unhappy that the comedy superstar didn’t even mention McNair who was the only fatality in last summer’s crash.
McNair’s sister, Pamela told the New York Daily News said she wished Morgan would have at least mentioned her brother during the broadcast. “I understand it’s been a great ordeal for Tracy over the last 15 months,” she said.”I just feel in some form or fashion, he should have acknowledged my brother – his mentor – because he lost his life.”
McNair’s son was angry that Morgan has made no attempt to contact his family since the accident. During the Emmy broadcast, Mack’s son Jamel McNair posted “Tracy Morgan ain’t shit…That is all.”
Other relatives posted comments that they were speechless by the insensitivity they felt Morgan showed when he joked about the tragedy. One family member said “We’re not looking for anything monetary from the man…just wanting to know WHY HE HASN’T even sent a sympathy card, flowers to the funeral, a call to my niece & nephew to say Sorry how are yall doing. His speech had no acknowledgement of Jimmy’s loss of life, of how he mentored him, how he accompanied him on road trips to shows only as moral support at times, that he misses him, that he wonders how Jimmy’s kids & family are coming along..NOTHING NADA and that SUCKS!”
McNair’s son posted again on Monday night about his frustrations.
“People don’t even know the half,” he wrote on his Facebook page, “this public figure that they have so much sympathy for and they know nothing about is put on a pedestal because he’s a damn celebrity. Being a celebrity doesn’t excuse you from human obligations, if I had a friend who died in an accident with me in the car and it was my show . My best friends children would be the first ones I reach out to when they died. You take the Emmy stage and give a speech and tell jokes in front of thousands of people. But you don’t show up to celebrate the life of your best friend ” Uncle jimmy Mack ” at his Honor send a smoke signal give a call text send a damn pigeon there’s no excuse for this type of behavior. My sister and I Have yet to hear from Tracy Morgan and that’s real !”
Although Morgan made no mention of McNair in his Emmy speech, McNair was discussed in Tracy’s prior television appearance, an interview on the Today show. In the June 1 interview he had told Matt Lauer that he didn’t remember the crash, and hadn’t even leanred that his friend had been killed until weeks later. “I found out he died two weeks later when I came out of the coma. My lady told me we put Jimmy to rest. Then when I got home it really hit me.” Morgan said he watched McNair’s funeral on YouTube, and lost it for about a week. It was difficult to watch, but, he said, it was his way of paying respects. Morgan said that McNair’s death had been the most difficult part of the past year.
“Bones heal, but the loss of my friend will never heal. But I’m happy that Walmart stepped up to the plate in a tremendous way. They took full responsibility, and I’m just really happy that they looked out for Jimmy Mack’s family cause I know my friend can rest in peace now, cause they took responsibility for that. In the beginning there was misunderstanding…but they came through in the clutch.”
