Hello again to all my friends I’m glad you’re here today, the micro learning never ends here’s what we got today! {pat yourself on the back if you figured out where that was loosely based off of}
I feel like I have to write this while it’s fresh in my mind, a few days removed from the Super Bowl. Now this may be posted in a different order because I have two additional blogs I am writing but I had to pause because, well to address another feeling, stay with me.
At this point, if you have been with this blog since it’s inception or if you are newish and went back to read previous posts, you’ll know I am black. Technically it’s more complex than that but I don’t currently have the financial standing to pay for ancestry tests, I know some, but not all.
Just to make things easier, I am a black man and I am in an interracial marriage, most of my friends come from being together with my wife, and majority are white. I say this so you know where I am coming from.
With the dust from the super bowl settled, I keep seeing how people either don’t understand the importance of Kendrick’s performance, or brush it off. A Good friend of my wife’s best friend called it lame. Now I already have my issues with that person, so I know there is a bias there, but it made me feel some kind of way, and I wasn’t a huge Kendrick fan. I only recently got into him, partly because I don’t like a lot of newer music and it’s been more misses than hits, especially in Rap/R&B. I was a 90’s kid. And when it came to black artists around that time, I remember hearing Das Efx, Black sheep, Queen Latifah, SWV, Sade, Kris Kross, New Addition, Arrested Development, Digable Planets, MC Lyte, Michael Jackson, De la Soul, Prince and the list really goes on. On the flip side my family would play hits from their time, like the Isley Brothers, Earth, Wind & Fire, Miles Davis, The Temptations, Gladys Knight, and again the list goes on. And that’s not to say we didn’t list artists of all backgrounds, but for this passage we’re focusing on Black artists, as it is black history month.
I won’t do a full breakdown of Kendrick’s show but I will recommend some places to start at the end, I encourage you to do a little research if you care.
To those that think this was just a musical performance, you are probably disconnected from the events of the world around you. Everything that Samuel L. Jackson said as “Uncle Sam” (which is traditionally portrayed as a white male) has probably been said to most black Americans born before/during the early Gen Z period. Some won’t outwardly say “You’re too black,” but they’ll find words to disguise that sentiment, and yet when a black person auditions for a role and they don’t fit the stereotype they’ll hear, “Can you be more…urban?” Our society (in America anyway) prioritizes feeling safe over being safe, so black people (amongst others) have to walk a thin line of embracing our culture and but not being “too black”. There is a wonderful clip of a conversation between Levar Burton and Laurence Fishburne that lays this out beautifully here.
Most people that are privileged enough to be ignorant, just assumed the halftime show was aimed at Drake, and yes there was a snippet that was, but it was also a response to how the country is being run, it’s social commentary, it’s a statement it a reminder of what those that cam before us were promised and never given (40 acres and a mule). The dancers that performed did so in prison attire while in three distinct but separate colors: red, white, and blue. Kendrick himself said this is bigger than the music before performing, not like us.
There is a cleverness in his subtlety.
And, AND multiple things can be true at the same time. Yes, he could have put the final nail in the coffin of the Drake beef, but singing be humble in the middle of the American flag, when our current administration is anything but humble? Also the line, “They tried to rig the game but you can’t fake influence” could be a subtle shot at Drake, but it could also reference the last two elections that had interference issues.
I feel like if you are not a part of the black community, and you thought the performance was just about Drake and don’t understand what it’s like to be black in America. Unfortunately people see wealthy black people, or politicians, and think “see, what are they complaining about, they have it made.”, not realizing even working up to those positions isn’t easy. We are constantly climbing ladders that are booby trapped to make us fall.
But they don’t know nothing about that.
Have to warn our kids about avoided certain places and neighborhoods but cause how you look is a crime.
But they don’t know nothing about that.
Kendrick’s performance was deep, and if you know, you know, if you don’t: Educate yourself. And with that I’ll bid you adieu.
Later days
~Owl
So I had other links, but the NFL organization has been hitting them with copyright strikes, so here is one to start you off, but do your research while you can.
The World Through My Eyes 