For
the second time in a two-week span, an African American artist has taken the
media by storm. Following Beyoncé’s super bowl performance, Kendrick Lamar took
to the stage at the Grammy’s to sing about racial issues. He staged a
theatrical performance that evoked ideas such as slavery, injustice, black
pride and more. Lamar, who was the most nominated artist at the Grammy’s with
11 nominations and 5 wins, used his time at the Grammy’s to bring awareness to
certain injustices. He performed in ‘jail clothes’ and rapped about racism
in the justice system. He sang, “I'm African-American. I'm African.
I'm black as the moon. Heritage of a small village. Pardon my residence. ...You
hate me, don't you? You hate my people. Your plan is to terminate my culture.” These lyrics are pointing to many years
of violence and aggression towards African-Americans, especially in light of a
lot of police brutality towards this group. I think he is referring to police
brutality and shooting of young black men, in particular, possibly because of
their race or background. It was a thought provoking performance that raised
attention to certain issues.
Many observers
point out that his act was about sparking conversation and initiating
conversations. Although I applaud his performance, I do want to point out
something. Lamar’s performance received a lot of praise in the social media,
but Beyoncé’s performance did not. She received a lot of criticism for her
half-time show. Why? They were both talking about similar issues and went about
it in similar ways. Is this a gender issue? Did people criticize Beyoncé
because she is a woman? I found the reactions on social media quite different
and wondered why there was such a difference. It is clear that we still live in
a patriarchal society that has a bias towards men.
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