We Don't Have to be Annoying About the Halftime Show
A Rant
I have to start by saying: I know performing for a multi-billion dollar company is not a revolutionary act. I am well aware that being paid millions to perform in between fleshy cowboy hats and semaglutide ads is not activism and instead puts money in the hands of the very people we should be condemning for their bottomless greed. That no matter how good it is to see the Chiefs crumble without their access to unlimited ref support, my life and the life of average Americans is still the exact same on Monday morning as it was before. We still live in a time of unprecedented precarity and watching a 90s fine black quarterback win after a super black half-time performance doesn’t change that. Cool. But my question is, what makes you think every black person involved doesn’t know that?
There seems to me anyway, to be a lot of talking over black people this Black History Month and I would like to get to the bottom of why. Actually, I know exactly why but I’m trying to be nice about it. There’s been a lot of post half-time discussion of the significance of Kendrick’s half-time show. As a longtime fan of his, I’m glad to see so many people paying attention to his artistry. Admittedly, a lot of it feels like baby’s first African American studies course but everyone has to start somewhere. For those of us who have had some semblance of formal education in black art (or you’ve just been black everyday of your life) it may feel like a retread of everything you’ve ever known.
I watched a video of a woman exclaiming how brilliant the use of Uncle Sam was and how he was parroting the internal policing voice that follows black people around, making sure they act right in front of white people and like… yes. Duh. This is not a hidden message to decipher. There’s a reason he chose Samuel L. Jackson, didn’t we all watch Django in 2012? But my desire to do -this- to be so smug in my knowledge and self-righteous in my understanding is my real issue with all of this.
There are people who are going to watch this halftime show and for the first time begin to think critically of what it means to be marginalized in America, playing a game you don’t really understand and knowing you can’t really win. There are people who are going to watch the performance again, see that lowercase ‘a’ chain and look it up thinking it represents a minor, only to find out that it’s the logo of Kendrick’s artist collective turned media company. A company that aims to create and support art made by black creatives mind you and they’re going to wonder if that’s something they could get involved in. Or even create a version of themselves. Others might pick up an actual book and try to learn about the accomplishments of our black creatives over time. I don’t know how that sounds to you, but to me that sounds like more people that may be members of a coalition one day. That even though their education is surface level right now, some of them may go deeper and that curiosity will one day turn into action.
I get that watching people stumble into conversations you’ve been having for years is annoying. I also ask myself “Girl, where the hell have you been?” from time to time. For me, the first time I really started having conversations about police brutality and lack of representation and other issues facing the black community at large was in 2012 and 13 years is a longggg time to watch other people dance through life blissfully unaware of the realities around them. But I also realize that to older black people who have been fighting this fight for their entire lives, 13 years is really nothing. Imagine, you’ve been trying to educate people about this since the 70s and now there’s people with unlimited access to the world in their pockets and they still don’t get it? I’d be too annoyed to function.
However, I’ve learned from watching those that are still around that there is never a better time than now to learn more. Many of the activists of our parents and grandparents generation that are still with us, are still educating. If they can do that, the least we can do is try to be a little less impatient with others around us. And no, I don’t mean drop everything to hand-hold an adult through understanding empathy for others but less quick to condemn in general.
That condemnation also goes for the artists themselves. Time and time again, we’ve been warned about the dangers of making performers our thought leaders. It doesn’t work and a lot of these people are just not well-equipped to handle it. So why then do we hold them to that standard just so that we can feel perpetually let down? At the very most they can put on thought provoking performances that guide people in a particular direction but it’s for the truly educated and community involved to do the rest. The most visible are not always the most capable and that should go without saying. The actions of artists are more than open for critique especially if they spit in the face of their community but the art itself can only do so much. The real change comes from those affected by the art. I think it’s always been this way.
In general, I don’t want to see brilliant leftists be too sanctimonious to get anything done anymore. I don’t want to watch people be cast out for failing purity tests anymore either. I really, really don’t think it’s working anymore and I want to see the girls win for a change.