• amemorablename@lemmygrad.ml
    15·
    8 days ago

    Someone (who is kinda liberal) suggested I watch the superbowl halftime show, in part cause of its politics is the impression I got from them, so I watched a recording of it and I didn’t understand it. Some of the lyrics I was not even catching or seemed like the typical self-talking-up of rap and the whole bit with Sam Jackson being Uncle Sam was like ??? what message are they going for here. The best part I could find on it was the unplanned part with the person who waved the Palestinian/Sudanese flag, but I didn’t even see that in the video itself that I watched. Am I just not the target audience or needed captions? My instincts say “it’s resistance liberal politics”, but maybe I’m being unfair and I need to look more closely at the lyrics.

    • 矛⋅盾@lemmygrad.ml
      11·
      7 days ago

      in essence I agree it’s resistance liberal politics

      so, with the whole drake thing, it’s larger and not specific to drake himself but what he “symbolizes” which is why the line "you’re not a colleague you’re a colonizer“ comes into play regarding black culture/outsiders who would discard the people of the culture he used and wrung out like a wet rag once he’s ready to move onto the next thing/larger more mainstream stage

      edit: I guess my thesis here is, people are lauding kendrick for championing black culture, for defending rap and black culture from select so-called colonizers but I question what that means when kendrick lamar is put on the superbowl stage

      and idk if I “get” to say anything on the matter since I’m not black, and also only have surface familiarity with lamar’s work (of which I thought replacing the white with black in the US flags in squabble up music video was 💯). Original intentions when running drake-as-“colonizer”-phenomenon through the gamut of the rap scene is one thing, but it feels past expiry and possibly into hypocrite territory when kendrick himself is platformed up to the superbowl stage: the Peak Echelon of music celebrity in the US of A. Yes, twist the knife on the drakes (who just happens to be canadian and biracial) out there, but no hate for beyonce (or colin powell or kamala harris. obama even) you know what I mean?

      like, that’s what the whole US-flag imagery during the half-time show reads to me, it just folds back into american chauvinism, a reminder to the audience that black american culture is an american culture first and foremost, “america was built on the backs of black people” but that means black people deserve to be the bannermen and flagbearers, a righteous and honorable position in the empire citizenry (my understanding of liberals’ position is, get rid of racism and cops killing black people and problem solved, more black people in power means problem solved, the whole idpol representation thing, a very idealistic conception of “how to dismantle the empire” etc), black exceptionalism as aspirational when it’s done by the right type of black person in the right way, etc

      / I think the whole superbowl thing makes it feel more assimilationist and unchallenging rather than liberatory or empowering. im not sure if kendrick was fully ironic or what when incorporating “the revolution will not be televised” while he’s being played on America’s most watched televised event.

      maybe im too harsh. maybe im importing too much frustration from assimilationist tendencies from my own background (chinese americans/canadians) into this situation (wherein a certain YA novel author is my own “drake”). idk

      • 矛⋅盾@lemmygrad.ml
        14·
        7 days ago

        fuller nuance (love to see libs beat the shit out of that word) perspective from someone who is black and of black culture who i think has better angles on all points than I could - tumblr post. excerpts:

        The Super Bowl will always be a bread and circus event that lines the pockets of white shareholders. The fact that they allowed Black people to perform is simply to give the appearance of empowerment and progress, thus assuaging our appetite for real revolution by letting spectators woop and cheer and have the feeling that something happened.

        context: US flag and americana imagery:

        At the end of the above, all African Americans should be wary of narratives that corral them securely within the frame of the United States. This is an intentional set of blinders that keeps you seeing yourself as belonging to this outsized plantation. We made connection to this land, but we were brought here in chains.