Erika Dickerson wrote Un/Classically Beautiful: The Problem with the 2015 Grammy Awards’ Selma “Tribute” and it speaks to everything I think and feel about Black Culture, Beyonce, White America, feminism, the lack of community support within the Black race, ugh everything.
Here are some sections that had me standing and clapping:
1. The entire beginning paragraph:
While we were waist-deep in circular (yet necessary) conversations about Iggy Azalea’s Grammy Award nomination for Best Rap Album, her “blaccent,” and appropriation of Black music and culture at-large, the Grammy Awards were undermining Blk women in another way: the “tribute” performance for Ava DuVernay’s Selma. Let’s quickly recap the shameful dismissal that has encircled Selmato date:
2. This sentence she put in bold so you know it’s real:
This year, the Grammys reminded us that dark-skinned, counter-cultural women are still unwelcome on the main stage, that their work is not good enough for broad recognition, that systematic oppression exists in the arts beyond rap, and that Blk women don’t always choose each other over opportunities for self-advancement.
3. This spot on description of Ledisi’s and her career thus far:
And then there’s Ledisi. The loc-sportin, chocolate Blk woman who often shows more vocal range than cleavage, is nearly a decade older than Beyonce, and is perceived as inferior to Beyonce’s cross-over sex appeal, Grammy nominations, and overall award wins.
4. When she said everything I’ve ever felt about Beyonce:
She is magic…As a powerhouse, it is my hope that Beyonce won’t always ride the fence in obvious injustices like #Ferguson or in covert injustices like this Grammy Award fiasco, that she won’t always pepper social media with politically correct statements about pay inequality between men and women or sample Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED talk on feminism without using her influence to eradicate injustices, much less be a tool in committing them.
I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.
Race Class and Everything Else 