Propaganda, Black Culture & The Super Bowl
Back when Beyonce did the superbowl and all through her Panafrican arc to the Americana of Cowboy Carter (but specifically, for the sake of this convo, the superbowl performance....
she came out with an overt display reminiscent of the Black Panthers promoting an album that had heavy overtones of Black Liberation, Freedom from Slavery, etc.
Everyone lost their shit about how powerful, revolutionary, etc the performance was, interpreting the display of Blackness in such a white-dominated space (!!!) as a sign of a massive cultural shift and even mass movement.
....And then the superbowl continued as normal, Beyonce was still a billionaire that routinely refused to use her platform to speak out about anything that mattered and things continued to get worse, racially.
People foolishly conflate an artistic, thematic spectacle with the actual presence of greater political meaning than it has. A play about a revolt can, at best suggest to its audience what to do, but it is not a revolt itself.
Furthermore I and many others think that at this point in time, artistic subtleties are too little too late. It's not really time for allusions when n-zi boots are hitting the ground.
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.
That's actually such a huge part of tribalistic sports like football in the first place-- it's just being expanded into the performances halfway through the game-- the feeling of fight and triumph experienced as part of a chosen group scratches the human itch for tribal conflict and victory. It's why ppl act like they were part of their 'team' when they lose or win. It's an energetic exercise.
It's notable that by the end of Kendrick's perfomance- which, like Beyonce's, was incredible-- many Black Americans came away with feelings of belonging towards the concept of being 'American' by way of the AA struggle with slavery. Similarly, Beyonce's recent imagery also strongly evokes National Pride and Americana with the AA population.
It would be willful ignorance to overlook that this focus on American imagery towards and among the African American population comes at a time of great political unrest with Fascism rising and culminating with the current re-election of the Far Right Republican regime.
As with Cowboy Carter's release, AA fans are taking this moment to interpret the American symbolism as a nod to Black people's belonging to America, filling their heads with feelings of connectedness to the flag by sugarcoating it as recognition of their struggle and place in history.
It tastes good enough to swallow, apparently.
But at the end of the day, Lamar said nothing about any larger political issue- an act which was actually taken by one of his dancers who held up a Sudan + Gaza flag and then was arrested.
Then the game went on. No one rioted. They just cheered and felt proud, laughed at Drake (he deserves it), wrote think pieces and did not ponder if this appeasement was calculated. In the end, they felt better and psychologically went through an event that will mentally get them to associate positive feelings with the American flag.
Melanin is a sun protective and may have energy storing properties, but does not deflect propaganda.
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