Beyonce realeased her Black Parade single on Juneteenth. I loved it. I played it over a couple of times and thought it was an empowering anthem about black glory. I appreciated it and needed it, especially at a time like this!
I appreciate Beyonce as a whole and have loved her music since Destiny’s child. I am not however a Stan. I Stan her greatness and insane work ethic. But I don’t love any celebrity to the point of losing my bearings, reason or my sense of objectivity. I keep it as fair as I possibly can. Sure, I’ve had debates with people about Beyonce. But that usually happens when folks say shit like, “she has no talent” or just seem to hate her without any real cause. I find it suspicious. As a black woman, it gives me questions.
But after the snippet of her Black Is King movie I noticed instant backlash. There were many claims of her Pan Africanist blackness being performative. That her visuals were tone deaf and perpetuated unrealistic stereotypes about Africa. That she was a greedy capitalist using blackness for profit. That last one. Ouch. I’m sure she felt that one because even Mama Knowles felt compelled to step forward with her statements backing up her daughter. I was struck by all this because of the intensity. Shit. This was a lot. I think I even remember when they were casting for this. It was top secret but a friend of mine forwarded me to a casting director who was searching for Africans for a project for a major unnamed artist. The casting director contacted me and I submitted through my IG. I didn’t think my IG handle would help in selling me though. I didnt think my New Yorkness would help either and it didn’t. I think I knew what they had in mind. I also remember the casting director being pressed looking for African elders 50+. Im starting to think this may be the project it was for. Now I’m super curious about seeing it.
I’m a creature of duality. It’s not only about seeing both sides of a situation for me. It’s about seeing what’s in front of me as well as the bigger picture as a whole and then making sense of it. Sense as it relates to my insight and path that the universe has chosen for me to walk thus far. How I put my own pieces together for myself.
Based on this I feel like Beyonce is now having her “Wheel of fortune moment. “Wheel of fortune moment” is a term I created based on a tarot card. I don’t play tarot so this isn’t any type of psychic card reading insight. The tarot contains a deck of 78 cards and each of them symbolize situations, experiences, people, acts of nature etc that occur in human experience. This has always fascinated me more than the actual outcome of when people draw the cards to determine fate. They are like mini stories.
The Wheel of Fortune card is a card about understanding the ebbs and flows of life as a constant change. Taking the bitter with the sweet. It’s very much a reversal of fortune card when it’s pulled. A dramatic interpretation would be from winning the going from rich to poor or poor to rich. Beyonce will always be rich and famous, she acquired and earned that. As it relates to Beyonce I thought of it as a reckoning. Her 2020 moment. Because what I started to see with this reaction of her work and music is that the pendulum has swung. But I saw the duality of it. First, A reversal in her standing in the black community and then a standing on her pedestal. Because somethings happening. Let’s look at both.
Beyonce has a remarkable career. She’s been performing and dominating since she was a child. Constantly winning and leaving folks in awe at the top of her game. Always. She’s greatness. She’s also had a very charmed existence. She came from an upper middle class family, her family invested a lot into her career and talent because they believed in her. That’s major. That belief that her family had in her transferred over into the belief that millions of people worldwide had in her too.
This level of belief is unprecedented and rare. Her fans look at her like a diety. Because simply put, belief is what makes people into dieties and even religious figures. Whether we are talking about Jesus or The Joker. Just look at actors that play Jesus or The Joker. It becomes more than just a role, they notice coincidences, transcendence, fate, death. It soul stirring. That’s because they are not playing regular characters. The point I’m trying to make by this is— It’s the legions of folks that back things up through belief that make it what it is. It’s the masses that create it and how the perceived deities carry it along. I’ve always been so very fascinated by this—but moreso by the mind of the person being worshipped. How could they not start to believe it themselves?
I don’t actually believe Beyonce thinks of herself as a human being. Who am I to say whether she is or isn’t, but I definitely don’t believe she does. This is something that I have thought for a long time.
It started when I was in my teens. I had a bunch of older friends that were paparazzi. They ranged from 17 to into their 20s. I called them “the paparazzi kids”.
They would track and hound celebrities in the city for photographs and autographs to sell. I hung around them because I was a teeny bopper in NYC and loved the idea of seeing my favs and maybe getting a picture. I remember one day one of the few black guys in the mix, that I used to see around often was telling us about an encounter he had with Beyonce. This was quite awhile ago in the Destiny’s Child days. He was waiting outside the hotel with the rest of the paparazzi for them. He said something very out of pocket, vulgar and misogynistic to Beyonce and the group at one point. He wasnt the friendliest kind of guy, very into the paparazzi game. He was very New York and didn’t give a fuck—all of this offset by a huge afro on his head too. After he came at her, Beyonce grabbed his hand and started praying over him. Biblical forgiveness stuff. I remember finding that very interesting but also odd. Very gracious and anointing of her. Very “forgive them father for they know not what they do” of her.
Of course this was before she was who she is now. But I always remembered that and always thought she carried this kind of energy. Energy of a divine woman who floats above. Not a tacky my shit don’t stink type of proving yourself to the world energy. She had her talent, millions of believers and a charmed existence. She didn’t need to do that. Ever. Again, I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that she didn’t think of herself as human. So I always wondered about that. When the human part would occur, if ever. Would Beyonce ever have a moment of not floating above? Not having her Queendom and divinity as a shield from the world? Is this what’s going on now? Is this what Mama Knowles is protecting her from? Her fans? Is this her 2020 reckoning? I think it really might be.
The attacks and criticism of her lately have less to do with her quality of music and visuals, they actually have more to do with her as a person. Who she is and what she represents. This is what is most concerning about it. A lot of what is being said are people challenging her actual intentions for the cause. In spite of all the money and charitable contributions. She’s now being painted as someone who appropriates black and African culture for gain. I find it a very strange thing to question about somebody— at this point. She’s been around for two decades now. She’s used Southern and African influences in her music in the past? She’s a proud black woman and like many of us she’s evolving and growing..... right?
Is it her status as Beyonce NOW that we have a problem with? Is it a threat?
This brings me to my second point. The wheel of fortune as it pertains to success in the black community. I read an interesting comment that somebody wrote today in reference to the current Beyonce criticism. He asked, why is it that black people always decide to come for, attack and bring down black public figures after they become mega wealthy and successful? It seems we stop rooting for them, he said. I don’t know the answer to that but that doesn’t mean there isn’t any merit to that observation. I think the obvious answer would be that there is a disconnection that occurs. People feel disconnected to her. The irony is that usually this occurs when a black public figure gets white washed. This time it’s occurring while she’s boldly displaying and showcasing beautiful black diasporic art and affirmations. I’m really perplexed by it because I just assumed this is what we want. But folks think she’s being performative. But...... isn’t she a performer? An artist here to make art? It’s just very odd. It sort of seems like the problem is not what people are saying it is. I don’t think her love of blackness is fake. If it counts for anything I remember a few years ago being out one night at a VMA after party with a friend of mine, who’s a gorgeous Sudanese model. Beyonce and Jay Z walked in out of nowhere. Beyonce began staring at my friend completely entranced and even smiled at her and sort of greeted her. Granted, my friend had that effect on people— but this was Beyonce we’re talking about. Beyonce might just love her Africans and her Africana, for real.
I consider myself a very wordy person. But I swear I had a hard time understanding what the fuck people were saying in their rants about Beyoncé’s movie preview. What I understood even less was how folks were so enraged by a one minute clip.
My initial consensus was that perhaps an undercurrent of mass toxicity is sweeping through since we are dealing with a lot of trauma as a community right now and the easiest target is somebody like Beyonce. A mega wealthy black entertainer who is grounded in two worlds. The black world royalty and the American super dream. She is no longer human. But not in the divine sense. They are making it insidious. But what about seeing her as human? Are we incapable now because she doesn’t actually get any human treatment. But maybe it’s not all us.
Beyonce and Jay Z floated into The Golden Globes late for the ceremony because they could and they stood seated when a couple major award winners went up to speak—because they could It’s asserting power. That’s what powerful people do. Something about that seemed like the wrong move to make. I can’t quite put it into words though....
Beyonce and Jay Z are the first of their kind. So we don’t really know if all this is a part of a black success life cycle and if black folks are indeed crabs in a barrel but its apparent to me that Beyonce might have to touchdown a little bit.
We will gain a clarifier soon enough.
WWW.STUPIDBLACKGIRL.COM