Beyond a Super Bowl halftime show
I’m not even going to front. Many of those incredible, pro-Black, anti-fascism messages that Kendrick Lamar blessed the world with during his Super Bowl halftime performance last weekend went over my head. Maybe that’s telling my age. But what my years on this planet have made clear to me is that we Blackfolk spend so much time focusing on “the show” that we don’t even get into “the game.” Beyond all the Drake disses, Lamar powerfully used his art to call out America’s history of stealing Black labor to build white power, while confining us to the prison yard. And we’ve been talking about it ever since. And that’s my point. Even with messages calling out oppressive systems, we’re still so focused on “the show” that not much movement is being made to get into “the game.” The game of confronting those oppressive systems so they stop oppressing. The game of building our own systems so we can be self-determining. As talented, artistic, and creative as we are, it’s no surprise we can put on a good show. But quiet as it’s kept, we invented the game of civilization-building, problem-solving, and solution-creating. That’s the game we need to be in now more than ever.
Time to Show and Tell
We’ve all heard the phrase “I can show you better than I can tell you.” And it makes perfectly good sense. Actions do speak louder than words. Also, we can literally say anything with our mouths (ex: “Baby, I love you”), but our actions (ex: abuse, disrespect, gaslighting, etc.) show our true heart. Regarding Black history, we’ve traditionally been an “I can show you better than I can tell you” people. We do the work, create the things, set the standards, and then go on about our business. But not being self-determining about telling our story is doing us a disservice. When we don’t tell our story, other folk can swoop in and tell any kind of nonsense about “our story,” and their version becomes “truth.” We’ve got to step up our game when it comes to telling our story; telling of the history our ancestors made back in the day, and the history we’re making daily. Folk who are anti-Black tend to have a god-complex, thinking they have the right to tell, own, and define our story. Bump that! Let’s continue to show our ancestral genius and do a better job of telling it – to everybody including ourselves, to remind us (in February and beyond) that “we them ones.”
FAFO facts
Every day, with each new executive order coming from y’all’s POTUS, “We the People” are getting punk-slapped with democracy-eroding, in-your-face fascism. Every day that Elon Musk (the real POTUS) is allowed to dictate US domestic and foreign policy and have unencumbered access to all of our personal information, our “rights” are transforming into wrongs. The killing of USAID, arguably the largest humanitarian aid-delivering entity on Planet Earth. The shutting down of national entities that keep us abreast of health issues. The shutting down of agencies meant to protect regular citizens from predatory gazillionaires’ efforts to rob us blind. The killing of DEI programs and funding, (that, FYI, benefit white women more than any other group). These things are hurting the folk who elected the current POTUS. But they’re hurting us worse. And no amount of laughing at the FAFO crowd will change that. Only action to fight for the world we want.
