Black at the Super Bowl Halftime Show

The problem that some of America is having with Kendrick Lamar’s performance is a problem that America has created itself through intentional ignorance. Not everyone is in the know when it comes to Kendrick Lamar, which is part of the indent of an artist being televised.  Artists are given these moments to share their contribution to music to a wider audience. The Audience is then, if curious suppose, to look up the artist and browse their catalog. Playing their top songs or listening to an album. Some of America’s audience didn’t not want to do the footwork, which is fine, personally I didn’t look into Maroon 5’s or Shakira discography after their performances. Not that I didn’t enjoy the performance, I just wasn’t compelled to at the time. But in an age of technology where a google search is in your pocket and this halftime show has been advertised for months, you can’t complain about the performance after the fact.  

What some Americans don’t like is that they were not included. They wanted “They Not Like Us, but they didn’t want Kendrick. They don’t understand what was happening and they don’t see themselves on that field. And what does America do when they don’t understand something? They hate it. And instead of doing a little research, and trying to understand who Kendrick Lamar is and what songs he’s performing, they see it as an affront to what they believe should’ve taken place for the Super Bowl Halftime Show performance. They pick apart the thing they now have decided to hate because it should have been easy for them (the audience) to feel a part of.

At the end of the day, the Halftime Show, is a 15 minute performance to debut an artist on one of the worlds biggest stages. It is their 15 seconds of fame to show the world what they got. Like it or love.

Kendrick Lamar has always been this kind of artist. Anytime he performs in front of white America, there’s always people that find offense even though they are both from the same America. Instead of asking the right question with the intention to understand, they make their assumptions and run with it. The same thing happened with Malcolm X, Colin Kaepernick and any other African American that does something that doesn’t fit within white America’s idea of Blackness.