Kendrick Lamar

Last night, I boycotted the SuperBowl 59 and instead chose to watch a Black woman Creator on Tiktok called, "Love," as she and others marched all thirteen blocks of the French Quarter.

The New Orleanians protested in the pouring rain against Trump, Elon, the assault on the Constitution, and the EOs that have been signed over the past 3 weeks since the Inauguration.

They marched to Louis Armstrong Park and ended the protest under the Armstrong lit-up arch. It was beautiful. Afterward, I watched Lady Gaga's opening performance at the Super Bowl and was astonished by the many nuances that the song played in front of Marie Laveau's in the middle of Bourbon Street meant to the world, to me, personally, and how it was an interpretable sign that I knew to take to heart for many reasons.

I'll save that story for another time, and bring back focus to my intentions for this piece - the genius of Kendrick Lamar.

There are a few different parts of his performance that I would like to dissect as follows;

1. Symbology: The fractioned red, white, and blue Black and brown bodies, which represented how America was built on the backs of the enslaved and the oppressed, were poignant. The image showed half of the flag with all three colors represented in an even square—red, white, and blue—and the other half of the dissected American flag in solely red and white.

The emphasis on color shows how divided America is. One part still wants to hold to core values, share history, and progress toward the "more perfect Union," as the Founders described it at the country's inception.

It showed, on the other hand, a half intent to erase their blue countrymen and forget they too are a part of the wholeness of that flag - and the very fabric of its existence, choosing instead to trample on the flag of their founding fathers, and everything the Constitution outlined to create that union.

This alone was a message no one could deny even if they didn't understand a single word of the lyrics, which when broken down across the set of songs Kendrick chose rings at an even deeper level, but that would require a lot longer post than I intended on writing here today.

2. The message of propriety as it was delivered by the glorious, Samuel L Jackson in the role of Uncle Sam; the idea that it should require mandatory calmness in the face of intolerable cruelty and disrespect, and dehumanizing others because it makes others uncomfortable has been given the absolute eff outta here, and entirely wiped away.

We've shirked that type of etiquette in favor of what I call 'Difficult Honesty.'

You cannot demand people behave politely to you while you shirk their very existence unless it is entertaining or serving you. America will not go back to those days.

The South did not win, and it won't win again. You'd have thought this hateful ideology would've learned that lesson by now, but I digress - here we are.

3. Media Literacy and Culture Intellect: it takes just a smidge of media literacy and a dash of culturing, but that would mean that more of the populace had actually paid attention to anything other than beer, cheerleaders, knocking a man to the ground, and hovering down in the mud with your teammates rear-end in your face while you chase after a ball.

You do not have to enjoy hip-hop or rap to understand the many messages given in a perfectly executed artistic display last night, if you take five minutes to pull your head up from staring at a football player's behind...because many of them were clear;

• "WARNING: WRONG WAY."
• "Turn off the TV."

• "GAME OVER."
• The XO square and triangle game controller symbols.
• The people walking around in circles, dressed in red, white & blue going round, and round in a circle of complicity but never actually made any real changes.

These things were obvious to people who paid attention to music, movies, and television, but more importantly, to those who read books.

Imagine being someone who writes books, or how that looks to an educator for five seconds.

Again, I digress - here we are.

However, here we are empowered because of what Kendrick delivered.

Kendrick reminded us that we ARE America.

The entire flag and we all built it together.

Our ancestors all, together, made this country what it is, and their descendants all, together, will ensure we don't go back to a time where only the red and white stripes matter because this country has always bled blue.

This was always, and always will be a country of immigrants, stolen from the Indigenous and built on the backs of Black, Brown, and Asian laborers. #BlackHistoryMonth #Legendary #kendricklamar #theynotlikeus