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i want to share my black is king thoughts but i also value my life so maybe i’ll keep quiet
I’m afraid but I’ll bite the bullet anyway...
bik is a shallow appreciation for various cultural aesthetics not the actual cultures themselves
bey adopts pro-black liberation as an esthetic to promote her music not as something she actually believes... her position as a capitalist puts in opposition with the idea of black liberation
she co-opted the aesthetic of the Black Panthers but doesn’t subscribe to their actual politics, their aesthetic is just useful to her in evoking the feeling of pro-blackness
she doesn’t engage with or highligh the cultures she pulls from in a meaningful way. the cultures are nameless and are just passing images in this work. not much of a celebration if we don’t actually know what we’re celebrating
like she showcases jollof but to non-black people it’s just food on the table and they haven’t gained any meaning knowledge of the cultures of west africa, it’s used a prop...
when @jadebentil referred to wakandification she was talking about homoginizing and reimagining “africa” to sell as a product, which is exactly what happened in bik.
this pro-africa business came as a result of bey needing to sell us the lion king not from the most genuine place, but she may have fallen in love with our cultures in the process
lastly, the hotep vibes of this project. the fixation on visusals and nothing more, the promotion of monarchy and royalty, very heteronormative (no inclusion or spotlighting of queer black folk), also no inclusion of big black girls or boys, just one singular body type featured
part of me wishes she included lizzo who is such a huge fan of her into this project and the film...
the visuals are beautiful but that’s all we’re given...
the gift slaps hard as fuck though, beyonce can never fail in that regard.
also, i think that saying she’s giving these already huge african artists a platform is frustrating. we don’t need validation from the west to be considered legit. tiwa has 11 million followers, wizkid has like 20 million... they are already established in their own right.