{"id":5309,"date":"2021-09-30T00:25:33","date_gmt":"2021-09-30T05:25:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=5309"},"modified":"2021-09-30T00:30:22","modified_gmt":"2021-09-30T05:30:22","slug":"black-is-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2021\/09\/30\/black-is-king\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Is King"},"content":{"rendered":"

Non-Africans have such a narrow view of what Africa is and its diversity. In recent years, much of the culture, such as dances, music, and food, has become \u201ctrendy\u201d. In 2020, Beyonce\u0301 released the visual album \u201cBlack Is King\u201d. It has been over a year and I still have not seen it. I love Beyonce\u0301. She is one of my biggest role models and the person who got me into music. However, I have an underlying dislike for this body of work.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As a Nigerian American, it is frustrating to see my culture being glorified after many years of feeling ashamed of my heritage. As a child, I was made fun of for my name, certain words in my vocabulary, and my parents\u2019 accents. I did not want to watch \u201cBlack Is King\u201d because I thought it wasn\u2019t fair for Beyonce\u0301 to receive so much credit for popularizing the culture that many of us have had to ride for their whole lives. Although I am not saying African culture isn\u2019t their culture and I want Black Americans to feel connected with us, it is exasperating to see them profiting off the culture after it took them so long to fully claim it.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is almost similar to the creators of the \u201cMap of Slave Songs of the United States\u201d researching and accrediting white abolitionists.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this text, Ghanaian-American writer and editor Karen Attiah talks about the collaborations Beyonce\u0301 made for the \u201cBlack Is King\u201d album. Attiah also addresses the criticism Beyonce\u0301 received for the album. A one-dimensional view of Africa is that the men are kings and the women are their wives, mothers, and guardians and this perspective is reinforced in \u201cBlack Is King\u201d. I think that non-Africans believe this perspective is empowering for us, and it can be, but not when it is the only perspective. This is a narrative that is repeated in <\/span>The Lion King <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>Black Panther.<\/span><\/i> These are two of the most popular African-based movies and they share the same father-to-son becoming a king theme for men and wife\/mother\/guardian theme for women. While I appreciate that some of these stories are trying to bring to light \u201cAfrican culture\u201d, in the long run, this repeated portrayal might do more harm than good.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In regards to the author of the text, I validate her credibility because she is African. Validation by white american means (PWI education and experience) carries no weight with me in this context. This is completely separate from white people. To me, her validity lies in the fact that she is well connected to her Ghanaian roots and has knowledge of Black America and perceptions of Africa because she has grown up experiencing both. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Citations:<\/p>\n

Attiah, Karen. “\u2018Black is King\u2019 is Built on Problematic Narratives. Still, its Power is Undeniable.” WP Company LLC d\/b\/a The Washington Post, last modified Aug 07.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Non-Africans have such a narrow view of what Africa is and its diversity. In recent years, much of the culture, such as dances, music, and food, has become \u201ctrendy\u201d. In 2020, Beyonce\u0301 released the visual album \u201cBlack Is King\u201d. It … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4169,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[1205,111,361,607,708,679,1206],"class_list":["post-5309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-african","tag-beyonce","tag-black","tag-cultural-appropriation","tag-cultural-differences","tag-culture","tag-the-lion-king"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jEhR-1nD","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4169"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5309"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5312,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5309\/revisions\/5312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}