Let’s talk about #Formation…
SO… I’ve been away for a minute. Grinding as usual. Haven’t written since the passing of David Bowie. Unfortunately and sadly, we’ve lost many more musical greats since then. Well, this story has a musical base to it as well. Saturday night I saw Beyonce sitting on the top of a New Orleans cop car, in a red dress I really loved, surround by water. I immediately knew this was New Orleans, a city that has become yet, another home of mine after working on #Treme’, shooting #BreakingNight there, and making what feels like life long friends. So, I needed to know more about this video and this song. I clicked the link. The images were provocative and on point. Love Big Freedia Always! I can’t say I’ve ever been caught up in the BeeHive, nor cared either way for what she does, but she’s professional and has the ear of the world and carries herself well. With this song, she DID SOMETHING, and SAID SOMETHING. I shared it, which never happens. #FORMATION. I’m glad she did this song/video and isn’t under anyone’s thumb, so she can speak freely. We need that. Messages Without Fear Of Repercussions.
Now, here’s where things get interesting. Time and time again, we’ve seen performers, let’s just be blunt. We’ve seen BLACK PERFORMERS, speak their mind on race issues, with it coming back on them in sometimes catastrophic ways as far as their careers. This goes as far back as Jack Johnson, to Eartha Kitt, Nat King Cole, Richard Pryor, to even Michael Jackson to some degree with Sony. Can we as black people not say that we feel a certain way about how we are treated in this country and have been treated in this country since this countries inception…which we pretty much built. Also, speaking as someone who is also part Native American, I’m really trying to understand how a certain race, can wreak havoc on every other race of people that they “don’t understand”, don’t try to understand, and can’t control yet, when you look at who is actually behind many of the horrific atrocities of the US, it’s white people. Is it not their own fear that causes these uproars? The fear of not being able to control a situation, a country, a people? Does this fear and privilege in this group of people make it so they are completely unable to understand when a black person says “STOPSHOOTINGUS” Such as Giuliani on Fox news. that this is not an attack on police, but a cry for justice as a black person, as an American? Again, I’m really trying to understand how does that statement and that video ATTACK police officers if people of color are the ones that are constantly being shot and killed like animals on the range, with no justice ever gotten for these lost souls. This is crazy.
Just as crazy as me looking up a credit of mine on IMDB for my bio and seeing that someone wrote something about me in the discuss #YolondaRoss portion of my IMDB page, #RacistWoman. Well, hell, I know myself. This must be some crazy mistake. There is a Yolanda Ross, maybe it was meant for her page. I clicked and read this white woman’s rant, and sure enough she was talking about me. It’s about the craziest, and a little bit scary of a feeling to know that there are nuts out there with their scared and arrogant points of view, of you. This is the photo that outraged this woman. #YolondaRossandNumaPerrier two brown girls smiling at the kickoff of the #TribecaFilmFestival, One wearing an I ♡ Black People t-shirt. It was a clean t-shirt, a fun night, and I love ♡♡♡ myself and my people. No Hate. Why does that infuriate or freak out others? That’s what needs to be checked out. It’s my opinion that these kinds of responses are no different than why studios, producers, and financiers many times don’t seem to see any value in our stories, or stories with us as the leads. Though we’ve proven time and time again, that there is money to be made in these other markets.
Think on it yall. White readers I’m truly interested in hearing your thoughts as well. Why does a black person’s expression of love for themselves incite such fury and fear in some of your own? How do we as people stop these negative reactionary responses from happening? Is it possible?
