re: Drake vs. Kendrick Explained To White People

Kendrick confused MAGA with black beauty

As a person of Afro-Caribbean descent, I am heartened by what I saw at the Super Bowl tonight. You see, when our ancestors were stolen from Africa and placed under the control of white enslavers, the slavemasters sought to dominate every aspect of our lives. They stripped away anything they believed could empower us to rise up. They took our drums, but they could never take our spirit.

The tradition of Calypso is rooted in speaking out against the injustices and challenges we face. But on the plantations, where our musical traditions thrived in covert ways, we were not free to express ourselves openly. So, we found ways to encode our messages. In the Caribbean, we used double entendre—saying one thing on the surface while conveying a deeper meaning to those "in the know." This practice continues today in modern Calypso.

Tonight, with Kendrick Lamar, I saw that tradition alive and well. He delivered messages that could not be easily understood by oppressors. He coded his words through metaphor and his unique style of delivery. Of course, this is nothing new, but for many people unfamiliar with him and our culture, this may have been their first exposure to him. They heard him, but they didn’t truly **hear** him. And that is by design.

MAGA supporters are currently complaining that his performance was "trash." Of course they would say so—because they can’t decipher it, so they dismiss it as "mumbo jumbo." Additionally, let's not forget that this was unapolegtically BLACK - nothing watered down or designed for popular consumption. So by virtue of it being undiluted thick lovely blackness, they will attempt to disparage it - especially because they can't profit from it. They don't get it becasue the can't understand it. But **we** understand it. We understand what he said, and what his appearance tonight meant. The revolution may not be televised, but he sent the signal to start the revolution on television!

The amazing thing is that this signal is reaching the people who need it most—those who feel hopeless as we witness the most powerful office in the world being occupied by someone who believes we are unworthy of respect.

Keep your heads high, my people! And by "my people," I mean anyone who stands with us in the fight for the equality we seek. We will triumph in the end.

**We gon' be alright!**

Edit: It's been fun adding optimism where I could and shutting down nuisances where I must. But it's work time now, so I have to go.

For all of you who come to say that black people in Africa were involved in the slave trade, we know. Yes they supplied European ships with black people captured by other black people (Africa has apologized for this, btw).

It doesn't negate the fact that we were stolen. All kinds of races were complicit. That's besides the point. Taking people across the Atlantic in the basement of a ship against their will is stealing. And if you've come here to play semantic games, you're making a justification for them.

Black people were stolen from Africa. Point blank. And with that, I will go and diligently do my work. Goodbye