During the 2017 Grammy
Awards, Adele swept the music competition, beating Beyoncé and her Lemonade album multiple times. What shocked the entertainment industry was
Adele’s acceptance speech. Watch the speech below. It was a
speech devoted to Adele's belief in the superiority of Beyoncé's album.
Much has been said
about the speech – positive and negative.
To get a clearer view of the situation, it is wise to look at it from a
female perspective, one black and one white.
Black Perspective:
Michaela Coel is a writer for The Guardian,
and she is a British black woman. Coel
matches the race and gender referenced by Adele, so her opinion is especially valuable. Coel writes:
“Was
there really a white celebrity on stage at the Grammys saying to a black
artist: ‘The way that you make me and my friends feel, the way you make my
black friends feel, is empowering’? We’ve
all seen clips of Adele’s inspiring acceptance speech at the Grammys by now. I
clicked on the link to watch, and the first thing I heard was Adele saying: ‘I
can’t possibly accept this award … I’m very humbled and I’m very grateful … but
my artist of my life is Beyoncé. And this album to me, the Lemonade album, is just so monumental’…Adele had won, but had
basically said she didn’t deserve it.”
“Queen
Beyoncé’s reaction was so graceful: she was as shocked as we were. Then she
blushed as she cried: tears equally laced with humility and pain. Because of
the deranged voting process of the Grammys, she would not be joining the ranks
of the mere 10 black artists who have won album of the year since the award was
created in 1959. Only 10. And none in the last decade at all. Did you know
that? If it hadn’t been for Adele’s speech, I wouldn’t have either.”
“I’ve
since seen streams of tweets raging at Adele for ‘differentiating between races’,
chirping ‘how dare she pity Beyoncé and offer her some kind of pathetic shout
out’. I saw things differently.”
“I
screamed, ‘YES, ADELE, YAAAS’ – because what she did in that moment was rare:
she thought the award should’ve gone to somebody else, and she told us the
truth. She is rare in the creative arts industry…”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/17/adele-beyonce-grammys-entertainment-race-class
Coel reported that
Adele has been judged, but I must wonder who is doing the judging. Coel is a black woman, and she embraced Adele’s
recognition of race. Beyoncé was the one
being recognized, and she was not offended.
So, who is it offending? I offer
that it offends people who are uncomfortable inside their own skins and have
not yet recognized the cultural realities in our world.
White Perspective:
Hannah Briggs is a writer for TheFrisky.com, and she is a white woman. She often covers the entertainment industry
and follows race relations. Briggs
writes:
“Much
has been said about whether Adele’s not-so-acceptance speech was the right
thing to do. Some praised her, while some scolded her mention of her ‘black
friends,’ her ‘mommy’ joke, and everything in between.”
“I
will say this, it wasn’t perfect, but it was damn near close… And she could
teach us all—myself included—about how to be a good ally.”
“Over
the past few months the focus of how to ‘be a good ally’ to marginalized
communities has become a hot topic. A Google search of the phrase will return
millions of results with articles guiding straight/white/able-bodied/etc.
people on how to help more or telling us what doesn’t—which is awesome, by the
way.”
“Fighting
alongside members of groups that you don’t belong to while keeping sight of
your own privilege can be difficult...she did everything in her power to draw
attention to the injustice that she felt had just been done—even though that
injustice benefited her.”
“The biggest points of criticism that Adele has seen in the days since, have had to do with three specific words that she chose: ‘my black friends.’ Look, if that left a bad taste in your mouth, I get it. It never looks good for a white woman to mention having black friends when making a statement about racism…Adele’s shout out wasn’t to highlight her own non-racism—it was meant to highlight the unique experience of black womanhood expressed through Lemonade.”
“Adele
knew good and well that she won because the Grammy voters were not the people
that Lemonade spoke to most. She
mentioned those friends to show that she understood that she, herself, did not
represent that demographic either. To ignore that fact in this context would
have been a shocking, if not unforgivable, oversight.”
“Of
course, everyone was disappointed and confused when Beyoncé didn’t take home
the top prize, but the fact that she didn’t is not Adele’s fault…she used the
platform she was given to draw attention to the injustice and the importance of
acknowledging the power of Beyoncé’s work on Lemonade (and throughout her entire career).”
“At
the end of the day, isn’t that what the best allies do?”
Briggs repeatedly used
the word “ALLY”. She taught that by supporting
others in a fight for justice, one can be an ally, no matter the gender,
ethnicity, orientation, ability…
Tawnya, the Ally: For the last few weeks
I have been questioning if anyone would want to read a white girl’s blog
written for the first- generation Hispanic college student. I attended workshops to earn DreamZone certification
(look for future blogs) where I heard the word ally, but I didn’t really get it
until Adele and Beyoncé exemplified a respectful, appreciative, and supportive
relationship. Adele didn’t claim to
identify with Beyonce’s struggles, as she never could fully experience those
obstacles because of the color of her skin, but she did acknowledge the
goodness that Beyoncé stimulates.
I am an ally for the
Hispanic community in Mesa, Arizona. I
am an ally for those Latinos that overstayed their visas, for those whose
grandparents struggled to own land in the southwest, for those whose parents
brought them over the border when they were small children, and for those who
have earned their American citizenship.
I want to provide a
space for achieving greater understanding, because with knowledge comes
compassion and respect. I want to stand
up for all of those Hispanics who have had such a positive impact in my
life. I may not experience the pain of
minorities, but I stand in awe of the magnificence the pain can produce.
Image #1 = https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/seven-diverse-human-profiles-black-white-23297806
Image #4 = Information taken from: https://thegrio.com/2017/02/13/black-artists-grammys-album-year/
Image #5 = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwwPM5fbNkc
This is both interesting and informative. Thank you!
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