Who knew football could be a platform for political activism?
Colin Kaepernick, that's who. But he's certainly not alone.
Remember Super Bowl 50? It was just last year, of course you remember. It was also the year white people were shocked and dismayed to find out Beyoncé is black. I mean, come on, we all knew she was black but we didn't think she was black black, right?
(Side note: we did the same thing to Whitney and to Mariah and probably a dozen more. Seriously, white people. Stop it, already!)
But in 2016 Queen Beyoncé showed us in no uncertain terms that black is not only beautiful in straightened hair and ethereal sun glow (Halo, 2008) but in Black Panther throw back militant formation (and even wielding a baseball bat -Lemonade)
And then came Super Bowl 51. Trump is president. Executive Orders are flying out of the White House like those horrifying winged monkeys flying out of the Wicked Witch of the West's castle. The whole world is on the edge when from the Edge of Glory (yeah, you saw that one coming) steps Lady Gaga. Perched quite literally on the edge of the NRG Stadium in Houston, Gaga begins a masterclass in arena-packed, all eyes watching, activism.
From an on-high proclamation that "this land belongs to you and me" to her Poker Face (which I believe was a sequin-studded wink-wink to the network executives who thought she was being compliant) she was saying it all and she was just getting started.
"No matter gay, straight, or bi
Lesbian, transgendered life
I'm on the right track baby
I was born to survive
No matter black, white, or beige
Chola or orient made
I'm on the right track baby
I was born to be brave"
Somehow in the midst of the lyrics being belted out of her golden throat, the conservative world took a collective sigh and said, "Oh thank goodness! She's just singing her usual songs and not getting political." Maybe they were dizzied by dude's 360 degree piano (what?!) or maybe just confused by the all the pyrotechnics but she wasn't done yet.
There's no reason to think that "Telephone" or "Just Dance" were shrouding deeper messages, I suppose, but surely I can't be the only one who draws to mind this SNL sketch of world leaders handling Trump's phone calls when she sings "you're breaking up on me, sorry, I cannot hear you, I'm kind of busy..."
Then came those sweet, touching moments; those beautiful little daggers into the hearts of discrimination and ethnocentricity: A shout out to her mom and dad and with it a nod to her lineage of Italian immigrants. This followed by Lady Gaga embracing a young girl in the field audience. According to all accounts, the hug was unrehearsed but for many watching, the act of wrapping her arms around a beautifully brown girl of unknown ethnicity to the rest of us while singing the words "why don't you stay" in the days of huge walls, threats of deportations and registrations, and disregard for refugees of a certain skin tone...felt like our heart's cry and it was downright moving.
And so it would seem that Lady Gaga would simply close the night on a classic. Maybe that's all she did, maybe that's all she intended. OR MAYBE she knew that as many of us have felt quite helplessly "caught in a bad romance" fraught with "ugly, drama, horror, psycho, revenge" whether we wanted it or not. An anthem to America and it's bazaar Stockholm syndrome with the current administration.
Mic drop, indeed!
The first time I heard Lady Gaga sing, I was an uptight, religious twat who didn't "get it" and thought "if she would just lose all the weird stuff, she has an amazing voice." I was right about one thing. She has an amazing voice. But that "weird stuff," that freak flag-inclusive-recognizing-accepting-celebrating-glittered-bombed weird stuff is what makes her an amazing human. And made her half-time show an amazing political statement that could hardly ruffle any feathers because it was so consistent with who she has always been. That's hard-core activism right there!
