10 Better Uses of Your Time: For People Who Want to Protest Beyonce

                So, someone is taking time out of their life organizing a protest of Beyonce at the NFL headquarters in New York City. It seems she has ruffled some people’s feathers in choosing to allow her dancers to don berets as part of the Super Bowl 50 half-time show. And, while no one really made the Black Panther connection while watching the Super Bowl, by the time they saw the memes on social-media ‘the outrage was out the cage’. “How dare she???”

                Among the claims made were that she was too scantily clad, that the “political statement was inappropriate” and that Coldplay didn’t need an accompaniment anyway. We live in an ‘any excuse will do’ society, where being hyper-critical of “the other” is as American as apple-pie. So, it really doesn’t surprise me that her detractors saw the performance as controversial. But, protesting though??? That seems to be a bit much. This happened in a moment, a moment that will soon be forgotten. So, shouldn’t a few moments of attention and a few days in the news-media be enough? I guess not.  

               

Some argue that political statements should not be made at the Super-Bowl. But, isn’t the presence of any artist as much a political statement as an artistic and cultural one? Can you separate the artist from his or her political views? Will we all of a sudden turn a blind-eye to the experiences that have shaped who and what they are? And, I guess popular and politically-correct political statements are alright. No one is going to make a big fuss about advertising support for the military and the near-50% of the federal budget that we spend on the military industrial-complex annually, because it’s o.k. to kill people. It’s alright for our children to see messages that promote the killing of people, so long as it’s “the other”.
 

                However, it is not o.k. to inspire Black people, even if we are underserved, underprivileged and suffering from the kinds of humanitarian crises you would expect to find in a third world country. We’re supposed to sit-down, shut-up and take what we’re given. We are not Irish or Italian or German, so how dare we attempt to have any identity that is separate or distinct from the group? How dare Beyonce tell use to love ourselves? In fact, we should be happy to even be accepted as part of the group, since we are inferiors.  Well, that’s how some people think. And, any talk or action that is not in-line with that status quo is a threat to the very existence of this society, so it seems.

 

                Some would say I am being dramatic. And, I disagree. Anytime, ex-mayor, Rudy Guliani can get on TV to say that Beyonce is a threat to the police I am not being dramatic in the least.  Anytime a Super Bowl performance can be compared to a KKK rally, I am not being dramatic in the least. Anytime people are willing to come together in protest of an R&B artist, I am not being dramatic in the least. And, anytime I have to be a witness to crazy, I am certainly going to call it what it is.

 

                Now, I’m not one to suggest denying anyone their freedom of assembly or expression. However, time and energy are in limited supply. So, perhaps, a better use of that passion and sense-of-purpose would be to channel it into one of the following formation:

1.       Protest of military spending – 50% of the annual Federal Budget is spent on our military. What if that money could be re-directed toward serving humanity? What if we “beat our swords into plowshares”? What if we turned our guns into gardening-tools and our missiles into means of helping the masses? What are we in this for – to prove we are #1 or to live in a world where we can live in peace together?

 

2.       Protest for higher teacher salaries – If you’re going to protest anything, then protest on behalf of the people who are raising your children for six-to-eight hours a day. Our social security is not in the hands of any artist, but in the minds and hearts of our children.

3.       Protest for the missing children – Why are tens-of-thousands of our children going missing each and every year? What can we do to reduce that number by 70 to 80%. Why is the government not speaking-up about this issue? These are our children, for Christ’s sake.

4.       Protest domestic violence and the abuse of women – This is just common-sense. If our women don’t feel safe, how can our children feel safe? And, if our children are scared of everything, then they’ll be protesting Beyonce’s 2020 Super Bowl performance.

5.       Protest corporate irresponsibility – What angers me is that corporations can make what they want, dig where they want and dump where they please. So, the Pacific Ocean is a plastic, waste-dump and African nations on the coast of the Atlantic are a dumping ground for chemical waste. Countless lives have been ruined and lost in the name of usurping and unearthing the precious resources of various nations. Now, with fracking, global warming and methane and oil spills, the chickens have come home to roost in the U.S.

                Some of us don’t want to protest anything. Focusing on the negative can be a bit much. Ok. So, here are five ‘positive’ actions you can take. You don’t have to protest to make a positive impact.  

1.       Donate to time, energy or money to solving the humanitarian crisis in Flint. Flint is an American city. Infrastructure issues will need to be addressed over the next 50-years. So, next year’s Flint could be Baltimore or Chicago or Richmond. If we address this crisis properly, it will be so much easier to address the inevitable.

2.       Donate to your local ASPCA (American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). So, you’ve given up on humans? Trust me. I get it. But, most people love animals. They are so innocent and so deserving of our love. So, why not donate to the ASPCA each and every time you’re frustrated with humanity? You can be certain that there is still at least one true hero in the world, because that hero will be you.

3.       Take the “Do Good Challenge”. Do something good in the life of someone you know or don’t know.

4.       Post photos of dogs, flowers or babies on social media sites. Nothing disarms people better than a cute dog, a smiling baby or some beautiful flowers. So, drop a love bomb in the lives of your followers.

5.       Do nothing. If someone throws you a ball, you don’t have to catch it. A fire needs fuel, something to burn and oxygen. In doing nothing, you start the fire of that needed breath of fresh air. If you don’t show up, there is nothing to burn.

We are so used to protest as a strategy for addressing our concerns that we don’t realize that it’s not always the BEST strategy. Just know that when protest is an option, it’s never the only option.

James Will M. Power