By Wallace
Staff Writer
Piers Morgan, you have the immense privilege of being white in a nation built on the exploitation of Brown bodies for the consumerism and comfort of white bodies. Therefore, from this mountaintop of privilege which you refuse to check, you have no right to try and analyze a work beyond your scope of understanding. Morgan, you can never understand the depth of pain, suffering, and hope displayed in “Lemonade” because the world has shielded you from these emotions, while Black women were born feeling them.
Beyoncé is not a “born again Black woman,” she is a Black woman tired of white men trying to erase her blackness to consume her craft. She is a mother worried about the future of her child, a beautiful Black girl in a world that only respects life if it belongs to a white, cisgender, man like yourself, Morgan.
She is a Black woman wronged once again, a feeling of disappointment passed through generations like an inheritance.
But, she is a Black woman who is not afraid to be angry, not afraid to love herself in an act of rebellion. She refuses to continue the cycle of Black women breaking their bodies for the consumption of others; she will only break her body for her.
As Malcolm X said, “the most disrespected person in America is the Black woman,” and Morgan, you, along with every white man who thinks himself qualified to analyze art done by a Black woman for other Black women and femmes, prove his point. Morgan, I understand that your whiteness makes you feel entitled to Blackness and the feeling of ownership over Black art goes back to when Black bodies were considered property for your consumption. Beyoncé is no longer yours to consume; this album will not be an anthem that you are pleased with— therefore, it has done its job.
It has inspired Black women across the world to lift their voices and their heads high and rejoice in all this holy Blackness. Allowing them to feel blessed to have this melanin in their skin, and how dare any man feel entitled enough to take this away. Morgan, Black women loving themselves this freely is political because the politics around our bodies is always how to remove the Black to become beautiful.
“Lemonade” is not about any man—it is about the woman finding herself after heartbreak that was generations in the making. It is against the patriarchal, white supremacy that you, Morgan, have worked so hard to strengthen, so I understand why it does not agree with you. Because you uphold white supremacy, I understand why grieving mothers of children who fell by the hands of your system make you uncomfortable. I am so glad you are uncomfortable.
I hope all white men are made uncomfortable with the unapologetic Blackness that Beyoncé is, and that it stops you from making acoustic covers of any of her songs on your banjo or guitar. I hope it is hard for you to watch Black art being made and know there is no room for you, to listen to the best music of her career and know she will receive widespread acclaim for it. “Lemonade” is rebellion. It is sweet and sour like the life of a Black woman in America, a nation that gave us lemons—and we made lemonade.
