Time To Widen Your Lens
I’m frustrated ya’ll.
As much as I love conversation and the fact that in some ways we are engaging in more conversations, the lens from which many of us are having them has a very limited scope.
People are talking about the Black National Anthem being sung at the Super Bowl and arguing over the relevance of it.
Widen the lens and ask yourself, doesn’t this make the case for why we need to be teaching Black History (which is American History) to everyone starting at at an early age?
Ask yourself, do I know the history of this song dating back to the year 1900 and the reasons why it is a necessary part of our history?
And most importantly, if you don’t know the history, ask yourself, why not?
People are talking about the outcome of the game.
Widen the lens and ask the question, why are we not doing more to push back against the continued denigration of Native Americans by the Kansas City team? Native/Indian American dancer or not, this is a painful issue that continues to be “debated.”
Widen the lens and ask, why we are not talking about the fact that it is 2023 and for the first time we had two Black quarterbacks facing each other in the United States’ biggest sporting event. Ask yourself the question: why has it taken so long? If you don’t know or you think the fault lies with the Black community then widen your lens by doing the work of learning about racism.
People are critiquing Rihanna’s performance like they do it for a living and this surface conversation of whether she was boring in comparison to Beyonce or MJ or JLo allows folks to hide from truths to be discovered. While people continue to shame Rihanna on her behavior and performance, widen your lens and ask yourself why Justina Miles is the first deaf woman to perform during a Super Bowl halftime show. Again, it’s 2023 folks hasn’t there been a need all along?
Widen the lens and ask yourself what this performance might mean during a time when women’s bodies are once again not their own to govern. Ask yourself what it means to be a young Black woman boss, creative, and a billionaire who is performing while pregnant and who sets their own agenda in a country that has set up barriers on all of the above.
We need to be having these deeper conversations and more to move us toward real change.
Time for all of us to widen the lens.
In Love,
Dr. Lynne
