How The Grammys Went Mad

At the Grammys this year, performers gave impassioned speeches about sexual harassment which were met with wild applause and approval.

They then went out and performed utterly misogynistic songs. Many received awards and accolades for albums and songs glorifying the domination and abuse of women.

Cardi B, whoever that is, thrusting her pelvis and saying bad words which refer to women as dogs. Note that her singing partner, Bruno Mars, is not showing skin like she is. GrrlPowr!

How do you end up here? As longtime friend and commenter Ohioan at Heart might say, it is impossible to hold both of these concepts in your head at the same time without your brain exploding from the contradiction. And yet, they did. How?

I've spent a lot of time pondering this and I think I've finally come up with the answer. Racism and the patriarchy.

These people believe in racism so strongly - racism is endemic in America and white supremacists dominate the lives of people of color (POC)* - that nothing they do makes any difference. They have no agency in their lives at all. It's as if POC were left outside to survive a hurricane with no shelter save for what they can derive from politics.

If that's the way things are, then it hardly matters if POC have unrestricted sex, drop out of school, do drugs or record songs encouraging all of these things. If what they believed was actually true, you would expect them to live for today. Until the hurricane passes, there's no point in trying to make a better life for yourself. The best you can do is survive.

If you review the speeches and extract the essential points they are trying to make, I think this is what you hear. Every day will be a desperate, existential struggle for POC until the white patriarchy is defeated. Their songs, dances and behavior are irrelevant because the white patriarchy is omnipresent and omnipotent. Hence the endless stream of rabid, political howling at these shows.

There. That's the best I can do on that particular conundrum.

* - People of color includes gays, transgendered, women, Muslims and so forth.