An Ode to Beyonce
Posted by Taylor Crumpton
February 2, 2017
Dear Beyonce,
When I heard that you were pregnant again, I burst into tears because after the week of executive order from y’all’s president, I forgot to know what happiness and joy felt like. Yet, you knew what your fans needed and dropped the hottest maternity photo shoot to grace mankind.
Your background symbolizes women’s connection with the earth as the creators and planters of this land. Your belly symbolizes the creation of new life, and your body is majestic. You showcase the strength that lies within womanhood, especially black womanhood.
To be a black mother is to birth a child into a world that views their body as an object tied to their capital gain or interests through the school to prison pipeline and prison industrial complex. It’s to watch the first Black president be followed by a man that questioned his “blackness” due to his nonconformity of stereotypes regarding Black men. You’ve paved the way through your art to describe the vulnerabilities that come with being black and a woman during this time.
The fear of loosing your life to police brutality, the fear of loosing your partner to a white woman, the sadness that comes from the intersections of your identities, and the continued judgment cast upon you even though according to white supremacy, you followed all the steps to success.
At times, I question bringing a child into an unjust world as this. Where from birth, judgment and calculations have been passed upon them on whether they’ll be incarcerated or the token one in math class asked to prove their “blackness” to white peers. I think about my ancestors who bore their children into chains with the belief that they will grow up in a world better than theirs.
That’s what I think you believe, Beyonce!
You and Jay Z are in the process of ensuring your children grow up in a world better than yours. It’s the wish all parents have for their children. I’m not currently pregnant but if I make that decision, I want to have made a difference in combating against these systems of white capitalism and supremacy, so my child doesn’t get shot playing in the neighborhood or walking down the streets. So that’s what we’re going to do: we’re going to heal from this election and get in formation.
I’m going to advocate from my positions of privilege, hold my allies accountable, and use my strengths to improve the communities around me. I hope you’ll join me too because there is a lot of work to be done.
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