SO, YEAH… THE BLACK ARTISTS?

Now I don’t usually do this long rant-ish kind of thing (at least in writing…and for my first blog post, nonetheless), but I’ve been complaining about this for like two weeks, so I decided to put my thoughts on paper.

When I was watching the GRAMMYs this year, I was really annoyed. Let me preface this by saying that I have not done official research as of now, but these are just some things I’ve been noticing every time it gets to be around awards season. Well, it’s really just the lack of diversity on the GRAMMYs. It seems to me as if they have just whitewashed the entire ceremony.

Let’s start with the most obvious aspect: the performances. My girl Beyoncé tore up the gaht-damned [lip-synched to “***Flawless”] stage. She had us screaming, and immediately shot to the top of worldwide trends on Twitter, and this was all before she was even halfway through her first verse. And then Jay Z joined her, causing us to really lose it. But after they finished, the majority of the performers were, shall I say, lacking in skin pigment:

• Lorde

• Hunter Hayes

• Katy Perry

• Keith Urban

• Taylor Swift

• Robin Thicke featuring Chicago

• P!nk with Nate Ruess

• Kacey Musgraves

• Paul McCartney and Ringo (twice for Ringo)

• Blake Shelton along with Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson

• Sara Bareilles with Carole King

• Metallica

• Macklemore and Ryan Lewis with Madonna and Mary Lambert

• Miranda Lambert and Billie Joe Armstrong

• Dave Grohl with Nine Inch Nails, Queens Of The Stone Age, and Lindsey Buckingham.

Yes, Katy Perry featured Juicy J (sidebar: remember when he won an Academy Award??), John Legend serenaded us, Macklemore had Queen Latifah officiate the thirty-three weddings, and Pharrell performed with Nile Rodgers and Stevie Wonder. Gary Clark Jr. sang with Keith Urban after winning a non-aired award (I’ll get into that in just a bit). Lang Lang played with Metallica, Kendrick Lamar and Imagine Dragons definitely gave King Bey a run for her money for the performance of the night with their Radioactive/M.A.A.D City mash-up. But come on! If you compare the quantities it is a staggering 11 non-white performers to the staggering 30 Caucasian artists. That is nearly a 1:3 ratio over the four-hour broadcast, and only 3 of the 11 performed without being paired with a white artist.

(Left: P!nk performing on her "The Truth About Love Tour")

I don’t have anything against any of those artists. I could go on for DAYS about how much I love Sara Bareilles, P!nk, and Miranda Lambert, to name a few. I was also thoroughly entertained for the greater majority of all of the performances, and I’m not even getting into why I’ve been giving perpetual side-eye to how artists and songs are categorized and won (*cough cough* Robin Thicke and Justin Timberlake under Pop instead of R&B). But my opinion about their musical quality has nothing to do with my current inquisition:

Are there no talented Black artists?

Where are the other rising or established stars of shades darker than alabaster? Was it that they just didn’t want to be on stage? Was there not ONE song that was TV-appropriate and wouldn’t offend our delicate senses (as we glide over Macklemore’s uncensored use of the word “faggot”in “Same Love,” while both Beyoncé’s and Kendrick’s performances were silenced at parts for less offensive words)? Was NOBODY available for that evening?

I find this terribly hard to believe. Alicia Keys’ album Girl on Fire won last night; she could have performed. Or Rihanna could have sang a song from Unapologetic (which won for Best Urban Contemporary Album), or Fantasia Barrino, with the power-packed hit song “Without Me (feat. Kelly Rowland and Missy Elliott),” that was also nominated last night off of her three-time nominated The Side Effects of You. (updated: Rihanna was not in attendance at the GRAMMYs that evening)

There was also newcomer Tristan “Mack” Wilds, first known from his acting roles on The Wire and the CW’s remake of 90210, who was nominated for Best Urban Contemporary Album on his DEBUT album, New York City: A Love Story. Tamar Braxton, sister to Toni Braxton, set the female record for having the longest time between having an initial album chart listing and a #1 album (I remember reading this on Billboard a little while back), Love And War. Whether you find that either odd or impressive, she was still nominated three times, and I don’t even remember the camera even passing over her face.

(From Top: Mack Wilds at the “BET Music Matters Showcase: The GRAMMY Edition 2014″ before his performance that night, and Tamar Braxton on “The Real”)

Continuing with my previous two examples, if the question was about their “celebrity” or visibility, every tween who ever turned on the CW would know Mack Wilds, like they all know Macklemore. Tamar is featured on Braxton Family Values, a reality show on WE tv, and is forever expanding her resumé as a television personality being one of the hosts on the talk show, The Real, which just got renewed for its second season. And do we even have to question the celebrity of Keys, Rihanna, and/or Barrino? (updated: Rihanna was not in attendance at the GRAMMYs that evening)

Then there was the matter of which awards to air on CBS. I understand that there are over 78 (!!!) categories and there’s no way to show them all; what we saw was already four hours, and you could notice viewers’ fatigue from the lethargy on the internet. But let’s run down some of the ones we were shown:

• Record of the Year

• Song of the Year

• Album of the Year

• Best New Artist

• Best Pop Vocal Album

• Best Pop Solo Performance

• Best Country Album

• Best Pop Duo/Group Performance

• Best Rock Song

It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that these genres of music are usually targeted towards the white population of the United States.

What we didn’t see was any of the R&B or Urban Contemporary categories, nor did we see the majority of the Rap categories, let alone some of the Reggae and Latin artists. Now I can tell you all know where I’m going with this one, “well those are genres that are targeted to mainly minorities!” and you’re right: why couldn’t the GRAMMYs at least air one or two of these categories instead of our umpteenth pop category? And this is the question I am trying to find an answer to.

I’m mainly concerned about the impact this may have on us as a society. What is the message we are sending to be received? In my personal opinion, we are looking at microagressions and veiled reinforcements of oppressive values. Where can inspiration to be great be birthed in a minority if we refuse to even show the nominees that relate the most to them on television? What does it say when over two-thirds of the non-white artists didn’t perform their songs alone?

I, for one, am over it. We need to demand more for ourselves as individuals and as society as a whole. The inequalities must have been becoming more blatant over time, or maybe I’ve just grown to be more observant. I’ll admit, I’m unsure how to continue from here, but I’d love to at least get people talking.

Peace, Love, and Blue Ivy Carter

Jalen