In this Breakfast Club interview, Michael Eric Dyson talks about his concerns with the music industry’s reluctance to let African Americans succeed. He wonderfully articulates the reason why Black people fall to the shadows when receiving awards. When he speaks on Beyonce losing Album of the year award to Adele it is mainly because black genius is not recognized by white people. Although Adele’s album was great it simply was not better than Beyonce’s. Beyonce has to prove herself even more in the face of white mediocrity. Adele got complimented on being eccentric and different, breaking the norm for the white artist but when someone like Beyonce does it is viewed as being controversial. Beyonce’s album Lemonade highlighted society issues pertaining to race and was seen as controversial.
Dyson makes a great point that among themselves white people’s music is great and stands out but when put into categorizes with other ethnicity they are fairly mediocre. With this in mind they still constantly receive awards. Race is not the only way stars like Beyonce fall victim to being cheated as well. I like that Dyson acknowledges other societal pressures on artist like gender. Even within her own ethnicity, Beyonce goes up against misogyny.
