Piers Morgan: Beyonce's Exploiting Trayvon's Family for Album Sales
"I preferred the old Beyoncé. The less inflammatory, agitating one. The one who didn’t use grieving mothers to shift records and further fill her already massively enriched purse," former CNN anchor, Piers Morgan said in the closing of a scathing editorial on Bey on Monday (April 25). He recently ranted against the more socially conscious direction the mega pop star has taken over her past two albums, suggesting that the content is motivated to cash out social relevance for commercial success. At one point in the article, Morgan goes as far as accusing Mrs. Knowles of exploiting the mothers of Mike Brown and Trayvon Martin in her Lemonade short, stating: "I felt very uneasy watching these women being used in this way to sell an album."
While the British journalist makes brief mention of Beyoncé's lyrics on infidelity, he largely foregoes addressing the feminist/womanist components of the artists recent work, instead focusing his criticism on the topic of race in her music. He sites her use of a Malcolm X image, maintaining the historic civil rights figure known in part for eventually expanding his creed to include multiculturalism, as a "separatist", and chastised her Super Bowl homage to the 60's Black Panther Party with claims that the group went beyond fighting for civil rights to eventually encompass "widespread criminal and murderous membership within their ranks." Beyonce has publicly defended that her message on "Formation" is not pro-Black, but rather anti-police brutality. On more than one occasion Morgan specifies her references to Black Lives Matter, graffiti reading "Stop Shooting Us" and continual references to police shootings as a general "attack on U.S. police."
In juxtaposition to his disfavor of Beyonce's 'woke' years, Morgan did make clear that he has been a fan of her entertainment. He cites a feature he did on her five years ago, in which they had lunch and visited a record store together to buy her album. In representing how she has evolved over the course of her catalog shift, Morgan quoted the Beyoncé he'd rather have back, when she told him: "I don’t think people think about my race. I think they look at me as an entertainer and a musician and I’m very happy about that because that’s how I look at people. It’s not about color and race, and I’m happy that’s changing."
Source: vibe.com
While the British journalist makes brief mention of Beyoncé's lyrics on infidelity, he largely foregoes addressing the feminist/womanist components of the artists recent work, instead focusing his criticism on the topic of race in her music. He sites her use of a Malcolm X image, maintaining the historic civil rights figure known in part for eventually expanding his creed to include multiculturalism, as a "separatist", and chastised her Super Bowl homage to the 60's Black Panther Party with claims that the group went beyond fighting for civil rights to eventually encompass "widespread criminal and murderous membership within their ranks." Beyonce has publicly defended that her message on "Formation" is not pro-Black, but rather anti-police brutality. On more than one occasion Morgan specifies her references to Black Lives Matter, graffiti reading "Stop Shooting Us" and continual references to police shootings as a general "attack on U.S. police."
In juxtaposition to his disfavor of Beyonce's 'woke' years, Morgan did make clear that he has been a fan of her entertainment. He cites a feature he did on her five years ago, in which they had lunch and visited a record store together to buy her album. In representing how she has evolved over the course of her catalog shift, Morgan quoted the Beyoncé he'd rather have back, when she told him: "I don’t think people think about my race. I think they look at me as an entertainer and a musician and I’m very happy about that because that’s how I look at people. It’s not about color and race, and I’m happy that’s changing."
Source: vibe.com
