After having trash thrown at her for dancing at a concert she attended over the weekend, Solange Knowles has written an essay explaining why black people are uncomfortable in “predominately white spaces.”
Titled “And Do You Belong? I Do,” the essay goes into detail about the singer’s experience at a Kraftwerk concert in New Orleans on Friday night with her husband, their 11-year-old son and his friend in order to expose the kids to a band that was influential to hip-hop.
According to her essay, Knowles began dancing when, shortly thereafter, a couple of women began aggressively yelling at her to sit down. When she didn’t oblige, the women began pelting her with trash — which included a half-consumed lime.
“You feel something heavy hit you on the back of your shoulder, but consider that you are imagining things because well … certainly a stranger would not have the audacity,” Knowles said. “Moments later, you feel something again, this time smaller, less heavy, and your son and his friend tell you those ladies just hit you with a lime.”
Knowles initially wrote about the incident on Twitter, but her tweets have since been deleted.
The singer said the attack was preceded by the accusation that her son and his friend (again, 11 years old) were smoking during the event.
“Simultaneously, a much older black venue attendant comes over to your son and his friend and yells, ‘No electronic cigarettes allowed, you need to stop doing that now!'” the artist recounted.
“You are too into the groove and let your husband handle it and tell the attendant that the children are 11 years old, and it’s actually the two grown white men in front of you guys who were smoking them.”
In her personal essay, Knowles went on to explain that the incident was endemic of a larger issue, detailing instances of multiple microaggressions throughout her life during which she was told she didn’t belong. From being mistaken for prostitutes to being told she was in the wrong line when checking in for a first-class flight.
“You have lived a part of your life in predominately white spaces since you were a kid and even had your 3rd grade teacher tell you ‘what a nigger is’ in front of your entire white class,” wrote Knowles. “You watched your parents trying to explain why this was wrong to her and learned then it can be virtuously impossible to get your point across.”
Knowles added that even though she never called the women at the concert racists, “people will continuously put those words in your mouth.”
“What you did indeed say is, ‘This is why many black people are uncomfortable being in predominately white spaces,’ and you still stand true to that,” she wrote.
Making Beyonce's 'Lemonade': 12 Videos From the Filmmakers Who Got It So Gorgeous (Videos)
Everyone seems to agree: "Lemonade" is a true cinematic beauty. Pause the hour-long film at any time and you have a perfectly shot freeze-frame of Beyonce being intimidating, tender, or full of life. Credit goes to Beyonce for her focused creative vision, but also to these directors who brought their own styles to the table and helped make "Lemonade" such a visual feast.
Kahlil Joseph is one of the fastest rising stars in the short film world. His style is highly influenced by Terrence Malick, whom he worked under as an editor. He has also collaborated with Kendrick Lamar.
In his music video for Flying Lotus' "Until The Quiet Comes," Joseph begins and ends the film with his central figure floating underwater. There is a similar scene in "Lemonade" during the "Pray You Catch Me" segment where Beyonce floats through an underwater bedroom.
Melina Matsoukas is a music video director whose filmography contains a gold mine of A-List music stars: Ludacris, Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez, and Ciara have all worked with her.
Matsoukas won a Grammy in 2013 for her video for Rihanna's "We Found Love," which depicted a rocky, drug-infested relationship that quickly turns violent after a reckless honeymoon period.
"Lemonade" is the 13th collaboration between Matsoukas and Beyonce. They also worked together earlier this year on "Formation," a song and video that have both been praised as anthemic.
Dikayl Rimmasch is a director who loves making films in highly contrasted black and white, such as this short film he made featuring Beyonce and Jay-Z as a modern day Bonnie and Clyde.
Rimmasch loves playing with shadows and figures placed against spotlights, and his style can be seen during the black-and-white segments of "Lemonade," such as the scene with Serena's cameo appearance.
On the other end of the spectrum is Jonas Akerlund, who loves using saturated colors and dramatic, exciting shots. The scene where Beyonce takes a baseball bat to a car "Big Lebowski"-style can probably be attributed to him.
If you want to see Akerlund at his most bizarre, check out his short film, "The Hidden," an art piece about the chaos that lies within the human mind. Echoes fill the soundscape, water and strait jacket sleeves flail at the camera, and the pacing draws you into a false sense of calm before jarring you with a scream.
Then there's Mark Romanek, one of the greatest music video directors of all time. Romanek was honored in 1997 at the MTV VMAs and has won three Grammys for his work with Johnny Cash and Janet and Michael Jackson.
His video with Cash was a cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt," and its meditation on Cash's mortality, shortly before his death, has earned it a reputation as one of the greatest videos of all time.
Romanek was responsible for filming the "Sandcastles" segment from "Lemonade," using soft light and intimate close-ups to show Beyonce and Jay-Z at their most vulnerable.
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More work by the artists responsible for ”Lemonade“
Everyone seems to agree: "Lemonade" is a true cinematic beauty. Pause the hour-long film at any time and you have a perfectly shot freeze-frame of Beyonce being intimidating, tender, or full of life. Credit goes to Beyonce for her focused creative vision, but also to these directors who brought their own styles to the table and helped make "Lemonade" such a visual feast.
