English-Sri Lankan artist M.I.A is in hot water after making critical remarks about the Black Lives Matter movement and artists Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar.
The 40-year-old rapper and entertainer began her career making films and designing clothes in west London. It wasn’t until 2004 when she began to make her mark on the music industry. M.I.A became a smash sensation with hits like “Sunshowers” and “Galang.”
However, the talented artist may have made a major misstep in her decade spanning career. M.I.A who’s fresh off her her 2016 album Matahdatah, said in an interview with U.K.’s Evening Standard Magazine about BLM:
“It’s not a new thing to me,” M.I.A. said about Black Lives Matter’s fight for justice. “It’s what Lauryn Hill was saying in the 1990s, or Public Enemy in the 1980s. Is Beyoncé or Kendrick Lamar going to say Muslim Lives Matter? Or Syrian Lives Matter? Or this kid in Pakistan matters? That’s a more interesting question.”
Her criticism had a hint of “All Lives Matter” intertwine throughout. The Black Lives Matter movement’s founders and activists has made it clear that the movement is not saying that only Black people’s lives are valuable. The constant devaluation of Black people in poor communities, epidemic police brutality, and a justice system that has historically been unfair and unjust to Black citizens are some of the reasons for the movement. The rapper misses the point entirely.
Twitter users had to let that be known.
MIA's comments were lazy, reductive, and leaking with a lack of self-interrogation. black people don't owe non-black people anything.
— adam hamze حمزة (@adamhamz) April 21, 2016
MIA is upset Blk ppl use their platforms as they see fit, then uses HER platform to talk about us & not the ppl we "should" be talking about
— Nereyda (@TwittaHoney) April 21, 2016
this MIA thing is a good reminder that brown people need to work just as hard keeping their cousins in check as they do white folks
— anupa (@_anupa) April 21, 2016
MIA really has no clue. America didn't "allow" black folks to talk about anything. Aug 9, local news barely even cared about Mike Brown.
— Johnetta Elzie (@Nettaaaaaaaa) April 21, 2016
Since the backlash, the entertainer tries to backpedal. She takes to twitter to try to clam down her critics but it only gets worst from there:
My question was,on American platforms what do they allow you to stand up for in 2016. This has been the number 1 question for me.
— M.I.A (@MIAuniverse) April 21, 2016
Even though the musician is championing for the rights of Muslims, she admits that she is not one herself.
A#blacklivesmatter B#Muslimlivesmatter. I'm not Muslim . My criticism wasn't about Beyoncé. It's how u can say A not B right now in 2016.
— M.I.A (@MIAuniverse) April 21, 2016
