Janelle Monae covers the latest issue of Allure, and the cover is amazing. The cover story is amazing too! It’s incredible to me that Janelle Monae, a black queer woman and musical artist, is the cover profile of a mainstream fashion magazine like Allure and that Allure gave her all of this space to talk about white privilege, the reclamation of power in American society, and the anger she felt following Donald Trump’s election. She spoke without even naming that Fat Nazi in the White House, but she never fails to be direct and brilliant. You can read the full cover profile here. Some highlights:
On her album Dirty Computer: “It’s about all of us, all the people that at least I feel a responsibility to. I had to pick who I was comfortable pissing off and who I wanted to celebrate.”
Dealing with the anger post-election: “I will say that after this election, I dealt with a lot of anger. I dealt with a lot of frustrations, like many of us, when it came to the nonleader of the free world and that particular regime. I felt it was a direct attack on us, on black women, on women, on women’s rights, on the LGBTQIA community, on poor folks. I felt like it was a direct attack saying, ‘You’re not important. You’re not valuable and we’re going to make laws and regulations that make it official and make it legal for us to devalue you and treat you like second-class citizens or worse.’ I got to the point where I stopped recording because I was just like, ‘I’m going to make an angry album.’ ”
Money doesn’t solve problems like misogyny & racism: “This is real-life sh-t that I’m having to deal with. You strip away the makeup, the costumes, and everything you know about Janelle Monáe the artist, and I’m still the African-American, queer woman who grew up with poor, working-class parents. When I walk off a stage, I have to deal with these confrontations. I have to deal with being afraid for my family.”
She wanted to make an album about love in three parts: “I was challenged. It’s easy for me to just stay angry, but it’s harder for me to choose love. I like to call that first movement the reckoning. Realizing what you represent to society, that you’re a dirty computer. It’s the sting of being called a n–ger for the first time by your oppressor. The sting of being called bitch for the first time by a man. You’re like, ‘OK, this is how I’m viewed in this society.’ ”
On white privilege: “We don’t get that same grace [as white people]. That’s just honest. People need to look and assess those privileges that the majority of white people in this country have versus — We just need to really have a conversation on this and understand it’s a real thing. We don’t get second chances in the same way that white folks do, period.”
The reclamation: “The end of it was the reclamation. I too am American, and this is a very American album, seen through the lens of a black woman. It was important to remind us that our ancestors built this sh-t. From the White House to black Wall Street, so many things that have been taken for granted and dismissed.”
The fear of being an outspoken black, queer woman: “There’s lots of fears that I have about just living openly and freely and criticizing those who are in the position of power. You just never know. You never know what could happen when you are outspoken. It’s a risk. It’s a risk that I’ve prayed on and I’m willing to take. I’m not running to Canada. I’m not leaving. I’m standing here, and I am gonna fight for love.”
Love everything she says about white privilege. I love everything she says, period. But the stuff about white privilege was particularly on-point. It’s absolutely true that white people and white children are given grace, are given second chances and third chances and fourth chances. They are ascribed “pure” motives by society, their feelings and thoughts and actions are not second guessed and criminalized as compared to people of color. Even Janelle saying that she has to reclaim the statement “I too am American” is important, because even the basic citizenship of brown and black Americans is being questioned and delegitimized by these Nazi f–ks.
Photos courtesy of WENN, cover courtesy of Allure.
I come from a country that’s almost completely white so discussions about race are very eye opening. Here it is mostly about money and class. Poor peoole don’t get second chances. So I am interested, does poor, redneck “white trash” type od person, the kind you see in documentaries about the Appalachian mou tains really have it better than a poor black person? I absolutely see how white privilege works on upper levels of society, but the world revolves around money, so when you remove that factor, does race still play such a huge part?
I can’t take credit for this, but I can’t remember where I read it. I think it’s a good description of white privilege in the context of your question: white privilege doesn’t mean you don’t have any problems, it means your problems aren’t related to the color of your skin.
That’s a good explanation.
Yes, they do. I am not saying that their lot in life is a bed of roses but they don’t live in the shadow of mass incarceration. Their children don’t get shot by a racist vigilante just for going to the convenient store to buy iced tea and candy and never get justice. Their bodies aren’t left in the morgue unclaimed because the police decided they were throwaways. They don’t get dragged off the street and thrown into a van and murdered by cops. They don’t get lynched in prison cells without recourse. When real police brutality extends to poor white Americans we may then have a conversation.
Oh as far as LGBTQ+. They don’t get beat to death for being trans. They don’t get left to die in the Wyoming wilderness hung on a fence. They don’t get assassinated because they love.
I have no time for the ballad of the unforgotten white person. They vote against their own interests or don’t at all and are complicit in their effing lot in life. They have the boots and the bootstraps but they refuse to reach down and use them.
It’s an interesting debate and one that divides progressive people. Whilst progessives agree that bad things shouldn’t happen to people because of their race, gender or sexualty a lot of people, who identify as progressive, are indifferent about classism, whilst others are vehemently opposed to it.
“I have no time for the ballad of the unforgotten white person. They vote against their own interests or don’t at all and are complicit in their effing lot in life.”
Jesus Christ. I agree with you on the other points, but that is extremely condemning.
@Maddy, but it’s actually statistically true. Look at how this country voted. I mean truly look at where votes for rotten marmalade came from in droves. Those white people who stood to lose the most voted for the boar in office even after being explicitly told they could lose health care and other benefits. They held onto this magical idea that trump could save dying industries in their areas even when world renowned economists told them otherwise. They voted for him for a variety of reasons, willfully ignorant, anyway. If that’s not complicity, I don’t know what is. Given the state of this country right now, I’m perfectly fine with condemning them.
I am not American, so perhaps that is part of it. I just cannot accept the idea that we should damn the ignorant and wash our hands of people who are too stupid to see the reality. If we take two people with identical circumstances and one has a low IQ and is swayed by propaganda, do you think they warrant less in life? Maybe I am too soft. I work for the government in my country providing government funded housing. I see people who are lazy, who know how to cheat the system, and should be left to lie in their beds but also many more who are just unlucky and grow up abused, uneducated and impoverished. That is something that affects all races, genders, orientations. I’m not disregarding that the amounts to which can be heavily based on those circumstances.
Poor black and brown folks face the same challenge in terms of access to education, or even MORE challenge, and you don’t see THEM voting for the likes of Bankrupcy Batista. Tired of the poor, misunderstood Trump voters. Most of them know exactly what they are doing: upholding white supremacy.
@Maddy
I do condemn them. Maybe because I am related to some of them and have seen what they say and how they behave that it makes my heart a little colder than usual.
I tried during and after the election to have compassion and on a deeper level I do but they continue to be part of the problem and not the solution. They continue to vote based on cultural warfare against their own self-interest. What do you do with people like that?
On a whole, though I do have compassion for people who live in poverty. I have a lot of empathy for their struggles and think the playing field should be level. We need changes so that every child can reach their full potential without roadblocks based on class. No one should ever be hungry or die from lack of medical care. And yes I know plenty of poor white people aren’t racist loons. But we are talking in generalizations and the OP mentioned Appalachia. If you look at a voting map you will see the Appalachians vote hard red every single time.
All that said there is nowhere in this country that being poor and white is the same burden as being poor and brown. Or poor and LGBTQ+. Or poor, brown AND LGBTQ+.
@ Maddy Gibney – but they do vote against themselves, just to make sure that minorities are kept lower still. So long as they’re on top of someone, they don’t care whose heel they’re under. Yes, they have been propagandized, first by their churches and then by right wing media, and also by shoddy educations (that their parents frequently voted for!), but MY GOD that’s Janelle and Magnolia Rose’s point: they keep getting slack cut for them.
At some point one must use critical thinking skills and rationally examine one’s positions. Did the factory close and take all the town’s jobs with it? Is that the fault of the party that wants more workers’ rights or the party that thinks businesses should have zero restrictions and no respect for their employees? They vote for the party that helped the factory up and close. And now they’re mad at the people who would have helped.
I don’t have a lot of grace left in my soul for white people who refuse to help themselves, and generationally to boot.
I think the worst thing the media did was create the perception that mostly poor white folks voted for Trump. Hillary Clinton actually won the voting bloc making $50,000 annually or less. Many lower-middle class and poor folks did support Hillary. Meanwhile white people of all income brackets backed Trump. The Trump voters I know personally are upper middle class and college-educated white folks. I really reject this media-created fallacy that Trump won coal miners and no one else. In fact, the Washington Post did a story pointing out that the restaurant chain Arby’s employs more workers than the coal industry does. There are few of these people, but the media largely spun the narrative of the poor and forgotten white folks voting for Trump. It’s a convenient way to dismiss the role of racism in his election and suggests we need to have sympathy for Trump voters when we certainly do not. I as a a black woman am not sympathizing or empathizing with my oppressors. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/03/31/8-surprisingly-small-industries-that-employ-more-people-than-coal/?noredirect=on
MagnoliaRose,
F-ing well said! I am in complete agreement.
Umm, LQBTQ+ do get killed for who they love. The U.S. hate crime act is partly named after Matthew Shepard. I get what you are trying to say about white privilege, but you don’t have to do it by discounting the plight of others.
Well said, MagnoliaRose. I agree with everything you had. Money/classism are certainly issues in America but a poor white person still has many privileges a poor person of color does not.
Great point, WTW. Of course extremely poor white Trump-supporters exist, but personally, that’s not the case for most Trump supporters I actually come across. Every last one of them has had either just as much money as the average person, or more. I know people who’ve lived in homeless shelters at some point who voted for Hillary and are loudly anti-Trump though.
I never pointed to 45 in particular or even national elections or even 2016. State and county maps will show that poor white people vote against their own self interests over and over. They have been doing it for a very long time, specifically since LBJ and the Civil Right’s era.
A look at the poorest states in the Union backs this up.
This is true:It is very difficult to feel sorry for them when they persist in voting against their best interests
“If you can convince the lowest white man that he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you picking his pocket. Hell, hell empty his pockets for you!” President Lyndon B. Johnson
Sadly that’s true today, and it’s used regularly by those in power.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/gina-crosleycorcoran/explaining-white-privilege-to-a-broke-white-person_b_5269255.html
Here is a great article addressing this exact question.
I would have highlighted and pasted some of the parts of the article but the whole thing is so spot on I wouldn’t be able to choose.
The phrase “white trash” is considered offensive, just FYI (you said you weren’t from the US, so I’m assuming you don’t know that). When you say white trash, the implication is that you are specifying race because trash in general is not white.
Apples to apples, poor white people have it better than poor black people, although class is an important issue, and poor people are oppressed. The thing is though, class is a somewhat mutable characteristic. It’s extremely difficult and takes a combination of dumb luck, natural talent, and hard work, but someone who grows up poor can claw their way out if things work in their favor. A black person will always be black with all of the attendant discrimination.
but a poor white person is in a worse position than a rich black person. it’s always about the money. money makes the world go round.
I think you misunderstand what white privilege means. The link in Lucy’s post explains it.
I love her and agree with everything she said here. I’ve had to come to terms with so much anger since the election for all of the reasons she stated and it’s a daily struggle.
And Dirty Computer is amazing.
I cannot get into her music but I like her. Smart big artists are very much needed in this climate.
Dirty Computer is amazing. I only get to listen to it rarely (language not suitable for the preschool set means I don’t get a lot of chances during the day, LOL) but it’s so good.
Dirty Computer is, HANDS DOWN, the best album of 2018. No other album has captured the zeitgeist like she did. I get that there is a lot of the album that is speaking directly to the experience of a black queer American woman, however, Django Jane is my effing JAM. That song speaks to what it’s like to be an American woman and it resonates SO HARD with me.
DC should be getting the kind of press that This is America got… I’m just saying. It’s yet another example of how black women’s genius is not celebrated. I’m not knocking Donald Glover, mind you, however, when I observe the press he is getting for his music (which is absolutely amazing) versus the press Janelle is getting, the difference is striking. If I had my way she’d win ALL the Grammys next year.
I bought a ticket to Voodoo Fest just to finally see her perform live in October…. super excited!
I love this woman.
Not only is she inspiring but she speaks so much truth here it gives me anger tears.
She looks stunning on the cover. Her face is flawless. The colors and the composition are perfect and go with the tone of the interview. Sometimes the cover and the content don’t match.
I hope to see her acting more. I loved her in Hidden Figures.
She is really stunning, isn’t she? And a great actress at that, she was fantastic in Moonlight. I feel like a white actress who is so versatile and also able to sing and write would be a mcuh bigger deal than she is. *sigh*
This is so true. She has a special quality to me. Very talented, outspoken and brave. There is truth in her acting and she becomes transformed without vanity.
It would be something if she starred in high quality character driven show on a streaming service or cable.
I love her. It took me a few listens to get into Dirty Computer, but now I can jam to a couple of her songs.
I’ll also be buying Allure for the first time ever!
This cover is amazing and the article looks to be great, but I’m sorry you missed the Allure of a few years ago. It’s not what it once was.
Truth. It used to be a great beauty magazine and then just sort of lost its way.
Janelle is an amazing woman and artist. She speaks the truth and I agree with what she says. The thing is people of color are never allowed to just live….to just exist and go about their lives. To be able to just be and breathe and not have to deal with daily bullsh*t is something we don’t get to experience.
Feels good to dust this off as it’s been awhile:
Where is the lie?
This woman will go down in music history.
i’m a WOC who is not only african born and bred, but i also have a distinctly foreign name and i’m muslim to boot. I’m currently living and working in europe so i suppose my experience is quite specific.
In Europe, at least, i would say that while there is discrimination against black people, it is no longer socially acceptable to be overtly racist based upon skin colour, so the racism is underground, which makes it harder to fight because you have to prove that it exists while everyone around you denies it or find excuses to justify the treatment that you are experiencing.
I’ve also noticed that people tend to be racist towards groups of people more than to one individual in particular, so a group of white friends and I going to a fancy restaurant is ok, going by myself is also ok but when i took my elderly parents who had come to visit me to the same restaurant, we were asked to change tables and to go sit in the back next to the kitchen ( we didnt and i made a big fuss).
i have a friend who told me she was refused at the ‘entrance of a club she regularly goes to, when she went there with other black girls instead of white girls. So while my experience is anecdotal it is far from isolated.
Islamophobia on the other hand, is rife since the terrorist attacks and racists conveniently hide behind “islam is not a race” whenever confronted. At this particular moment in time, it is better to a black christian than to be an arab muslim. However, the muslim man from Dubai is treated with a lot of more respect than the muslim man from algeria (sometimes better than even white people) and the difference between the two arab men is economic power.
Holding white people accountable, and social media uproar can only do so much, we will only be truly respected when we represent a significant economic power.
I believe education is key but of course to achieve this, we have to wade through all the trappings of poverty and all the hurdles that are placed along the way and to then be hit with the glass door ( not even ceiling) when applying for a job, but i firmly believe there is no other option. Little boys and girls need to see successful people who look like themselves but in roles other than singer or sportsman. They need to see doctors, and lawyers and CEOs. one of the reasons behind the success of indian/chinese migrant communities is the unrelenting focus on education which i dont always see in the arab/black families here. it’s almost as if the asians communities still have hope for a better life, that the others don’t.
obviously all of this is my opinion and i mean no disrespect to anyone.
Thank you for this comment Mrs Bump. As a brown, Asian, Muslim, female, social worker in the UK, your experiences validates mine. Fully agree with your theory on education & increased presence in socially revered roles (doctors, lawyers, engineers). I am quite sure the British Muslim doctor I worked with experiences less daily racism than I do.
WORD Janelle.
She’s not wrong.
As a straight white woman, albeit a pretty liberal one, perhaps she doesn’t want or need me as a fan. But she has me nonetheless.
I hope more white people listen to her words. Confronting white privilege as a white person feels weird, like someone else who can see a coat you’re wearing but that you have long since become blind to, and it’s a really ugly coat and you’re vaguely hurt and guilty and insulted about someone telling you your coat is hideous and offensive. And then once you realize you ARE wearing the coat, figuring out how to get the thing off and disposed of. (The metaphor falls apart here of course in that I can be conscious of my own feelings and beliefs and actions, but how to undo cultural privilege…. I don’t know how to do that. I don’t even feel like I’m being effective in combating trump.)
I can relate to that.
My feelings were hurt at first because I didn’t get it. I was all into BUT I AM NOT LIKE THAT! I didn’t understand what it meant. Because I am also a minority it is weird but then that is where intersectionality comes into play. I would tell myself: I am not white like that.
But I wanted to get it so I worked on it. I felt horrified and deeply sad once I understood it. It is staggering and painful to really comprehend how unfair and unjust our systems are. I feel angry at the lack of humanity surrounding white privilege and I also feel shame that I benefit from something I didn’t earn.
Class privilege was something I have always understood. My parents made us aware of it all the time and didn’t indulge us or this reason. For years I worked to be my own person so as not to become a useless overprivileged asshole. It has been an easy choice though. Does anyone really like those kinds of people? There are enough tropes about the spoiled cruel brat to know better.
But white privilege is much more insidious and dangerous. We are witnessing it politically right now even though it isn’t emphasized enough. It isn’t explained as often as it should be.
It’s not really explained where a majority of people who need to see it can even see it! Bless my father who has fallen into the Foxhole, but he doesn’t believe racism or sexism are still real. I didn’t even know where to begin.
why wouldn’t she want you as a fan? white and straight people are people too.
Born and raised first generation American. People still ask me where I come from. They reject even my place of birth. They ask where my parents are from. To these people, if you’re not white, you’re not American.
I love Janelle. She’s beauty and class and talent. I love her new album as well.
Im from Canada and we tend to ask peoples backgrounds but i think for very different reasons. Canada refers to itself as a “cultural mosaic”, meaning we are a mix of all different cultures. So when we ask we expect someone to say “well i was born in (insert country) but i moved here five years ago”. Again different reasons i think
Yea if it’s to learn more about the person’s heritage, nothing wrong. I actually don’t mind sharing for that reason. But it’s sad your otherness gets noticed before your similarities to the person questioning, the kind that makes the exchange relatable. I remember after saying where my parents were from (war torn country), some proceeded to tell me I’m lucky to be here. Uh, I didn’t choose to be born? People are weird.
Asian people get this all the time and I always love the look of embarrassment on the face of the asker when they say “Toledo” or something.
My fav: “Your English is very good.”
I think she is 100% right however, i wonder if money and power changes that. I think rich powerful people get second chances despite their color. Donald Trump is a great example but so is OJ and Cosby. Money seems to have the most power in North America, it transcends gender, race, religion.
Well OJ did end up going to jail (for a separate crime) and Bill Cosby was found guilty and will be going to jail (I presume). Will Trump ever be punished? I doubt it.
It helps some but it never transcends.
Her words and her representation are desperately needed right now. She is the epitome of a great American. I especially appreciate her saying that she’ll stand and fight.
Janelle is amazing in all ways: an incredible musician (The Way You Make Me Feel is my song of the summer), actor, and person. I am a white middle aged mom in the Midwest and she is a role model for me. I love how brave, how intelligent, and how strong she is. And she’s right – we all need to stay here and fight for love (although I’m still struggling to get past my anger).
Crazy Classic Life is so good. The lyrics pretty much pinpoint exactly what it’s like to be a PoC in America.
I’ve long said the most obvious example of white privilege is the bottomless, endless benefit of doubt white people get. There’s ALWAYS room for them to explain themselves, and be given a second chance.
For example, black men who are merely SUSPECTED of something, are shot to death by trigger-happy police, and are posthumously tried and convicted. Just look at Michael Brown (“he shoplifted!”), Trayvon Martin (“what was he doing out alone so late at night, wearing a hoodie?”), Eric Garner (“he was illegally selling cigars!”).
Meanwhile, Donald Trump, who has assaulted multiple women, refused to rent to black people, disparaged immigrants and veterans, stiffed contractors, stuck other people with paying for his bankruptcies, colluded with foreign agents, sails to the White House. And his fan club constantly saying “but you have to look at what he MEANS!” and “he’s just new at this! Give him a chance!”
I saw a news story the other day where a White male cashier called the cops on a Black woman at a store for using a coupon he thought was “fake”. There is video of the incident ! It’s insane. The cops came and told the black woman to leave ! They later found out the coupon was legit and the store employee was fired. All of this could have been avoided had the cashier not been a racist piece of sh*t who just assumed the woman had a fake coupon. Like come on.
You Tube is full of these incidents and I think they have been eye openers for some people who thought black people were just “seeing” things.
They all have funny hashtag nicknames like #PermitPatty. This one is #CouponCarl lol (they deserve to be mocked)
The hashtags are hilarious. lol
You know I was just thinking the other day, maybethat applies to Black women, But I feel like black men in the industry get a much bigger pass, when it comes to assault, sexual assault, and even murder.
Be the change you want to see.
How is it Cosby preached education, but was misinformed?
How is Trump able to call himself qualified to be the leader of the free world, yet he had to ask Bill Gates the difference between HIV and HPV.
From my post can you tell my race?
No, let’s be color-blind.
Nope, can’t get behind the colorblind racism. I don’t want to be invisible, my ethnicity and culture are part of my identity. I’d rather not be erased thanks. See me, just don’t mistreat me because of my skin color.