Lace on Race

Racial Equity Anti Hero: Lady Gaga

Intro to Series: laceonrace.com/2021/02/04/racial-equity-anti-hero-series/

Tiffany Washington talks her shit from the backwoods of Alabama. Her work appears on Facebook because she’s already been rejected by The Root.

Today in Black history, we discuss your typical well meaning ‘ally.’
Lady Gaga, a prominent supporter of the LGBTQ community….so much so that she equated being gay to being black and threw some weird kinda gay/black slave party in which she was the master?

?

I don’t know was this supposed to be funny or empowering or….whatever. What I do know is that blackface isn’t cool. And doing photoshoots in brown face isn’t really cool either. Neither is equating the black experience with the gay experience. But, but….she protested against Trump…so she’s forgiven right?
Miss me with that.#TodayinBlackHistory

-Tiffany Washington

Collaborating Writers

5 responses to “Racial Equity Anti Hero: Lady Gaga”

  1. Rebecca McClinton Avatar
    Rebecca McClinton

    I don’t know much about Gaga, so it’s easier to try to distance myself here. One thing that really stands out to me is how just because a powerful figure denounces racism publicly as she did recently, actions have to always substantiate our words or they are useless, and violent when trying to promote being something we aren’t actually exemplifying in our behavior.

  2. Emily Holzknecht Avatar
    Emily Holzknecht

    She is missing the internal work and therefore hasn’t earned trust.

  3. Emily Holzknecht Avatar
    Emily Holzknecht

    This one seems like we white people could easily get tripped up on because there are so many web results saying this didn’t happen or trying to explain it away. Lady Gaga has a lot of people dedicated to protecting her, a rich white lady, no matter how many vulnerable people she or they harm. I am reminded of all the cis people who are dedicated to protecting JK Rowlings, a rich white lady, no matter how many vulnerable people she or they harm. There is an element of impact vs intent to the web results trying to protect Gaga too. What happened was harmful regardless of its intent.

  4. Julia Tayler Avatar
    Julia Tayler

    I’m not a big Gaga fan so I didn’t realize that she had these issues in her past. Like Rhonda said I appreciate Tiffany bringing it to light. I will have to be better about researching music and the artists I listen to. There has been a rash of bad behavior lately with musicians. They all need a little Lace (or a lot) in their lives.

  5. Rhonda Eldridge Avatar
    Rhonda Eldridge

    Sigh…Doing some more reading, I admit that I hoped that she had changed. She has not. White supremacy runs so deep in our bones. I appreciate bringing it into the light so we can see it. This one reminds me of Disney. When someone says, it isn’t it wonder that Lady Gaga supports x,y,z I can say yes, and, I am concerned that she has not atoned for her past behavior and she doesn’t seem to understand how she has caused harm to black and brown people.

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