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It’s 2020. Why Is The Music Industry Still Harmful To Black Women?

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It is clear that women are placed underneath a particularly harsher spotlight in the music industry in terms of how they are criticized. We see it everyday with the way that women in the limelight are compared and contrasted for things such as their appearance, however it seems to be common that Black artists have more pressure placed upon them compared to their white counterparts. Especially if they’re women.

The world has sadly been harsh to Black women in music — despite the fact that many of the popular genres of music such as R&B, Hip Hop, and even Rock all originated from African Americans themselves.  It is often evident that Black women entertainers have to put forth much more effort than their counterparts in order to be respected. This can even be seen through the ways when looking at the careers of many Black female entertainers today.

Singer/songwriter Summer Walker has been ridiculed by the media for her struggles with social anxiety. She quickly became an R&B sensation following her hit single “Girls Need Love” and the success of her first official studio album Over It which debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 albums chart, and ending up becoming the biggest streaming week ever for an female R&B album. Walker has been criticized by many due to her speaking up about her social anxiety, which has lead to her cancelling tour dates and meet & greets with fans. Walker has specifically been criticized by many because of her mental health, even so that most people claim for her to be ‘pretending’ to have these particular mental issues. When responding to these critics, Walker explained how she’s chosen to put her mental health first instead of her career. “I’m not going to be able to finish this tour because it doesn’t really coexist with my social anxiety and introverted personality [...] I’m a person, I have feelings. I get tired, I get sad and it’s just a lot.” She said in a video to fans.

Even more recently, singer Ari Lennox has expressed her feelings concerning the heightened

criticism of Black women in the music industry after someone tweeted, “Ari Lennox and Teyana Taylor's ability to have dangerously high sex appeal while simultaneously looking like Rottweilers will always amaze me.” Lennox responded to the tweet by simply tweeting, “People hate Blackness so bad.”

The “Whipped Cream” songstress also took to Instagram live to express her opinions and feelings on the topic of Black women being criticized by Black men in particular, and questions why Black women are constantly being scrutinized and ridiculed, “I’m not with it, how people hate Black people so much [...] and you want to talk about how people are so sensitive, they want to cancel freedom of speech. Why is that your speech? Why are you so comfortable tearing down Black women and no other race?" 

There’s no denying the fact that the music industry today isn’t perfect. With discussions of cultural appropriation from white artists and issues concerning inclusivity, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done. Along with this, it is important that we not only acknowledge the fact that Black women have a much harder experience in the spotlight — but that there is a collective attempt to shift the ways that the industry does more harm to Black women than good.

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