NEW YORK, NY – AUGUST 27: Maxwell performs the national anthem during the opening night gala of the 2018 tennis US Open held at Arthur Ashe stadium of USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on August 27, 2018 in Flushing Meadows, New York City. (Photo by Jean Catuffe/GC Images)
Celebrities understand the importance of imagining to convey a message. Willow Smith shaved her hair off to announce to her father and the world that the “Whip My Hair” era was over. After the infamous elevator fight, Beyoncé posted image after image of herself and Solange on vacation—letting y’all know, despite the footage, she was not the one to blame.
Maxwell was the latest one to use an image to address a controversy.
His latest video “Shame,” is being marketed as a celebration of Black women. And visually, it’s stunning. The Black women who are featured are beautiful and given the lack of representation for Black women in media and music videos at large, I could appreciate it…to an extent.
What I didn’t appreciate was the hypocrisy. After all, a few years ago, when it came to a real life interaction with a Black women, where Maxwell wasn’t exactly uplifting. In fact, when Black women asked, in 2012, why there were never any Black women on his Instagram page, he went clean off.
“sick if[sic] som of you chiming in on my friends and Insulting them with racists comments you know nothing you assume everything and you should know better and worship is for GOD not me so sit down”
“I don’t give a f**k I’m putting ever[sic] type a girl in my Instagram go f**k yourself if you’re a racists[sic] a**hole!!!!
Perhaps some of the commenters were being over the top and racist. But the root question is a valid one. For someone who sells directly to Black women, why are they seemingly absent from his personal life.
And then last year, during Black History Month, he made a point about sharing a picture of Lena Horne and saying we need to celebrate Black people of all complexions. He created the hashtag, #blackblueredwhitebeigehistory
Since Black History Month has never been about shade of Blackness, the comment was met with questions, including one woman who said that she was so tired of Maxwell that she dubbed him cancelled because he’d been dealing with White women—seemingly exclusively and a now tried to “All Lives Matter” Black History Month.
After a brief back and forth, Maxwell slide into her DMs to call her a bitch before blocking her.
Again, with a fanbase that is comprised primarily of Black women, this is bad form. And Maxwell has been trying to make up for ever since. Since the incident, he made a big deal of Black History Month ,making sure to thank Essence in the process. There are more [famous] Black women on his Instagram page these days. And in the days before the release of the video, he made sure to share images.
My guess that sales were impacted and he gad to do something to appeal to the base again. Enter this video “Shame.”
What would have been better was an apology to the woman he cursed out. Black women outside of the industry, Black women who use their voices to question or challenge the artists they support, instead of just those who stand and look pretty in music videos, also deserve respect.
