OPINION: The singer and entrepreneur once declined to perform at the Super Bowl out of solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, who was blackballed by the NFL for protesting police brutality — and police killings have only gotten worse. So why perform now?
Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
Rihanna hit the stage Sunday with all the glory given to a superstar of her level. She was gorgeous, in a red puffer coat that was possibly an homage to the late André Leon Talley, and she showed off her second baby bump while running through a roster of hits like “Bitch Better Have My Money” and “We Found Love.” The problem is, during that show, she sold out her previous support for the Colin Kaepernick-led NFL protests against police brutality a month after another gang of cops killed yet another Black man, Tyre Nichols.
Here’s what the pop star told Vogue in October 2019 about declining to perform at the Super Bowl:
“I couldn’t dare do that. For what? Who gains from that? Not my people. I just couldn’t be a sellout. I couldn’t be an enabler. There’s things within that organization that I do not agree with at all, and I was not about to go and be of service to them in any way.”
At the time, Kaepernick had been blackballed by the NFL for kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality.
Then, in November 2022, during a Savage x Fenty fashion show press conference, she told the Associated Press when asked why now was a good time to take to the Super Bowl stage:
“It was one of those things that, if I’m gonna leave my baby, I’m going to leave my baby for something special,” she said diplomatically. “I was willing to do it. It was now or never for me.”
At a press conference last Thursday she spoke about representation, saying, “Representing for immigrants. Representing for my country, Barbados. Representing for Black women…
Read the full article here
