In a new interview published from London’s Evening Standard today, M.I.A. talks about her ongoing feud with the NFL which resulted in a $16.6 million lawsuit from the NFL after she flipped the bird to the camera. And although both sides have since reached a settlement, the songstress still holds her position that most performers are afraid to “upset the status quo” on a platform as big as the Super Bowl Halftime Show. The interviewer responded to M.I.A. by asking she thought about Beyonce’s recent Super Bowl performance where here the singer “gave a Black Power salute to the Black Lives Matter movement.” M.I.A. admitted that she didn’t watch it, and then shared her thoughts on the #BlackLivesMatter movement as a whole:
It’s interesting that in America the problem you’re allowed to talk about is Black Lives Matter. It’s not a new thing to me — it’s what Lauryn Hill was saying in the 1990s, or Public Enemy in the 1980s. Is Beyoncé or Kendrick Lamar going to say Muslim Lives Matter? Or Syrian Lives Matter? Or this kid in Pakistan matters? That’s a more interesting question. And you cannot ask it on a song that’s on Apple, you cannot ask it on an American TV programme, you cannot create that tag on Twitter, Michelle Obama is not going to hump you back.
These comments didn’t too well with folks and as of this morning, M.I.A. clarified her position on Black Lives Matter in two Twitter posts:
A#blacklivesmatter B#Muslimlivesmatter. I’m not Muslim . My criticism wasn’t about Beyoncé. It’s how u can say A not B right now in 2016.
— M.I.A (@MIAuniverse) April 21, 2016
My question was,on American platforms what do they allow you to stand up for in 2016. This has been the number 1 question for me.
— M.I.A (@MIAuniverse) April 21, 2016
Let us know what you think.