India Arie Writes Angry Open Letter About The Grammys: Black Artists Are Excluded

I was unable to reblog this article from India Arie’s Tumblr Page. There I have shared her open letter via Thought Provoking Perspectives. The outspoken singer addresses and issue that many in the African American community have complained about for a long time. Now, musicians and artist are now speaking out. What are your thoughts?

_____________________________

The outspoken singer India Arie, who is not afraid to speak her mind, let loose after the Grammys for 2014.  Speaking along with a chorus of many other black performers who are determining that the Grammys are virtually worthless, Arie gave her honest opinions about this and other musical awards shows, which are focused mainly on awarding popularity and sales, but only concerned with musical quality as a complete afterthought.

Writing on her tumblr page, Arie started off by stating that the “Music industry’s biggest night” is not what it’s cracked up to be:

 Though it’s called “Music industries biggest night” the #Grammys are NOT about the music, it’s a popularity contest. The voting process allows people, to vote on name recognition alone – the music industry politics is a whole NUTHER conversation.  Too much to go into here.

The American Music Awards is a show that awards sales and popularity – the #Grammys are SAID to be about the music.

Arie, who is known for producing conscious and authentically black music, also says that the African American musical community loses when its best artists are not represented at the show every year.   She says that this is a consistent pattern of denial and embarrassment toward the black musical community that simply should not be tolerated.

NOW the BIGGER losers, are ALL of black music. Where was the black music community represented in last nights #Grammy show? Performers and Winners (or not) … Where were the black artists?

And this isn’t the first time the #Grammy’s has had a show all but excluding young black America and black artists in general, although we set the worlds musical trends. Why NOT televise the lifetime achievement awards of the Isley Brothers? SURELY they deserved to be on televised stage LAST NIGHT! While other artists were on stage TWICE?

So, India Arie makes some valid points in her letter, which leads to an open question:  Why don’t black artists simply boycott the Grammys?  Rather than complaining about the Grammys to people who don’t care, she might be able to mobilize other artists who think the same way and get them to join her in a battle against the awards show by simply not showing up.   Her complaints about the Grammys are nothing new and have been around for 40 years.  Is it time to do something or just keep getting upset because someone else is choosing not to acknowledge you?

You can read more of her letter here.