Diluted Lemonade
Beyoncé's Fine Art Bastards, The Anniversary of Lemonade, & Revolution As An Aesthetic Choice
Ten years ago, Beyoncé tricked you.1 She did a surprise drop of an album called Lemonade and people projected revolutionary philosophies and iconographies on her. Because she had previously dressed up in a Black Panther onesie. Like Halloween.
Honestly, the tenth anniversary of Lemonade was not on my radar until I heard people talking about it without any retrospective cultural analysis. Even seeing Mrs. Carter at The Met Gala didn’t bring the social reckoning I hoped for. Some people even felt obligated to say they liked her sparkly skeletor fit. The most uproar we got was people just found this year’s Met Gala grotesque, gaudy, and Hunger Games-like.
Let’s talk about Revolution As An Aesthetic Choice™. The past ten years have brought an influx of other Black culprits, besides Beyoncé, whose artistic pursuits have been pushed as revolutionary or thought provoking when really, there’s nothing deeper to analyze and white people are too comfortable with engaging with their art. If you can even call it engaging.
At the 2017 Emmys, when asked who she was rooting for, Issa Rae responded, “I’m rooting for everybody Black.” In typical internet fashion, Black women are meme-ification magnets and that quote went around the world at the speed of light. When I heard that quote, I immediately thought of all the Black people I am not rooting for.
In 2026, that list of Black people is growing so consistently that I keep a list of Light Skins That Need to Be Stopped in my notepad. But I have enough posts where I whack light skins. Let’s move on.
It seems like the only Black people who are “winning” are the evil ones. Usher. Chris Brown. Kevin Hart. Dave Chapelle. Hakeem Jeffries. Ye. Cancel culture seemed to only work on exactly three people.2 Hell, even the superintendent of Atlantic City Public School District got a pay increase of $319,866 from $282,000. When just earlier this year she and her husband, the Mayor of Atlantic City, were in court for child abuse charges. They were ultimately found not guilty but that may be because not everyone believes hitting kids is bad. Or manhandling them. Or pulling their hair…Or that a husband and wife shouldn't be in two of the most powerful positions in a city. This is like when I learned that Antony Blinken’s wife, Evan Ryan, was also in Biden’s cabinet. No wonder nothing got done. Everyone was just holding hands and looking into each other’s eyes.
The presentation of revolution parading as solely just getting a Black person in a position—politician, entertainer, artist—is failing us. More than 400,000 Black women have been laid off since last year and people are trying to distract themselves from their disillusionment and disappointment in what the Black Elite has sold you by clinging to the fact that, at least Cecred is a great product.3
Instead of fighting back, now as a treat, we have Revolution As An Aesthetic Choice™. Kamala Harris’ supposed run for president again is because the response to her losing was a protest where people marched with “We could be at brunch” signs. A palatable ethos that is easy to meme and keep people, on all sides, comfortable.
This lack of response and interrogation from Harris’ supporters is why we keep going in circles. You can be a fan of someone and expect more from them. Jets and Mets fans do it every year. Everywhere we turn, it is more and more evident that the Black Elite think we are fools that will bow at their feet. The image of a police car drowning, with no one inside, without any direct political statement resulted an influx of what liberalism perceived as the Black utopia fantasy, Black people rising up against the police and winning.
The trickle down politics of Lemonade are really the upholding of the Black Elite.
Which ladies were supposed to get in formation?
Kamala Harris even used the song FORMATION during one of her rallies with the Queen Bee in attendance. Harris’ career and further aspirations make her the police state even before she said she was a proud child of immigrants in a speech where she also told immigrants, “Do not come.” Somehow that authoritarian rhetoric was also meme-ified. You people disgust me and you’re easily distracted. That was a slam dunk easy way to question what change that libra lady was offering as a potential president. Now we have an orange demagogue.
It’s not just politics. TV and film have offered representation as politic.
Candyman (2021)
The scene in Nope (2021) that features an NWA song
Blackkklansman (2018)
Whatever Kenya Barris called himself doing.
Every Cop TV show having a Black woman cop. The only Black women you see on TV are playing cops.
It’s not just TV and film. I saw two art shows this past week that also invoked Revolution As An Aesthetic Choice™.
Vaughn Spann at Almine Rech
(All) Americans on view until June 13
Making work that solely depicts the American flag is tone deaf, even with the Black power color scheme as a foundation. This show consists of 7 flags and provides a safe space for the type of liberalism the Bradley Whitford’s character in Get Out exudes.
Somehow the flags make the white cube feel more sterile.
The most interesting work in this show, America (Redacted No. 2) (2026), features a collaged use of chopped towels within the red and white stripes (“Terry cloth,” according to the press release) but you won’t learn that from the materials description. All materials are identified as “mixed media” and the lack of specificity is a missed opportunity to politicize the work—especially when compared to the material-charged descriptions of vanessa german.
In the top half of the piece, behind the top six red and white stripes are light green impasto. These are some of the most evocative gestures in any of the works, communicating that America’s nationalism and pride camouflages its foundation of greed.
Some of the flags feature an orb-like shape made of polymer that is similar to the shape of a flowering cotton plant. But the shape is hard and obtuse. Instead of utilizing a new technique that would instantly communicate labor, Spann uses a familiar technique as in his previous paintings.
This inefficient command of materials muddles the desired conversation between the flag and the Black labor that built and builds America’s economy. The refusal to discover a new technique through experimentation and curiosity is a missed opportunity for charm, clarity, and cheekiness.
The canvases are built up under the flag portion of the works and it’s unclear if it’s a metaphor or a lack of planning. Seph Rodney’s press release says the work is in response to the first stanza of the Star Spangled Banner…an anthem written by Francis Scott Key, a slave holder who also believed “all men are born free.”
Spann’s work, according to the press release, also asks to be placed in the canon, or inspired by David Hammonds, Dread Scott, and Faith Ringgold—artists whose activism extends beyond the canvas and is more than just an aesthetic choice. These works don’t even invoke Jasper Johns.
Danielle McKinney at Marianne Boesky Gallery
Forest for the Trees on view until June 13
Although I have seen all of Danielle McKinney’s solo shows at Marianne Boesky Gallery, last week was the first time I got to go to an opening. It was packed and I was under dressed.
McKinney has risen to post pandemic fame for painting Black women at rest. Lounging, smoking cigarettes, and most importantly, in solitude. It was odd looking at these paintings of Black women at rest with a crowd of (mostly white) people. I prefer to feel like I’m alone while looking at them.
The front room had some watercolors similar to the work of Debra Cartwright and were the weakest link of the show. But the works that people hauled their way to Chelsea in their best fits to see left me feeling like the way people felt watching the Met Gala this year.
At a time where most Black women are in survival mode, looking at Black women lounging around like they’re in the movie, Mahogany (1975), felt like a spectator sport. Although we know ancestrally and culturally, that Black women could use more rest—who is actually getting to rest right now?
Which Black women are actually being granted the luxury of resting…
One of the biggest cultural shifts between 2024 and 2025 was people going from prioritizing self care and boundaries to community. Some of the boundaries people were setting included the expectation that they were allowed to cancel plans at any moment, even if it inconvenienced the other parties involved, for the sake of their mental health. And we were supposed to believe that, 365 days later, these people genuinely were interested in community post-election? Community for community sake or community for their personal survival.
The culture of wellness and self care has become more overtly capitalistic and self involved. Which begs the question have these women earned rest or do they just have a restful lifestyle? McKinney’s work has been collected by people such as Beyoncé and Jay-Z so we know who is connecting to the women in the paintings.
It is possible that rest is the only revolutionary act for the women in these works.
Prioritizing their peace, skin care, hair care, and access to healthcare on a whim.
Lucky them.
Recommended listening:
I know I whack a light skin once a month but I’m just responding to the times.
Robert Kelly, Harvey Weinstein, and Bill Cosby (in that order exactly)
That’s what they say anyway. I’m not giving that lady a cent.
I hear what you're saying and the Revolution As Aesthetic Choice point is real. But who is this standard actually being applied to? You spent more energy dissecting Beyoncé's Met Gala fit and McKinney's paintings than you did on the people actually designing the cage. And the second a Black woman does the work in a way you don't agree with, the whole thing gets thrown in the trash instead of actually being engaged with. I know a lot of Jets fans who still show up to the game. You can expect more from someone without torching everything they've done because it wasn't done your way.