Structural marginalisation persists even when a sidelined artist shares the mainstream stage
Evidence
Instead of taking up his assigned role as the imp of the perverse in 90s mainstream pop, though, Tricky sidled off into the sidelines, a half-forgotten figure. So much so, that when he appeared as a guest at Beyoncé’s 2011 Glastonbury performance, it provoked a gasp of shock – as if, for a moment, we’d stumbled into some alternative reality where Tricky was where he deserved to be, a glamorous gargoyle on the edifice of 21st century pop. All-too-symbolically, however, Tricky’s microphone didn’t seem to be switched on, and he could barely be heard. — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life, 102
Categorization
- BMF: The silent, switched-off microphone for the marginalized artist evokes a specific visual: the barely-heard voice of the marginalized in White Noise-style media spectacle where presence is performative and truth never registers.
- recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source
- XREF: connects to: White acceptance of exceptional Black artists leaves White racial opinions unchanged — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The…, 844
Broader Connections
- White acceptance of exceptional Black artists leaves White racial opinions unchanged
#complicates(0.85) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 844