Halftime 50-50; 10-90

Happy Black History Month. The time we were accustomed to as to reflect over the lives of key black figures in history benign to us what that really meant. But there is often another occasion that falls into this month sometimes and that is the Super Bowl. Now, I am not a huge football fan (I consider my self more of a basketball person) but I do watch the Superbowl for two things the commercial and the Halftime show. I always get excited to see if one of my favorite artists would weasel their way into headlining the halftime. So, when I heard in 2018, that Justin Timberlake, King of nine-year-old dreams was going to be the headline act. I knew that I didn’t care where I was (my best friend’s birthday party). I was going to find my way to watch this uninterrupted. Now as I was expressing my excitement to my fellow Nsync-er ( my mother) she did not great me with the same enthusiasm. If I accounted for her words correctly it was something like “Justin…..Superbowl…Yikes!”

Now her dismay for the topic is probably because the last time Justin Timberlake performed at the Halftime show there was infamous Nipplegate [insert dramatic gasp]. Now, this is something that I knew about, as it seems to be a topic brought up often during black gatherings. However; I didn’t really understand the extent of this issue until I dug a little deeper.

Justin’s first response to the” wardrobe malfunction”, a term the singer coined, was covered by Hollywood Access in which he said, “Hey man, we love giving ya’ll something to talk about.” Like the end of Janet’s career. His very insensitive comments insinuated that the action was planned. And instead of the blame being placed on Timberlake for doing the actual action. It was put on Janet. The heat that Janet was receiving from the media was terrible. They said that events caused trauma to children watching and the NFL ban her from ever performing at any of their events again. Janet immediately had to issue out a video apology for the incident and any “mental trauma” [insert eyeroll] that it might have caused. The Princess of Pop was ban from all of the award shows despite her album peaking number one that year. All of her projects after that were shelved, the only place her music lived on was in urban audiences. She never had a chance to recreate the success that she once had despite the quality of music improving.  Justin, However, who was the guest performer at Janet’s halftime show, went on to gain tremendous success. As the incident, for him, propelled him into becoming a household name. You think that Justin would be apologetic towards Janet, but Justin himself went on to capitalize even more of the incident by mention Janet Jackson decline of success in a diss track. He also attacked Prince, who were some of the people to defend Janet, by saying he was just butthurt that he was no longer making hits.  Even though years later in 2007, he acknowledged his privileges as a white male in incident never once did he say sorry. Now in 2018, Justin had a chance to make things right. But what did he do? Nothing.  It was unclear if he even extended an offer to Janet to perform with him at the halftime show.

I believe that this incident perfectly highlights how the same situation can impact people differently based on the intersectionality of their identities. Justin, a white young male who fits into the mythical norm perfectly comes out of a situation like this unscathed almost loved by the public. While Janet Jackson, who is arguably a part of the most marginalized groups in America, black females, gets her legacy erased.  To say its unfair would be looking beyond the institutionalized racism and sexism that we have in this country. By our logic, what happened was fair. It was just. Because it upheld the balance of the community. Only one person can get a pass to the top and Janet did not fit the genetic criteria.