Nina Simone, Muhammad Ali, and Charlton Heston. Paul Robeson and Bob Dylan. And now, John Legend, Beyonc\u00e9, and Colin Kaepernick. What do they all have in common? They are people with platform, and anyone with that fame should be expected to use it positively, right? Oddly enough, it is not that simple. For years, athletes, artists, and actors have been criticized for being\u00a0political or voicing their thoughts on\u00a0social issues. Particularly artists. Why is this?<\/p>\n
People feel artists don\u2019t understand politics, or their political thoughts often sound nonsensical and\u00a0provocative. According to James Donaghy in his article<\/a> for The Guardian, “Very\u00a0few pop stars have the intelligence or sophistication to deal with the subtleties and shades of grey in politics,\u201d and \u201cwhen pop and politics mix it often ends in an ugly mess.\u201d<\/p>\n Can\u00a0this generalization be made\u00a0about\u00a0all artists? Nina Simone was a major political activist, but her activism wasn\u2019t just in her music. She spoke and lived it. And Bob Dylan? He\u2019s been making political statements for decades. No one seems to hate either one\u00a0for it. Yet, regardless of who understands\u00a0political issues\u00a0and who doesn\u2019t, what is an artists’ voice if it is only used for singing? By the looks of it, it seems they are\u00a0made to sing, but not meant to talk.<\/p>\n Other times, fan bases just want artists to pay attention to their lyrics\u00a0and leave everything else alone. This past summer, Atlanta rapper Lecrae released a few posts on Instagram<\/a> regarding race and social consciousness that much of his fan base, according to The Huffington Post<\/a>, lashed out at, telling him to leave race alone and focus on gospel. The artist\u00a0responded, \u201cThere\u2019s a difference between creating division and exposing the division that\u2019s being ignored.\u201d<\/p>\n