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Image Courtesy Saint HeronA newly married Solange could not help but address the Michael Brown controversy, following a grand jury’s decision to not indict officer Darren Wilson for killing the unarmed teenager in Ferguson, Missouri in August.
The singer posted an Instagram image of a sculpture of black child’s face with the eyes and top of the head appearing to have been corroded or broken away. She expressed her feelings with a lengthy caption, in which she spoke about the “brokenness” of the black community.
“I screen shot this image months ago. Artist unknown. It moved me for many reasons. One being ….brokenness. Today I feel a sense of brokenness on behalf of my people. Black people. Everyone expresses differently,” she wrote. “I respect all forms and shapes of expression. I respect those who don’t see this as a matter of black and white, who think ‘unity and peace’ will save us all from this, who’s optimism in the heart of the gut wrench still seems to have a place…Although I feel differently, I respect it all.”
She adds, “We were not molded here, to all be molded the same……My words are like aimless shapes and figures at this time. Trying to find a place to go, something to hold on to, to make ‘sense’ of this all.”
The singer continued that that the incident has inspired her to make an album about race.
“But the one thing that’s been concrete in my heart is my will to want to express something to my friends. To the people I love, who love me, who feel pain in this moment just as I do, but who do not feel pain in the way that I often do in many walks of life. Who might feel I talk about race too much, that it’s consumed me, who I’ve distanced myself from…because it’s true, I can’t [take] a joke,” she wrote. “When I told a friend of mine I was making an album about race, his response was….’Just make it fun’. I would like him to think about it now. We are not Michael Browns family, but we are Michael Browns family.”
Solange concludes: “We don’t hurt like they do, but we do hurt. Hurt like hell. Thing about my people though….we don’t stay broken. We get up. We put the pieces together when there aren’t even pieces to pick up…….and we will……again and again and again.”
