Wednesday, May 23, 2018

‘The blackest moment in global pop culture since Obama’s election night’

From The Washington Post-

In a world where everything is breaking news and everyone has a hot take, I’ve lately insisted on taking a step back to consider what’s going on and what it means. So, it wasn’t until Monday night that I sat down and watched Britain’s Prince Harry marry American actress Meghan Markle. Wow!

Truth be told, I slept through Saturday’s royal nuptials. But my Twitter feed and text messages were filled with awe. Not just the expected gushing over a royal wedding. But also of the unexpected symbolism of this modern-day fairy tale. “OMG, you missed maybe the blackest moment in global pop culture since Obama’s election night,” a dear white friend texted me Sunday morning. He didn’t lie.

I was struck by two things as I watched the ceremony. First, the melding of African American culture with British tradition made me incredibly proud of who we are. Proud as an American, and an African American in particular. While watching the stirring sermon by Episcopal Bishop Michael Curry at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, I was moved to tweet that his booming “voice woke the ghosts in that chapel!” Surely the British had never heard anything so loud, so vibrant, in a church. Black preachers are gloriously and willfully ignorant of the constraint of time, so for African Americans, at 13 minutes, Curry’s was a sermonette. With a message of love and redemption, mentions of Martin Luther King Jr. and slavery, the first African American leader of the Episcopal Church knit the British and their American cousins together in a cloak of commonality and shared destiny. He spoke matter-of-factly and without apology, as was befitting such a joyous occasion.


More here-

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2018/05/22/the-blackest-moment-in-global-pop-culture-since-obamas-election-night/?utm_term=.d39cb2101300

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