MIA Calls Out Beyoncé, Black Lives Matter

'Michelle Obama is not going to hump you back'
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 22, 2016 4:01 PM CDT
MIA Calls Out Beyoncé, Black Lives Matter
MIA performs in 2011.   (AP Photo/POLFOTO, Tobias Noergaard Pedersen)

Pop star MIA called out Beyoncé and the Black Lives Matter movement while criticizing the American media during an interview with the Evening Standard this week. Specifically, she wondered why Black Lives Matter is the only "problem you're allowed to talk about." “Is Beyoncé or Kendrick Lamar going to say Muslim Lives Matter? Or Syrian Lives Matter? Or this kid in Pakistan matters?" MIA continued. "That’s a more interesting question. And you cannot ask it on a song that’s on Apple, you cannot ask it on an American TV program, you cannot create that tag on Twitter, Michelle Obama is not going to hump you back.”

In response to MIA's comments, one Black Lives Matter organizer said the singer "really has no clue," the Guardian reports. According to Entertainment Weekly, another Black Lives Matter activist took issue with the idea that America "allows" you to say black lives matter, as protesters doing just that were teargassed. MIA later clarified on Twitter that she wasn't criticizing anyone in particular; "My question was," she wrote, "on American platforms what do they allow you to stand up for in 2016. This has been the number 1 question for me." The issue came up when MIA was asked about Beyoncé's performance at this year's Super Bowl. MIA is no stranger to Super Bowl controversies; she was fined by the NFL for flipping the bird while performing with Madonna in 2012. (More MIA stories.)

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