History Is Good As Hell

NOBODY HAS EVER HEARD THIS FAMOUS CRYSTAL FLUTE BEFORE

NOW YOU HAVE

IM THE FIRST & ONLY PERSON TO EVER PLAY THIS PRESIDENTIAL 200-YEAR-OLD CRYSTAL FLUTE— THANK YOU @librarycongress ❤️ pic.twitter.com/VgXjpC49sO

— FOLLOW @YITTY (@lizzo) September 28, 2022

As soon as I saw the video of Lizzo playing James Madison’s 200-year-old crystal flute, I knew, just knew, the Right Wingers would twist themselves into racist pretzels in an attempt to clutch their pearls. Like, come on, how fucking predictable. A Grammy and Emmy-winning superstar visits the Library of Congress and is invited to play some of the historic flutes in their collection in a win-win for fans of American history, education, and Lizzo. The Library of Congress gets to introduce itself to a new generation who might not be familiar with is place and purpose. And Lizzo gets to do something genuinely cool while helping to educate her fans and the world about American history. Both these things are great. But, yawn, the racists are Big Mad that Lizzo would so disrespect a treasured piece of American history they never even knew existed until she brought it out on stage with her while encouraging her huge fanbase to get into learning history. Or is it that this mega successful and talented Black women is touching something that the architect of the so-called three-fifths compromise (you know, that dehumanizing calculation that decided what percentage of a whole human being counted) once owned. Oh, and of course he also owned slaves. Hmmm. Me thinks they doth protest too much. And, you know, are horrible racists. History isn’t meant to be locked away in some drawer to be forgotten. It’s meant to be examined and learned from every single day. Otherwise, if we learn nothing, what the hell is the point? Stay mad, racists. Rock on, Lizzo. Go, learning true history.