As you may have seen early last month, Twitter was in an uproar over Lizzo. I know, it’s nothing new as she makes headlines almost every day with her positivity, vegan food recipes, mukbangs, funny tiktoks and is known by our generation as a “body icon,” a term she coined herself in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar.
However, on my normal daily scroll on Twitter and other social media apps, one headline overtly caught my eye: “Lizzo Plays A 200-Year-Old Crystal Flute, Accidentally Summons A Swarm Of Trolls” by Dani Di Placido for Forbes. As a History major, Gen Z member, Lizzo fan and Twitter user, this was the PERFECT headline to grab my attention. To summarize as Di Placido beautifully puts it, “popular singer and songwriter Lizzo made headlines after playing a 200-year-old crystal flute onstage, lent to her by the Library of Congress, that once belonged to the fourth President of the United States, James Madison.” Lizzo, a classically trained flutist, introduced, performed and twerked with the flute, to the dismay of far-right viewers and social media goers.
With the flute in hand and framed by her shimmering bodysuit, she stated the following:
“This is from the early 1800s, this was a gift to James Madison from a French crystal flute designer to celebrate his second term. There was a fire … and the only two things that were saved were a portrait of George Washington and this crystal flute right here. I am the first person to ever play it, so you’re about to hear what it sounds like for the first time. Thank you to the Library of Congress for preserving our history and making history cool. History is freaking cool, you guys!”
This act of fun and lightheartedness ignited a fire under the bellies of a certain community on Twitter, trolls, personally offended that she twerked with the piece of history. Some examples include a tweet by Jenna Ellis, a former campaign lawyer for Donald Trump, describing Lizzo’s performance as a “desecration, purposefully, of America’s history.” Matt Walsh, a right-wing influencer, described Lizzo’s performance as “a form of racial retribution, according to the woke Left.”
To you this instant might seem unamusing, boring even—but to me, this was an image unlike any other, truly highlighting the strides this country has taken from a past of slavery and closemindedness to one of diversity, inclusion, understanding and celebration. A flute gifted to one of the first presidents of a country built on the backs of slaves was played by a successful Black woman with the governmental last name of Jefferson whose ancestors were most likely brought here against their will; a nearly full-circle moment for the United States and Black girls around the world. However, the tweets, trolls and harassment toward Lizzo after her historic show highlights how far we need to go as a community and as a country outside of political leaning and personal opinions.
It was not up to Conservative twitter to decide if Lizzo should be the first person to ever play the historic, American instrument; it was up to the Library of Congress.
Let’s keep it that way.