A GOP Congressman believes Beyoncé’s historic Grammy wins for Cowboy Carter are an example of DEI.
At last Sunday’s Grammy Awards, the 43-year-old became the first Black woman to win Best Country Album and also secured the coveted Album of the Year trophy for the first time.
In a brief interview uploaded on Thursday by journalist Nicholas Ballasy, Congressman Burgess Owens (R-UT) describes the wins as “the closest thing to DEI we’re going to see right now.”
DEI, which stands for “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” refers to initiatives whose origins date back to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to promote more diverse workplaces and eliminate employment discrimination.
As explained by CNN, DEI programs benefit more than just Black and brown communities. Other groups of people benefitting from said initiatives include white women, LGBTQ+ people, disabled people, veterans, and others. On the other hand, its critics argue that these programs are discriminatory and put other groups, such as white Americans, at a disadvantage.
Despite admitting he doesn’t listen to country music himself, the 73-year-old congressman claimed that fans of the country genre did not appreciate Beyoncé’s victory, arguing that it undermined the hard work and reputation of established country artists.
“You put all that hard work, you develop your fan base, you go out there and you work to develop a reputation and all of a sudden somebody comes out of the blue because she’s popping something else and she gets the best,” he explained.
“Nobody respects that and, unfortunately, because of that, Beyonce will not be respected by that core group of people that she’s now singing to,” he added.
Unsurprisingly, Owens found an opportunity to link the so-called “unfairness” to praise President Donald Trump, who signed an executive order on Wednesday targeting transgender women in sports.
“That’s why we’re so excited about what President Trump did with protecting women from men,” said Owens. “We do not like unfairness. We see that, we turn away, we go another way, and I think Beyonce and the Grammy’s … I think it was, they’re gonna suffer, long term because of it.”
Owens’ example of “unfairness” recalls the time Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ The Heist won the Best Rap Album award at the 2014 Grammys. The controversial win saw the duo besting albums from established hip-hop heavyweights Jay-Z, Kanye West, Drake, and Kendrick Lamar.
The Republican congressman joins a choir of folks who have criticized Beyoncé‘s foray into country music in some form, despite countless evidence and anecdotes that the 35-time Grammy-winning Houston-native has always been “country.”
View news Source: https://www.complex.com/life/a/alex-ocho/gop-congressman-beyonce-cowboy-carter-grammy-win-dei
