The first episode of Saturday Night Live Season 46 came and went. But the poignant message that Megan Thee Stallion’s performance spotlighted should sit with us forever.
On Oct 3., Megan kicked off her debut SNL performance with her hit song, “Savage.” But that wasn’t all. She not only did so in front of a graphic that read “Protect Black Women,” but also broadcast two quotes from Black activists during an interlude in the song.
After fake “gunshots” appeared to destroy the backdrop, it was replaced by a famed quote (slightly paraphased) from Malcolm X: “The most disrespected, unprotected, neglected person in America is the Black woman.” Then, the voice of Women’s March co-founder Tamika Mallory rang out as she called out Daniel Cameron, the Kentucky Attorney General who failed to charge the Louisville police officers responsible for the death of Breonna Taylor with murder.
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Twitter reacted with an appropriate swell of support for Megan incorporating such a vital political statement into her performance. Many Black women spoke to how personally moving it was to see those sentiments shared on a global stage.
The Protect Black Women graphic is making me cry. How wonderful is this? It is so wonderful.
— Akilah Hughes (@AkilahObviously) October 4, 2020
The Attorney General of Kentucky, Daniel Cameroon, getting called a sellout Negroe on national television is all the content I need for the rest of the year. I love Black women. We truly dgaf no more. It’s us or y’all and we choose us. ✊🏾@theestallion pic.twitter.com/AXLyGk5SAU
— Harriet Thugman (@elikabernard) October 4, 2020
Comedian, author, and podcast host Akilah Hughes pointed out she was recently suspended from Twitter for posting a similar sentiment about Cameron. It only goes to show the importance of Megan using her platform to spotlight other Black women speaking out on systemic injustice, since their voices so often get suppressed elsewhere.
Recently, Megan publicly spoke out about surviving gun violence herself from rapper Tory Lanez, a fellow rapper she was allegedly dating, on July 12. There’s surveillance video footage of Lanez getting arrested, in which a wounded Megan is visible. Even then, people online accused Megan of lying, forcing her to take to Instagram Live to share her account of the events.
According to the post, Lanez and his publicists were spreading misinformation about the incident, like claiming she hit him (as if even that would warrant shooting another person). Megan also made it clear that the reason she hadn’t reported the gunshot wounds to the police at the time was because she feared law enforcement would incite even more violence after learning a firearm was present.
There’s a clear pattern in the mistreatment of Black women in America, from Taylor to Megan: They are victims of disproportionate violence, then disbelieved and denied justice. From those propagating violence against Black women to those complicit in normalizing that violence, the American public continues to fail to protect them.
Megan made clear that, despite personally experiencing this pattern of violence and abuse, she has no intention of backing down. If anything, she will only continue to double down on being a certified, undeniable savage. Her presence on SNL made that abundantly clear.
Outside of her powerful performances, Megan also brought a lot of light and joy to the sketch comedy series’ premiere, particularly with her verse in a parody rap sketch about masks and half-hidden faces.
America already knew Megan Thee Stallion was an unstoppable hit-maker and rapping talent. But on Saturday night, she showed the world just how much of an icon she is, too.