There Were Black People at the Met Gala
Or My Attempt to Stay Awake While Water Pours Through My Ceiling
When I started writing this, my ceiling had been leaking for over 3 hours. Water was pouring behind my cabinet, out of the electrical socket above my microwave (I unplugged my microwave immediately), into my microwave, out of my microwave, onto the stove, out of the bubble growing on the opposite side of the wall in my bathroom.
The leak started at 12:45AM. I sent in a ticket to the building’s property manager and called their emergency line. A South Asian man working for a third-party call center took my call. After describing the deluge coming from my ceiling, he said that he was escalating my ticket to the highest priority and should expect a call from them.
Not a call has rang my phone. Nary a person has knocked on my door. 311 doesn’t accept calls until 7AM, and I didn’t know who to call at this time of night for a leak if neither option was available. There is a suspicion that I’m overlooking something that I could have tried or there is something that I’m not being particularly cautious about, but it’s too late now.
I consigned myself to stay up all night to drain the bucket, pots, and jars. I sat down in silence, except for the symphony of water hitting plastic, metal, and glass. After a while, I decided to open up Substack to pass the time.
And I saw people posting photos of celebrities at the Met Gala.
Beautiful Black people adorned in clothing designed by incredibly talented Black people are in every photo I see. Homage is paid to Black dandyism and all of the beautiful Black people who had graced the Met Gala and the fashion industry in times past. It is a homage paid well with living opulence and grandeur. What began as a charitable event for the Metropolitan Museum of Art has this year become a glowing testament to Black Excellence™.
After seeing the photos on Substack, I searched and looked up the outfits everyone wore. What struck me were Janelle Monáe’s photos. Not because of the overcoat or the sports coat, but because I remembered how some people responded to them showing up at the Met Gala last year. Back in 2024, after months of genocide against Palestinians by Israel, people waited with bated breath for our biggest Black celebrities and artists to speak out against it. Surely they could be relied upon to lead us in such a political and existential crisis.
Crickets.
People were furious that no one was asked to get in formation. People were furious that those who proposed sexual liberation and freedom of expression suddenly had nothing to say about the struggle for liberation and freedom happening in real time with far more dire stakes. Janelle Monáe was one of the celebrities that was placed upon the digital guillotine, with people unfollowing in waves on social media and disavowing themselves of their favorite idols. If they wouldn’t listen, then people would divest from them. That would definitely get their attention.
They seemed to have survived the guillotine, and there isn’t even cake to eat.
While we laud these folks or scorn them, these Black celebrities live their lives. While the world burns, they will have a place of refuge in capitalist wealth. As we try to figure out how to build community and organize for collective action, they have already made their choice for themselves. The Black celebrities, or any celebrity for that matter who make it big will not be our activists or advocates. If they ever decide to become one, they will be unseated from whatever industry they worked their way into. The Black people we see at the Met Gala may look like us, may come from us, but they are presently not for us. Anyone you see at that event is not acting in your best interest, even the “liberal” politicians people have decided to champion.
I hate to rain on everyone’s parade, but it is currently raining in my apartment. The sun has finally risen, and I’ve been up all night making sure piss-colored water doesn’t overflow onto the floor. I don’t know if I will be living in this basement-level studio for much longer. I don’t even know what I’ll do today once the work begins on the wall. But there’s one thing I do know:
There were Black people at the Met Gala.
As always, thank you for reading, and I hope to share more with you soon!
Read more from Queen’s Muse!
