Lizzo demands actual change, not temporary fixes, in her Vogue cover story

Back in December 2019, Lizzo graced the cover of British Vogue. Now, less than a year later, the singer is covering the American version of the publication, bringing the magazine’s readers her take on the insanity that has been the year 2020. In the cover story interview, Lizzo touches on her experience of the pandemic lockdown, police violence against the Black community, the movement to dismantle anti-Black racism, and the upcoming U.S. presidential election. In short, fans are treated to her take on just about everything that matters (including her music, obviously).

 

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This is the blackest and brownest @voguemagazine ever - and I have to brag.. shot by THEE @hypewilliams Styled by @mr_carlos_nazario Hair by @theshelbyswain Makeup by @iwantalexx Wearing @laquan_smith Story by Claudia Rankine. It don’t get no betta. Thank you Anna.

A post shared by Lizzo (@lizzobeeating) on Sep 24, 2020 at 10:16am PDT

Lizzo tells Vogue that she was raised with a keen awareness of what it was like to be Black in America and that the awareness didn’t lack knowledge of the violence that’s tied to anti-Black racism. “My dad taught me very early on about what being Black in this country is. When I learned about Emmett Till, I was so young. And I have never forgotten his face,” she said. But that doesn’t mean that she was fully prepared for the kind of horrific realization that comes with the seemingly unending streak of police violence that her community continues to face despite the renewed outcry that began in 2013 with the launch of the Black Lives Matter movement. “They don’t actually care,” said Lizzo. “And ‘they’ — I don’t know who ‘they’ are. But I know that they don’t care, because if shit like this is still happening, there has to be a ‘they.’ They don’t care about somebody’s actual life.”[video_embed id='2010025']RELATED: Lizzo expands her empire with a TV deal[/video_embed]Like so many people at the leadup to this November’s U.S. election, Lizzo knows that change is critical, but she’s not interested in a Band-Aid, cosmetic fix for social and racial injustice. Yes, she would like to see Joe Biden’s running mate, Kamala Harris, in the Vice President’s office — but that isn’t nearly enough. “Having a Black woman as vice president would be great because I’m just always rooting for Black people,” she told Vogue. “But I want actual change to happen…in the laws. And not just on the outside, you know? Not a temporary fix to a deep-rooted, systemic issue. A lot of times I feel like we get distracted by the veneer of things. If things appear to be better, but they’re not actually better, we lose our sense of protest. We need to talk about the women,” adds Lizzo, who has been vocal about demanding justice for overlooked female victims of police violence like Breonna Taylor and Sandra Bland.

 

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SAY HER NAME. Breonna Taylor.

A post shared by Lizzo (@lizzobeeating) on Sep 23, 2020 at 7:59pm PDT

Currently, the three-time Grammy winner is social distancing in LA, working on new music, and hanging on to hope that real change will come. “I am the first big black woman on the cover of @voguemagazine,” the star wrote on her Instagram page. “The first black anything feels overdue. But our time has come. To all my black girls, if someone like you hasn’t done it yet— BE THE FIRST.”Lizzo sees the media and corporate shift towards inclusivity in general — be it about race, size, gender, or any other facet of individual identity — as a positive thing, but one that comes with a caveat: “Capitalism is problematic in its own way and racist in its own way,” she says, indicating that systemic change requires rethinking the way our core institutions operate and exploit.Of course, after tackling those heavier topics, Vogue would have been remiss not to ask the pop star about the possibility of a new record. “I gotta finish the songs,” she told the magazine. “It’s gonna be good, though. I’ll tell you that. It’s gonna be motherf#$king good.”[video_embed id='2041616']Before you go: Kerry Washington, Common and more stars react to the decision in Breonna Taylor's case[/video_embed]