'Royals' by Lorde is not racist

Um what?

For those of you who are a little bit behind (like me), you may not yet have heard about a blog post which is causing a stir around the world. Entitled 'Wow, that Lorde song Royals is racist' and published by Veronica Bayetti Flores on her blog 'Feministing', it's not hard to understand the main concept of this post.

For those of you who haven't heard the lyrics to Royals, it's basically about consumerism. Over-exaggerated, overblown consumerism.

However Ms Flores does not take it that way. No, she believes that it's extremely racist.



Flores opens by stating that she'd never heard this song until a couple of days ago and then saying 'Holy. Shit. What did this white girl just say?'. If she's trying to prove that Lorde is racist, describing her by her skin colour probably isn't the best way to begin.

She goes on to say 'While I love a good critique of wealth accumulation and inequity, this song is not one; in fact, it is deeply racist.' And why? Because the items that she refers to are so often apparently owned by 'black folks' and 'rappers'. Another generalisation on behalf of Flores.

Meanwhile, while Flores discusses the fact that Lorde sings about Grey Goose and 'Diamonds on your time piece', she ignores the fact that she also sings about ballgowns and jetplanes and islands. How is any of this racist? It's not, it's just all about the top of society; the people who can afford to live that sort of life (Which will be Lorde soon!).

Lorde's song is famous around the world, and she's become the first female solo artist from New Zealand to reach number one in the USA. A pretty amazing feat if you ask me!

But there are always those trying to latch onto 'famous' and ride it right the way to the top, or drag them down, and Veronica's blog post seems like an attention seeking ploy.

The lyrics of basically any song can be taken out of context and concepts can be applied which portray singers in a negative light. In fact, while we're at it, why not take Katy Perry's new song Roar COMPLETELY out of context, saying that she had no morals but then went completely crazy and insane. No, because that's not what it's about.It's about a woman who learnt to stand up for herself in society after realising that she had value.

Meanwhile, Lorde's song is about consumerism and how we wish for more than we have. It's not racist in the slightest. The lyrics are incredibly thoughtful, making a nice change from so much of the music from this generation (Think Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke)! Flores makes over-generalisations which make no sense in the slightest. Yes, the lyrics can be taken out of context, but why would we bother?

Lorde is an extremely successful 16 year old from New Zealand, and I wish her luck in her career now and into the future. All I can hope is that she can ignore the critics who make no sense (eg- Veronica Bayetti Flores!).

For those of you who haven't heard it, the lyrics to Royals are as follows:

I've never seen a diamond in the flesh

I cut my teeth on wedding rings in the movies

And I'm not proud of my address,
In a torn-up town, no postcode envy

But every song's like gold teeth, grey goose, trippin' in the bathroom
Blood stains, ball gowns, trashin' the hotel room,
We don't care, we're driving Cadillacs in our dreams.
But everybody's like Cristal, Maybach, diamonds on your timepiece.
Jet planes, islands, tigers on a gold leash.
We don't care, we aren't caught up in your love affair.

And we'll never be royals (royals).
It don't run in our blood,
That kind of luxe just ain't for us.
We crave a different kind of buzz.
Let me be your ruler (ruler),
You can call me queen Bee
And baby I'll rule, I'll rule, I'll rule, I'll rule.
Let me live that fantasy.

My friends and I—we've cracked the code.
We count our dollars on the train to the party.
And everyone who knows us knows that we're fine with this,
We didn't come for money.

But every song's like gold teeth, grey goose, trippin' in the bathroom.
Blood stains, ball gowns, trashin' the hotel room,
We don't care, we're driving Cadillacs in our dreams.
But everybody's like Cristal, Maybach, diamonds on your timepiece.
Jet planes, islands, tigers on a gold leash
We don't care, we aren't caught up in your love affair

And we'll never be royals (royals).
It don't run in our blood
That kind of luxe just ain't for us.
We crave a different kind of buzz.
Let me be your ruler (ruler),
You can call me queen Bee
And baby I'll rule, I'll rule, I'll rule, I'll rule.
Let me live that fantasy.

Ooh ooh oh
We're bigger than we ever dreamed,
And I'm in love with being queen.
Ooh ooh oh
Life is great without a care
We aren't caught up in your love affair.

And we'll never be royals (royals).
It don't run in our blood
That kind of luxe just ain't for us.
We crave a different kind of buzz
Let me be your ruler (ruler),
You can call me queen Bee
And baby I'll rule, I'll rule, I'll rule, I'll rule.
Let me live that fantasy.

Also, click HERE for the link for Veronica Bayetti Flores' uninformed blog post about the racism in the song Royals. 

To see a follow up blog post, you can click HERE. She's basically just digging an even deeper hole...