Divided by Design

As an Afro-Indigenous woman and Beyonce fan, when I saw the backlash against Beyoncé for wearing a Buffalo Soldiers shirt, I couldn’t help but feel like we missed a critical moment for collective learning …and yes healing. Houston has an amazing Buffalo Soldiers Museum that details out this complex history & the language they used on the shirt, museums are worth visiting.

This wasn’t just about a shirt. We all know how intentional her costumes, music, and concerts are. I believe it was about how colonialism has historically weaponized identity, survival, and allegiance for survival, pitting Black and Indigenous communities against each other in systems we didn’t create, but were forced to navigate.

The Buffalo Soldiers weren’t just soldiers. They were Black men, many formerly enslaved, trying to carve out dignity, employment, and safety in a violently racist nation. At the same time, they were enlisted in campaigns that directly harmed Native communities also being displaced, dehumanized, and brutalized by the same entitled group of people who used the the Doctrine of Discovery to justify it.

That is the painful contradiction. And that is the legacy of colonialism forcing oppressed people into impossible choices for survival, often at the expense of one another. Hoping and praying we take each other out.

What would it look like if we held space for both the harm and the context? If we saw this not as a reason to cancel or drag Beyoncé (or do idc), but as an opening to unpack how systemic oppression divides and distorts?

Instead of pointing fingers, we could be pointing to the roots. Instead of shame, we could choose shared understanding. Because liberation isn’t about picking sides it’s about collectively tearing down the systems that made sides necessary in the first place.

But to each their own— I just want to encourage us to get back into critical thinking and resist impulsivity in a trending moment.

With love 💕 😆

Roicia