Maya Arulpragasam said Black Lives Matter is the only problem talked about in the US and called on Beyoncé to highlight plight of other groups, such as Syrians

MIA has been criticised for her comments about Beyoncé, the Black Lives Matter movement and the lack of similar protest organisation aimed at addressing violence towards Muslims.

In an interview in the Evening Standard, the singer (whose real name is Maya Arulpragasam) said that Black Lives Matter is the only problem that’s talked about in the US and called on stars such as Beyoncé to highlight the plight of other groups, including Syrians.

“It’s interesting that in America the problem you’re allowed to talk about is Black Lives Matter. It’s not a new thing to me – it’s what Lauryn Hill was saying in the 1990s, or Public Enemy in the 1980s,” she said.

“Is Beyoncé or Kendrick Lamar going to say Muslim Lives Matter? Or Syrian Lives Matter? Or this kid in Pakistan matters? That’s a more interesting question. And you cannot ask it on a song that’s on Apple, you cannot ask it on an American TV programme, you cannot create that tag on Twitter, Michelle Obama is not going to hump you back.”

Johnetta Elzie (more commonly known as Netta), who along with Deray McKesson is one of the most prominent Black Lives Matter organisers, said “MIA really has no clue”, adding that “local news barely even cared about Mike Brown”.

Since the piece was published MIA has clarified her position, saying she wasn’t criticising Beyoncé directly and that her point was that only certain issues are allowed on “American platforms”.

MIA

MIA

During the interview she also spoke about advice Kanye West gave her a decade ago (“Whatever you do, don’t date people, don’t get pregnant, don’t fall in love. Love is like cancer”), which she dismissed at the time but “now I think he was right”.