What we wear, what we watch, what we scroll through while waiting in line—these are not distractions. They are signals. Pop culture is not apolitical. It’s not neutral. It is the most pervasive delivery system for power, ideology, and aspiration we have. And it has always been political.
From Beyoncé’s Super Bowl performance channeling Black Panther aesthetics (but without questioning the economic order) to the erasure of Palestine from Hollywood scripts, pop culture teaches us who gets to be seen, who gets to speak, and who gets to be remembered. It mirrors the politics of the moment—and more dangerously, it shapes them.