Billie Eilish should've just handed Megan Thee Stallion her Grammy Award if she thought the rapper deserved it

• Billie Eilish won record of the year at the 2021 Grammys, but said Megan Thee Stallion deserved it.
• Adele and Macklemore did the same when they beat Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar in major categories.
• This trend seems progressive, but feels more performative. Just give Black artists your awards.

In the final minutes of "music's biggest night," Billie Eilish took the stage, triumphant and yet visibly exasperated.

"This is really embarrassing for me," Eilish began.

The teenager had just won record of the year at the 2021 Grammy Awards, one of four prestigious general field categories. It's also the award that had been hyped all night, complete with video tributes for each of the eight nominees.

Eilish immediately fixed her gaze upon Megan Thee Stallion, whose smash hit "Savage" had been favored to win.

"Megan, girl - I was gonna write a speech about how you deserve this, but then I was like, 'There's no way they're gonna choose me,'" she said with a sheepish laugh.

"You deserve this," Eilish continued. "You are a queen, I wanna cry thinking about how much I love you, you're so beautiful, you're so talented. You deserve everything in the world, I think about you constantly, I root for you always. You deserve it, honestly, genuinely, this goes to her. Can we just cheer for Megan Thee Stallion?"

After a round of applause, Eilish pivoted.

"But thank you, also. I really do appreciate this. Thank you to the Academy, thank you to Ringo," she said, addressing the Beatles drummer, who presented her with the award, before finishing her acceptance speech.

Of course, it's disappointing that "Savage" didn't win, but not surprising.

The Grammys only seem keen to reward Black artists in major categories when they're singing about activism or racial trauma: H.E.R. won song of the year for "I Can't Breathe," a direct reaction to George Floyd's murder; the only rap song that has ever won record of the year was Childish Gambino's painfully topical "This Is America."

Eilish's reaction was not entirely surprising, either. But that's precisely the issue.

Eilish isn't the first white Grammy winner to admit that a Black artist was more deserving

The first modern example of this phenomenon is Macklemore's infamous Instagram post from 2014.

The white novelty rapper won four Grammys at the 56th annual ceremony, including best rap album for "The Heist," which beat Kendrick Lamar's critically acclaimed "Good Kid, m.A.A.d City." (In fact, Lamar had been nominated for a whopping seven Grammys, but went home empty-handed.)

Although he didn't mention the snub onstage, Macklemore shared a screenshot of a shamefaced text he apparently sent to Lamar.

"You got robbed. I wanted you to win. You should have. It's weird and it sucks that I robbed you," he wrote. "I was gonna say that during the speech. Then the music started playing during my speech and I froze. Anyway you know what it is."

In his caption, Macklemore explained that he was "honored and completely blown away to win anything," and that his goal was not to diminish his own album's success.

He concluded: "That's what this is about. Progress and art. Thank you. #grammys."

Eilish's acceptance speech also gave people flashbacks to 2017, when Adele's "25" triumphed over Beyoncé's "Lemonade" for album of the year. It was Beyoncé's third loss in that category.

Despite becoming the most-decorated woman in Grammys history on Sunday, notching a record 28th award, only one of her wins has ever been in a "Big Four" category.

"I can't possibly accept this award. My artist of my life is Beyoncé. And this album for me, the 'Lemonade' album, was just so monumental," Adele said onstage. "So well-thought-out and so beautiful and soul-bearing and we all got to see another side to you that you don't always let us see, and we appreciate that."

"And all us artists here, we f---ing adore you," she added, the camera trained on Beyoncé with tears in her eyes.

Clearly, this sort of public declaration is getting trendier.

Eilish is the third white Grammy winner in less than 10 years to publicly salute an unsuccessful Black nominee.

There is a case to be made for humility. Performative screenshots aside, Adele and Eilish are both widely admired. They both seemed genuine in their surprise, as well as in their praise of Beyoncé and Megan respectively.

There is also a case to be made for leniency, particularly for Eilish. At just 19 years old, it's perfectly natural to be excited about receiving recognition from your peers.

But Eilish is also plenty mature to understand how race impacts every facet of our society, as well as the disproportionate whiteness of Grammy winners throughout history.

The similarities between Macklemore, Adele, and Eilish indicate a pattern with more insidious implications.

In this context, simply complimenting someone's beauty and talent misses the mark

There's a reason why watching Eilish heap praise onto Megan - for nearly a solid minute, eons in an award show timeline - probably made you squirm.

At the end of the day, it was still an acceptance speech. Eilish still thanked the Recording Academy. She still posed with her trophies at the end of the night. She will still enjoy the clout that comes with winning another Grammy.

She certainly didn't mention that only 13 Black artists have ever won the award she was holding (two as featured artists on a Daft Punk song).

Much like her forebears, Eilish didn't actually address the inequities at play in her victory. Macklemore described winning rap's biggest award - over Lamar, Drake, Jay-Z, and Kanye West - as "weird" instead of a blatant symptom of racial bias. Adele described Beyoncé as "our light," but never as a Black woman who is routinely snubbed in major categories. She said, "I can't possibly accept this award," but ultimately, she did.

The pattern is offering flattery, rather than constructive insight or tangible support.

Freelance writer and music critic Kyle Denis, who runs the popular blog black boy bulletin, said acknowledging the root of the issue - that is to say, the music industry's observable history of racism - is "so much of the battle."

"Just saying, 'You deserve it,' makes it sound like, 'Oh, you just didn't get enough votes this time,'" he told Insider. "Versus, 'You deserve it because you had a great year, and also I got this award because of my white privilege.'"

"There's structural inequality and bias in the Academy and the voting system that people need to be made aware of," Denis added. "Actually saying that on primetime TV in front of everybody could really get the conversation going."

But Denis also noted how this scenario still manages to "center" the white artist.

Standing on stage, looking a Black artist in the eye, and telling her she deserves an award that you're holding - even if you make sure to call out systemic failures - feels icky. Regardless of intent or sincerity, this encourages a white-savior narrative, stoking the media's eagerness to paint beloved white artists as "woke" and humble.

All the while, that Black woman sits just feet away, unable to contribute to a conversation about her own art.

Just give the Black artist your award while you're at it

Not only does the standard "you deserve it" speech dance around the real problem, but it compels the unwitting subject to take a submissive role, surrounded by cameras and spectators.

What could Megan do aside from sit by and try to look gracious?

"It seems extremely uncomfortable for the Black artist in that situation," Denis said. "We know how media and our culture over-analyzes everything that's on a Black person's face, specifically a Black woman's face, and how they have to have this sort of composure all the time."

"It must be awkward to sit down in a room, have this person dedicate an award to you - and go home with it at the end of the day - and you can't actually say anything about it yourself."

If Macklemore, Adele, and Eilish truly believed that Lamar, Beyoncé, and Megan deserved to win instead, they could've simply stood aside and let those artists speak for themselves. They could've invited those artists onstage to accept the awards, instead of legitimizing the Recording Academy's persistent disrespect.

This isn't a quixotic concept, either. A-list artists already seem to be reaching a breaking point with the Grammys.

The Weeknd recently announced that he'll boycott the show going forward, following in the footsteps of Frank Ocean, who declined to submit his 2016 masterpiece "Blonde" for consideration.

Nicki Minaj, Zayn Malik, Fiona Apple, and Halsey have also criticized the process as racist, sexist, and corrupt. (Notice how nearly every artist taking a stand is a person of color.)

"We have a lot of momentum right now for real accountability," Denis said. "Part of that is on the white artists who are winning these awards. To be honest, name the issue, and say, 'I'm going to do my part and give the spotlight to this Black artist who deserves this.'"

Most likely, until we dismantle all white-dominated gatekeeping institutions, the Grammys will continue to offer golden gramophones to predominantly white artists.

So whoever's tempted to follow in Eilish's footsteps next, consider this: Just don't take the award. It's time for action instead of lip service.