When the world rejects you, you don’t wanna play by it’s rules.
I completely understand blk people wanting to improve our image. But sometimes respectability politics feel stifling and fake.
I don’t think twerking is a form of protest. But people are so uptight about it that they give it more power than it actually has.
The reality is that people do try to put blk women into too many boxes. I’m not even talking about that LGBTQ shyt.
I’m talking about punishing us for the way we are shaped. Talking shyt and discriminating against us if our hair is kinky, then turning around and ridiculing us for self-hate if they straighten it or wear weave. Punishing and judging us for any display of sexuality. All kinds of shyt.
And many blk women are beginning to say fukk you to it. They used to be scared of being accused of being angry to address it. But now they’ve realized, you gon hate anyway so they might as well be themselves.
Being viewed with nuance is almost impossible as a blk woman even in her own community. She’s either a church mother or a stripper. An arrogant college graduate or a chick working at Walmart. A hood rat or a bedwench to many.
And I’m starting to see many stop giving a damn. And that’s a good thing b/c you can’t figure out who you are if you too scared of what other people think of you.
As a blk female in higher Ed, I’ve grappled with this shyt constantly. It’s not my job to teach you how to stop making simplistic assumptions about me based on how I look and I just don’t give a fukk about code-switching anymore b/c I’m worthy of existing in this space whether you like me, approve of me, or not. I can twerk, AND conduct a meta analysis, grow my niece’s hair with some shyt out of my pantry, win awards teaching 200 student seminars, get high and talk continental philosophy, keep my arch during backshots, sing you to sleep and frolic in the woods like a blk fairy. My play list go from thot music to gospel to j-pop, to Wale to Paula Cole.
And I don’t give a fukk about your feelings.
She’ll be alright and so will the rest of people clutching pearls over her antics.
I like that a lot of our female athletes have acted completely irreverent towards this sorry ass Olympic event for this sorry ass racist country. Blk women giving themselves permission to make mistakes, take chances and get messy. I’m here for it.
