Tag Archives: Women

Am I Black Enough?

12 Mar

I didn’t listen to Tupac growing up, I’ve never seen any of the Friday movies, and I can’t twerk.

Only a priest at Confession could get me to admit all of that. I was ashamed to say so in fear that my “Authentic Black Girl Card” would be revoked.

The other day I picked up Patricia Collins’ Black Sexual Politics.* She explains how mass media “blurs the lines between fact and fiction” on the image of Black people, and because of that, some representations of Black people have become commonsense “truths,” when really they are all stereotypes created by sources outside of our communities.

Sadly, we adopt these stereotypes and hold one another to them. We are expected to “act Black,” and we ostracize those who do not.

At young ages, Black children who are raised in Black communities learn what it means to be “authentically” Black. I picked up on in the 3rd grade. By that time, I’d learned to speak a certain way, pronouncing or not pronouncing certain syllables.

I often felt the need to hide my social class –so I avoided telling people that I was from Ladera Heights (a wealthy Black neighborhood in LA) because in elementary school, being from Inglewood was more acceptable.

In middle school I learned to dance how Black girls are expected to dance: bent over in front of a guy, moving my ass on his crotch to the beat. I was never good at it. But imagine my joy when I realized I could Crip-walk. I thought to myself, “Yes! Evidence that proves I’m really Black!

But despite all my attempts, I was still labeled whitewashed—and I still am (you know it’s bad when your Korean friends say it).

The “problem” is: I don’t fit the stereotype of what the media says a Black woman should be. The societal definition of what it means to be Black (which is dangerously similar to the racist19th Century beliefs of colonial powers) is how some of us define ourselves.

And those definitions are damaging. For example, Collins tells us, “Black men in pursuit of booty calls may appear to be more authentically ‘Black’ than men who study, and the experiences of poor and working class Black men may be established as being more authentically Black than those of the middle-and upper-middle class African American men” (Collins 151).

So I’m not going to define myself by racist standards of what it means to be Black—because you can’t be genuine if others are still defining who you are.

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We Are All Bitches, Hoes, and Tricks (You are NOT exempt)

9 Jan

Maria Llyod, writer from Reason4Rymes, has split Black women into 2 classes.

She says:

“I must admit that I don’t have the slightest interest in how rappers view black women. Why? Because they’re not talking about me. In fact, they’re not talking to me either because I don’t listen to their music…The women the rappers are addressing are the women who use the word ‘b*tch’ as a term of endearment. They are the women who have no respect for and/or knowledge of black history. They are frequently making poor decisions regarding their finances and their sexual behavior.”

Lloyd goes on to talk about the divide between educated and uneducated black people. She defines “educated” not solely as schooling, but as “the ability to think for yourself with conclusions drawn from research and experience.” In her opinion, rappers talk about uneducated women.

I shook my head at every word on that page.

First of all, women who say rappers “aren’t talking about them” are kidding themselves. They are talking about all women, especially Black women.

Now, rappers may differentiate between “ratchet pussy” (Juicy J), “bad bitches,” “independent women,” and whatever else they like to call us. They are not singling out or excluding certain women in their lyrics. It doesn’t matter if you’re educated, or whether or not you listen to their music. If you are a woman, you fall into one of their many categories.

The degradation of women in the music industry is not an “uneducated” woman’s problem. It is (or should be) a concern for all Black women. It is our image that is being dragged through the mud for the entire world to see. Those are our bodies that appear in music videos. We are the bitches, hoes, and tricks that they are referring to.

Black women’s reputation is especially at risk. The image rappers put forth is absorbed in the eyes of other ethnic groups. Society doesn’t always take the time to differentiate between “educated” and “uneducated” Black people. I can’t tell you how many nonblack people have asked me ignorant questions like “Can you dance like the girls in the music videos?” or “Have you ever been to Compton?” or “Do you like Lil Wayne?” simply because of the color of my skin.

When an “educated” Black woman walks into a room, people may draw conclusions from the way that she dresses and presents herself. They may think she is well-mannered or high class (or whatever their words may be) but that doesn’t mean their perceptions of all Black women have changed just because one “educated” woman walked into that room. If anything, they may think “Oh, she’s one of the good ones,” like many racists like to say.

And it shouldn’t be like that. I shouldn’t have to prove that I am “educated” or “one of the good one’s” (both definitions pretty much mean the same thing). The image of Black women should be changed so that when I am in front of any audience, they are not comparing me to horrifying images of Black women they see on TV.

People categorize and stereotype all the time. The only way to change the stereotype of Black women is with a united front. Not only must the “educated” women boycott degrading music, as Lloyd says later in her article, but everyone must push for a change in the music industry.

See Maria Lloyd’s article

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