Becoming Black

Yo. Wipopo. You can "not intend" all you want to. But I have a better idea. Don't do it at all. Unless you are championing for POC, keep ALLLLLLL your comments about people's appearance, intelligence, capability, wealth, etc etc etc allll to yourself. Just. Don't. And in return Black Twitter won't drag you within an inch of your life and maybe get you fired. I'm just trying to help. Really. If you're offended... it wasn't my intent 😏

I'm torn about this. A) of all the things in all the land. I don't care. Braid your hair. Lose your edges for all I care. But. B) the irony of this being hailed as "omg totes adorbs" as Black girls and boys are being kicked out of school over these hair styles cannot be lost.

And here were are, having to listen to Marc Jacobs complain about us being offended. My hair isn't "fashion!!" I can no more change the way my hair grows out of my head than I can my fingerprints.

Hm. Lemme try something... When you interrupt a Black child's school day to send them home, or require them to cut their hair, or change their cultural style, you are telling them that making sure "White Fragility" isn't even remotely challenged is more important than their education. Instead of shaming them for the way God created their skin, hair, and bodies, teach White people that Black children are not here to be tamed, and that cultural differences should be embraced and encouraged. There. I fixed it. Feminists have a funny history of forgetting Black women.

The struggle of Blacks in the USA *IS* the Black experience. Her daddy never had to sit her down and say "you gotta be twice as good to get half as much." She ACTUALLY sued her Howard University for discriminating against her because she was WHITE! Rachel hired a Black man to pretend to be her father at an event. She has her adopted Black brothers posting as her children. The deceit is hurtful and maddening. And by the way, skin lightening creams? They don't work. I point to Sammy Sosa, Lil Kim, and Trina. It's not about "liking" it. It's about taking a good, hard look at the real implications of making a decision like the one Rachel has made. Whether or not it personally offends you.... Many, many, many other African Americans and African American women find it deeply offensive. Myself included. I'm not saying you can't love a different culture... I'm not saying you can't be a social activist... But to masquerade in one without acknowledging the potential for damage because of the deep and dark history of race relations in the USA is a problem. It does nothing else but highlight the wanton privilege that whites have in this country.

Rachel Dolezol is headlining a natural hair event. Wut?? Why is she wrong? Why are black women so pissed off?? Well. Rachel is acting in privilege that most other people simply don't have. I cannot wake up tomorrow and decide I want to be Japanese because I love their culture. I can never make my skin fair enough, or change my eyes, or nose (plastic surgery can only do so much) to "pass" as Japanese. Assimilation and adoption are one thing. But Rachel is operating within privilege that has cost Black people their lives in this country. Only some of us have "passed" and have done so hiding in fear. Not just of rejection, but of actually being killed. She is playing blackface. Though we usually associate that term with silly and offensive vaudeville acts, the fact that we are angry when Christian Bale is cast as Moses in Exodus, and Scarlet Johansson is cast as an Asian woman in Ghost in the Shell, means that blackface (redface, yellowface), no matter how well intentioned, is hurtful and offensive. It continues to marginalize and caricatureize an entire culture. That, unwaveringly, and unarguably, is wrong. Via the transitive property (if a=b, and b=c, then a=c)... Then what Rachel is doing is wrong.

If Kaep ain’t Black, this chick ain’t Black.

... I'm boycotting Disney princess movies until we get a Black princess who remains a human girl for the duration of the film.

#iSitWithKaep

One of the characteristics I look for in my closest friends is the ability for us to each pick up a mirror and show each other their ugly parts. Does it feel good? No! But when you're in a relationship with someone, you anticipate the "FREEDOM" and "SAFETY" within that relationship affords you the right to say "I love you, but you're wrong." Or else that relationship cannot and will not prosper. It took 400 years, but Blacks were finally allowed to enter into this relationship with the USA. However, this relationship simply is not prospering. We do not have the same "FREEDOMS" our white counterparts have. #BLM and surrounding demonstrations are simply us, holding the mirror up to America and saying, "I love you, but you're wrong." #iSitWithKaep