Korean Pop Culture is extremely popular among the youth in Korea which influences their hair and clothing. Young Korean men tend to wear makeup, dye their hair blonde and sport an overall feminized look which maybe unrelatable to some American men but has the Korean girls swooning over their metro-sexual appearance. Their culture has not only taken over Korea but has spilled over into American culture as well. The famous Youtuber, Megan who is mixed race (biracial mother, black father) has moved to Korea as an English teacher and has became quite famous. She was introduced to Korean dramas and food through a friend and has since learned Korean and appeared multiple times on a Korean dating show. Her success on her Youtube channel (ChoNunMigookSaram) has sprung from her bubbly personality, clever jokes and her already fair skin and racially ambiguous look. Due to, the fact that she is mixed race she is very marketable to Koreans because they value fair skin and often bleach, avoid sunlight or wear makeup to obtain a fair complexion. Her channel has been around for over three years and receives many American and Korean viewers. She has recorded her trips to very creative Korean restaurants, created her own music videos as well as displayed her updated wardrobe which is an reflection of Korean fashion. I have learned so much about Korean culture without ever going to Korea. For example, in one of her videos she spoke of her experiences with very blunt Koreans. According to her Korean culture is very obsessed with beauty and a thin body frame. Koreans will not hesitate to tell you if you need to put on makeup to enhance your looks or if the clothes in the store will be to small for you. She also spoke about the prevalence of plastic surgery even for teen girls. Procedures such as nose jobs and double eye-lid surgeries are extremely popular among many Korean actors and singers to the point that they look unrecognizable. Plastic surgery is not only important in the entertainment industry but for professional jobs because photos must accompany their resume. Megan, is not the only black American who is indulging in Korean culture, Whitneybae is another Youtuber finding some success in Korea. Unlike, Megan, Whitneybae does not fit into the Korean beauty standard of fair skin which makes her transition into Korean culture harder. Regardless it is refreshing to see black women breaking the mold and learning about other cultures. Malcolm X once said " The most disrespected person in America is the black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the black woman. The most neglected person in America is the black woman." Malcolm X said this decades ago but his words are still proven true today. The most recent example is the Spring Valley High School video, which has had a lot of black people furious about the way the teen in the video was treated. The officer went beyond what was needed for a high school situation. The teen took out her phone and was quickly informed that she was not permitted to have it out in class. As a consequence, she was asked to hand it to the teacher but she refused, which escalated to her being asked to leave. The administrator was summoned and tried to reason with the teen, yet she refused again. Then, Officer Fields came; putting her in the choke hold, flipping over her desk--while she was still in it and throwing her across the room like a rag doll. Of course, someone recorded this and the video went viral. The officer is on leave and so far has not lost his job. Ironically, a white male college student named Jared Dotson living in Knox County, Tennessee, was choked by an officer at a house party near the University of Tennessee and reported it and the cop was fired. So an older white man choking a young white man is deemed as excessive force; yet we have to analyze and ponder upon the morality of a grown white man choking, throwing and slamming a black girl? We later found out that her friend, Niya Kenny was arrested for "disturbing school," for being the only one to scream out "This is wrong."Therefore, we are not only victimized but are punished for speaking out against the harm being brought against us. We are expected to suffer in silence. We are also told to leave things in the past as if we are computers that can simply delete memories. Men and women alike rarely take the time to realize the consequences of telling a girl to move on or to forgive her victimizer. Last nights episode of Being Mary Jane did a perfect job at depicting the price of internalizing pain. The character Lisa, was always troubled and had problems with depression and was promiscuous because she was molested by her step-father. After finding out Lisa's mother did nothing and actually stayed with her husband. Lisa, was estranged from her parents for 15 years because of this and was so filled with pain she committed suicide. This is just a t.v. show but I have heard from countless black women that they were raped, abused, or molested and it affected their behaviors later in life, in terms of how they view their bodies and their sense of self worth. Sadly, many of them stayed silent and never reported these incidents. One of the things Mary Jane said is that we should start telling the truth. I will add in we should start taking action. The female black body is so vulnerable and unprotected it will take us as black people to protect it. We need to stop standing by while these transgressions occur, telling them just to "pray to Jesus" or "to leave it in the past". Most of all, we need to stop the blame game. Black men need to stand up against the white and black men who harm black females. Black women need to worry about their daughters and nieces instead of holding on to their husbands and boyfriends that have abused their female family members. It use to be a time that if anything happened to a white female, the men in her community stood up for her because she was put in such high regard. Black women need to be seen as the treasures of our community. Let's start to give a voice to the neglected and seek justice for the unprotected. Photo used under Creative Commons from Andrew Stawarz Sadly, all of these comments below I've either heard personally, was told these comments by black friends or witnessed someone saying these comments to another black person.
After researching many aspects of black culture I have been presented with the topic of misogyny in the black community. Many black women feel that black men mistreat black women, that they are self-hating men who lust after white women, they are abusers and overall "the cancer of society". I honestly cannot pretend that black men are these loving characters that put their women on a pedestal. I have seen countless black men belittle dark skin females just to make light skin females feel beautiful, or heard stories of black men beating or cheating on their girlfriends. As far as cheating goes I have been conditioned since I was a young girl to think that all black men are cheaters, willing to infect their girlfriends with HIV just to sleep around. I have seen black men dog out the prettiest, smartest and most driven black women all for the sake of being evil. Even in my own family I have never seen men who treat women with the respect they deserve only cheating, men who never accepted responsibility but rather distribute the blame on women and produce children without any intentions of being faithful. The sad thing is after they have destroyed any sense of hope in these black women they call these women "crazy" or "bitter". They make black women feel that they are inventing these feelings of mistreatment and neglect yet black women have to question if a black man will even date them if he is successful. I literally could go on and on about this subject because it causes me so much distress and bewilderment. Many African American woman feel that the answer is to date outside their race. I recently saw a post about a woman saying she saw many of her family and friends marrying white men but she wanted to wait for her black man. Many women thought this was stupid but I couldn't judge her. She has pride in who she is, a person of African descent and she wanted to share this same pride with a mate with the same mentality. Personally, I do not see white men as the second coming some of them are just as sneaky, abusive, dishonest and unfaithful as black men. I do see that many of them have a leg up in their careers and are more family oriented. Many black women feel that black men don't work, well I wouldn't say that. It's that some are not ambitious enough and many of those who are successful are arrogant they know they are some of the few black men making it in life and expect black women to put up with their baggage and foul treatment. Most black men, like black women have a complex due to negative portrayals of black people in society, dysfunctional homes with missing fathers and bitter single mothers who took their anger out on their children, or had a mother who over glorified them for being good in academics so they thought anything bad they did, didn't count. Then there are the color struck dark skin men who hate dark skin women who make up excuses for their self-hate by attaching negative traits to black or dark skin women by saying they are all ghetto, have children out of wedlock and are on welfare. Secretly, they love light skin, good hair and green or blue eyes and want their children to look as white as possible so they seek mixed or white women. There are also the weave haters who make weave seem like it's ghetto like white celebrities don't wear weave. Or the pro-black men who demonize weave wearers as self-hate instead of the obvious which is protective styling. When my hair is braided for 2 weeks or longer it grows I could never wear these braids out for longer than a week because my hair is thin and never stays neat longer than four days without it looking old and re-braiding it would defeat the purpose of it being a protective style. These men refuse to believe black women have trouble with breakage and say it's an execuse to try to look white which is not true because I wear afro wigs a lot because my hair tangles a lot when I leave it out and thin hair doesn't provide a good thick fro but rather see through mess. White men either don't care about black women's hair or they don't care enough to demonize us for wearing it. Even with all this I don't really want to date a white man and explain my hair to them nor be apart of their African or ghetto queen fetish. The white guys who liked me felt the need to mention their interest in rap music or that they loved my braids. I also look at many Youtubers in interracial relationships which ironically are natural hair Youtubers and some of their white husbands or boyfriends seem gay or unattractive not all but some. It comes off like it's settling on both parts the white man can't find his white female companion so he looks for a black woman because she will be happy to get any white man. This is not all the cases some are perfect interracial couples that seem like soulmates. I just have an issue with this promotion of interracial relationships by black people who buy into this white savior complex like we don't have enough division in our community. The early welfare system prohibited black men in the home, slavery broke up the black family so why are we promoting another tactic to divide black people? But black women are not making these issues up if your a black man be honest; How do you treat black women? How do your friends treat black women? What kind of fathers do you see? Are you married or faithful? Do you accept blame or play mind games like silent treatment? See I'm not trying to dog out black men or glorify white men. I want us black people to think about what we promote or how we treat each other. I can never say that I will never date a white man. Never say never right? I just refuse to put any man on a pedistol. I'm not waiting on any man and I'm not delusional and self-hating waiting on my white prince or thinking every black man will treat me like a queen. I'm confused I guess still trying to make sense of issues in the black community all while playing devils advocate and steering clear of romanticism. Usually, when the discussion of colorism comes up we often discuss the plight of dark skin women. We rarely speak about the plight of light skin women because after all being light skin is the standard of beauty for black women in the diaspora. Possessing fair skin has the ability to attract black men, make employers view you as more intelligent, and make you more marketable in the entertainment business. The topic we shy away from about being a light skin woman is that it has the ability to make dark skin girls and women hate you, not only hate you but try to attack you or ruin your face. Due to, the fact that black men tend to glorify light skin women as being beautiful, classy and overall the ideal woman and classify dark skin women as ugly and ghetto, tension has emerged within our race. My grandmother was light skin and she use to tell us stories about being chased home from school. She never said it was because she was light skin but now that I have started hearing more stories about dark skin girls attacking light skin girls I can't help but think this had something to do with it. My aunt who is light skin and mother who has type 3c/4a hair and a caramel complexion always had to defend themselves against jealous girls in school. Fighting was a necessity for them to survive. I believe that hatred towards light skin women seems to have been more prevalent in the 1950's-1970's because I usually hear these stories about being attacked by dark skin girls by older women. I'm a brown skin woman in my mid twenties with a similar complexion to Jennifer Hudson and have never heard anyone saying anything about my skin tone but I witnessed countless dark skin girls get teased and called "dirty", "burnt", "darkness", "midnight" and "black as heck". I am by no means saying it doesn't happen now but I will honestly say that the lighter skin and mixed girls were usually the popular girls and considered the most beautiful. I won't say no one was jealous of them but resorting to violence wasn't common. I noticed that there is a difference in the way light skin girls and dark skin girls are mistreated while light skin women or girls are teased or beaten up out of jealousy and insecurity, dark skin women are teased out of contempt and are made to feel inferior. Both sides can leave women with life long insecurities and paranoia of who will accept them. Many light skin women fear being confident because it makes them appear like they are gloating. They fear being called "stuck up" or that they "think their cute". I even saw a video on Youtube of a woman saying she was fired from her job because a darker skin employee that she managed, lied on her and said she had mistreated her employee because she was lighter skin and felt she was better. I know all brown skin and dark skin woman are not this evil and deranged but I wanted to write about the other side of the spectrum which is often tossed aside and deemed "light skin tears" like it was after the documentary Light Girls which I personally believed did a poor job depicting the severity of the situation. However, it did bring up this topic of people questioning predominately African American woman if they were really black which is crazy because there are light skin West Africans. It annoys me people think pure black means dark and light skin means mixed. We as black people need to overcome these superficial divisions and stop adhering to things implemented during slavery to divide us. We are of African descent and come in many shades and they are all beautiful. We cannot attach a personality to a skin tone and in doing so is foolish. No one chooses their skin tone and shouldn't have to tan or bleach to correct it. I hope one day we as black people can get passed all of this and focus on building a nation. Twitter has been growing crazy over the news that Star Wars VII will have two black lead characters. It originally started with a UK based twitter account who complained that"The new Star Wars movie barely has any whites in it". Soon after someone else tweeted in outrage against the diversity in the movie one of their tweets said that "white children deserve wholesome movies, not more PC anti-white diversity crap". A third person tweeted "Let's make #BoycottStarWarsVII trend" and suggested that the movie was more "anti-white propaganda". Here in the U.S. many started tweeting in outrage against the idea of boycotting with the hashtag BoycottStarWarsVII while some tweets were racist and containing comments about not paying child support and putting "rims on At-At". This just proves that many people saying that the race problem in the U.K. and U.S. is non-existent are delusional. Diversity to some whites is seen as threatening and part of some big agenda rather than representing the way the world is, diverse with different skin tones, hair textures rather than this white fantasy where one ignores all the diversity and deem it as "wholesome" or the norm of society. Why not add people of color to a movie about fictional characters? This reminds of the outrage against the newer Annie movie which had a black girl playing Annie, social media was up in arms against Annie no longer being white and resorted to calling the young black girl the "n-word" and "nappy headed". All because the girl didn't fit into the ideal utopia of whiteness. The strange thing about this is National Geographic predicts that there will be less pure white people and more mixed race people. Therefore, a movie full of people of European descent wouldn't even be accurate. Adding black people to a movie should not evoke so much hate and irrational feelings that we as black people are trying to take over. Non-black people also shouldn't believe that adding blacks to a movie makes it ghetto or tarnish the purity of a movie. While, I do not believe in false symbols of progression by adding more diversity I believe in diversifying the roles of black people in Hollywood especially in utopic or futuristic movies that shy away from the criminalization of black people such as roles as drug dealers and robbers or someone trying to make it out the hood. Depictions like Will Smith tend to play like his roles in I am Legend, and I, Robot chip away at the stereotypes and depict the universal feelings, characteristics and dilemmas of everyone such as; fear, vulnerability, love, cleverness and the internal conflict of wanting to be good and fighting the allure of being evil. Unlike, many depictions of black Americans that depict us as innately bad, ignorant and unskilled in things that require intellect and wisdom. People of color should be seen as diverse with the ability to break the mold. Little white children never feel limited by society because of their skin because they see their potential in all aspects of media it's time black children feel that way also. As black people we tend to perceive inclusion into white spaces as a victory and a symbol of progress. Some tend to think of being the first black person to get an award in sports or acting as a sign that humanity is getting closer to this colorblind utopia. Well, I personally have never felt that way I feel that by celebrating small, superficial victories we are being gullible and not looking at the real issues. We seem to be blinded by the symbolism of actions rather than accomplishing real progress.Some months back after we heard that Dylan Roof, opened fire on the church in South Carolina we blamed the confederate flag. After Bree was arrested for taking it down we rallied and protested after she was released we were relieved and when the flag came down we saw it as a victory that our country no longer upheld a flag that was the symbol of the Confederate Army that fought to keep blacks in slavery which makes it inherently racist and makes most black people leery of the white southerners who hang it outside their homes and businesses and look down upon the blacks who have one. And while the Confederate flag has been modified over hundreds of years I can still understand why many feel it is racist especially since the KKK tends to march with it. But ask yourself this, Did racism go away? Did police brutality stop? Did all the laws that are made specifically to harm the welfare of blacks suddenly vanish? No, so it was a false symbol of change without any real effect. The latest news that Viola Davis's won the Emmy Award for an outstanding actress in a drama series for her role in How to Get Away with Murder had everyone rejoicing at the fact that she was the first black woman to receive this award after about 65 white women had received one year after year. I do appreciate this because I think Viola is a great actress but again. What happened after that? A white woman went to Twitter trying to silence her speech that spoke about the lack of opportunity in Hollywood for black women by saying the Emmy's was not a place for that. Even with this small victory others around Viola didn't want to acknowledge problems in Hollywood such as colorism, stereotypical roles for black women like prostitutes, maids, ghetto queens or single mothers. An Emmy nor a flag gets to the root of the problem it changes nothing it actually allows some whites to silence you more by saying things like "if racism is so bad why do we have a black president?" People will ignorantly site the symbol without the reality that Obama receives the most death threats than any other president or that he is constantly called the n-word or depicted as a monkey. Let's shy away from being tricked and do things like change the structure of rap music which promotes colorism by showing mostly mixed women or depicting black women as promiscuous who allow men to call them the b-word. Why don't we boycott networks that perpetuate negative stereotypes? Why don't we support activist who do more than marching? Until we do nothing will change. We will have a wall full of symbols and still be in chains. The black hair care industry is one very important to Black Americans as well as people in the diaspora. Our hair is unique and has it's own individual textures and hydration needs. It is a staple in our households because without it we would experience hair breakage. Black owned hair companies have been the norm since the time of Madame C. J. Walker even up until the 1970's with products like Afro Sheen which not only marketed to African Americans but spoke about black pride and black unity. Now many of the brands that talk about Africa are not even black owned. They use marketing strategies like depicting pictures or words related "Africa" or use black models giving the illusion that it is black owned but is usually owned by a white male. Why is this problematic? When we relinquish our ownership we forego our power in society, our ability to speak out against social issues without censorship due to co-ownership by white owned companies, and our products become cheapened, filled with more chemicals and no longer good for our hair. Overall, it loses it's capability to cater to those of African descent while misrepresenting itself as a quality product. Despite these obvious consequences, black owned companies get into a financial bind or fold in hopes of reaching a global market but by doing so they are falling into the "white savior" mentality. This may well be the case, with the Shea Moisture brand. Sundial Brands, the manufacturer that owns Shea Moisture and Nubian Heritage has recently announced it was selling it's minority shares to Bain Capitol a private investment firm which Mitt Romney use to own but no longer does, but he still owns share's in the firm. Mitt Romney, is the last person whom most African Americans want to be profiting from the consumerism of blacks. He seems to be a borderline racist, unconcerned about the poor and just an overall greedy rich guy. So we allow racist politicians to get rich from our consumer needs all while calling us a race of lazy welfare dependents like most Republicans do. This is why selling out is so detrimental because those in power are rich they don't go out to find a job they create their own. But black people do not have their own, at least not at the magnitude we should have. Companies that reach out to black consumers should be black owned and create scholarships and programs for blacks after reaching success. Afterall, who will care about you as much as you will. Black people have little political power or even respect from others because they are so willing to sellout for a fat check. Shea Moisture not only sold some of their company but made a statement that basically said they want to branch out to non-black consumers and no longer cater to black consumers. This is an ridiculous statement due to the fact that this brand started because it wanted to create a product for black hair, became successful due to black female customers now it turns it's back on it's customers because it see's little value in catering to black people. As black people we only feel like we made it when their is a white man helping us or giving us money. These African Americans couldn't care less about their people because if they did they would care about the plight of inclusion. Shea Moisture made a statement saying they would not change it's ingredients but I feel they have lost their integrity. Many don't realize the importance of seeing a black owned business it says to other blacks "You can do it too". It dispels the myth of black failure and black dependency on whites to be successful. I remember watching an interview of the late Don Cornelius, talking about James Brown questioning him about the owner of Soultrain because he was in disbelief a black man could own something so renown and successful. That's how colonized our minds are. We see a company that shows us black people but we feel it is ultimately owned by a white man. This has to stop. We don't live in a colorblind world the firm that now owns shares in Shea Moisture knew what they were doing they know our 1.2 trilllion buying power they saw a change in the market due to the increase in natural hair lovers within the black community and they dove right in to exploit us and disrespect us by telling us we don't matter. We need to have more pride and start worrying about building a nation and not about stuffing our pockets. The marijuana debate has gone on for decades with some success in the last five years. It has become legalized in Colorado which has been in the news for making a lucrative business from selling marijuana. Weed smoking has been going on for decades but has been demonized as this extremely addictive drug that influences people to lose all inhibition and partake in risky activity. Lately, politicians and those in power are seeing the potential in legalizing marijuana some are even implementing the idea of putting it in a pill form. Well, although I do not like weed and neither have I done it in the past I hope this law passes. Due to the fact, black men have been serving prison sentences for selling and possessing weed. If it is legalized then it will minimize the number of black men in prison. Hopefully, if the law passes it will also cut down on racial profiling. Too often I see cops searching the cars of black people during routine traffic stops in hopes of finding weed. They will inconvenience and hold up black citizens based on a whim that there are drugs inside their car. And if these drugs are found these black people are taken to jail or ticketed resulting in a criminal record and subsequently almost no ability to find a job. In my opinion, marijuana is no different from alcohol which some argue is more addictive. I have heard of people spending more and more time in AA and struggling with alcohol addiction and suffering seizures from withdrawals due to, lack of drinking than I ever heard from smoking weed. I hear many conservative people try to compare smoking weed to smoking crack which is like comparing stealing a candy bar to robbing a bank. As a person who has stayed on a college campus I have seen that alcohol has the ability to influence one night stands, vandalism, fighting, drunken vomiting and drunk driving but it's sold at just about every store, drank at formal dinners and on family occasions. So why is weed demonized? Laws in America have a funny way of being race specific sometimes without ever stating it. Marijuana was banned because it was said to have caused black men to rape white women. So therefore, black men are propagandized as innate rapist and drug abusers who need to be heavily watched and searched for drugs to protect White America. Although, statistics show white men are more likely to have drugs on them when they are pulled over. So where do we go from here? I hope legalizing marijuana will prevent prison terms for African American males and those who are serving time should be released from prison and there criminal records erased. I want to live in a country where it's legal system is based on fairness not the color of one's skin.
I wrote about this on my other blog but after Zipporah Gene and Jouelzy the famous Youtuber and founder of The Smart Brown Girl brand, had a debate on BBC News I felt the need to write about the subject in more depth. Zipporah's original statement in her article titled "Black Americans Please Stop Appropriating African Culture " which went viral, stated that African Americans should not wear African clothes and depicted a picture of people at Afro-Punk as the main source of this cultural appropriation. She stated that the mixing of kinte cloth and Fulani nose piercings as ignoring it's true significance. She further stated that African American's have no knowledge about our own African culture and disrespect the religious and cultural significance by wearing it just for fashion. With statements like these it was no wonder African Americans took offense to this article. African Americans on Twitter bombarded Zipporah's Twitter page giving her a piece of their mind. While some African's agreed with her stance others did not. This debate on social media caught the eye of Jouelzy and inspired her to voice her opinions on her blog and her Youtube channel. Jouelzy stated that Zipporah had little knowledge of America because many people at New York Afro-Punk were of African and Afro-Caribbean descent.
This situation obviously was not finished because they recently did an interview on Focus On Africa to further discuss the issue. Zipporah, chose to clear the air by saying her article wasn't demanding that African Americans should stop wearing African clothes because she is not in authority to do so. She went on to say that she feels that people see Africa as a country and wear these clothes as a form of respect but in doing so are acting out of ignorance. Jouelzy, stated that there were not many African American's wearing these clothes and many who wear this attire are in fact Africans. Zipporah, said that "If you want to be African it's more than a 75 dollar to 200 dollar festival". She went on to say that Black American culture heavily influences the entire world and even in Bangkok African fashion has become fashionable. In rebuttal, Jouelzy said it depends on if a black celebrity wears African clothes as to whether or not the rest of the world wants to wear it. Jouelzy, said that Nigerian Americans are very popular all over the world and their culture would naturally be noted. The interview was cut short after the interviwer introduced the idea that her article created an African vs. African American atmosphere and Jouelzy stated that Zipporah's article did leave her with this feeling but after Zipporah commented on her Youtube she understood her perspective. I personally loved that the two of them were engaging and debating in a very sophisticated manner. But I still feel that Zipporah was missing the point. Her statement about us wanting to be African entails more than going to a festival showed how she thinks of African Americans. We are of African descent period, it's not up for debate our ancestors left West Africa speaking the same languages as her and other West Africans. We are not Chinese or White or Mexican trying to wearing African clothes and jewelry, we are people of African lineage representing the many places of West Africa. Black Americans come from Africa we still demonstrate some African traditions such as hair braiding, call and response singing and dancing with our hips. I think if she stopped thinking of us as a different entity that has nothing to do with her than she wouldn't care if it influenced other race's to wear this attire. And whether she likes it or not African designers are making African fashion very popular, they are cutting traditional fabrics and creating modernized, peplum dresses, jump suits, tub skirts, suits and blazers and they are catching the eye of everyone including some Afro-Colombians. I do understand her concern about Black Americans not understanding the cultural significance but she seemed to stereotype all Black Americans as being ignorant of Africa which is not true. Most African Americans that take on these Afro-centric looks are very informed about the diversity of Africa and about the importance of their attire. Africans and African Americans need to rid ourselves of this divisive mindset. Like Malcolm said "I am an African living in America". Black Americans are still left with this feeling of we don't belong in America . Our presence is either seen as a threat or a source for entertainment. In lieu of our social economic state as a whole many of us are left searching for how things were before and this leads us back to our history in Africa and what really happened opposed to the blatant omission of history we are presented with in high school. This leads us to having pride which some do not want us to have. Therefore, it disappoints me Zipporah is fighting this reawakening of the black experience and the search of the missing links. She doesn't realize we all need to decolonize our minds and work together and stop fighting amongst each other. |
AuthorMy name is Kiara and writing is the way I express myself. Archives
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