The View co-host Whoopi Goldberg pulled a Raven-Symone. She boldly stated:
"You know what this is my country. My mother, my grandmother, my great-grand folks, we busted a## to be here. I'm sorry. I'm an American not an African-American, I'm not a chick American, I'm an American!" She said this after one of her co-host Joy Behar, made a joke about a large amount of people leaving America if Trump gets elected into office. But I feel that no black person should declare that they are just Americans sans the African hyphen. Wait let me explain. Yes, I'm an American, but I'm also black. Being black in America can never be a colorblind situation. I understand what Whoopi Golberg was saying that she shouldn't have to leave America because her family has been here for a long time and endured so much to be here and deserves the same respect of any other American but we don't get the same respect. There is nothing more obvious than being a black person. The whole world sees us as different. We cannot go into a store, a bank or a job interview without our blackness being seen. Or people deciding if we are one of the good blacks. Let's be honest did all of the police who murdered unarmed black men see an American? Did the man who killed a black youth over loud music see an American? No, they saw black people. They don't care how many times we call ourselves American they will still be assigning stereotypes of fried chicken, R&B, rap and over-aggressive behavior. I once sat at a lunch table and a white girl heard another white girl say "She be" and then she replied: "I would expect that from Kiara but not from you" Did this woman see her equal? Was it a table full of people the same as her? Saying that your American is like saying your colorblind. You're ignoring the obvious. Do you hear Chinese people saying, "I'm not Chinese I'm American" No. It's called pride. I don't want to not see myself nor deny that my ancestors came from Africa. If a black American traveled to Italy or Spain they would be mistaken for African. Black people are practicing self-hate when they preach this I'm American stuff. Let's look at American history. Our ancestors came as Africans, were prohibited from practicing their religion or speaking their native tongue and the next generation were taught to look down on Africans and told that they were cannibals. The following generations wanted to fit into American (white) society so bad. They did everything to become American. They joined wars and faced racism in the military. They protested to be near white people in school and in the workplace, which resulted into them being hung or put in jail. Now, we have a half-Kenyan president and he has never received the respect he deserved because he is half-black. So Whoopi and Raven can keep saying they are American until they are blue in the face but the rest of the world says otherwise. Sorry, I know my history and won't allow anyone to trick me into not wanting to be seen for what I am. The problem isn't what we are called but rather how we are treated. 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. 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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