And we aren’t saying please. Actually, we’re demanding it. Give us our hair back. Our nails. Our slang. Our bodies. Why do you want it if we get ridiculed for it? By “it” I mean our culture, and I know it’s understood who “we” and “you” are.
A professor said to my class “black women have begun to imitate white women who imitate black women,” and I’ve really been thinking about this. I mean, it’s true. For some at least. Especially the “Instagram baddies” and EVERYBODY associated with anything involving the Kardashian name. Like, okay, being black is cool, just make sure you’re black with white skin.
For example, this picture of Rihanna if she was white?
BYE.
The Instagram videos of white girls curling their hair with straws and sponges just to create an afro look? No ma’am. All you did was make it frizzy, it will never be an afro. Your hair will not grow with a 3 or 4 curl pattern, simply because you aren’t black, sorry not sorry. Don’t force it sis.
The idea that black women haven’t been cornrowing since the beginning of time? Like, come on now I was only born in 1998 and I’ve been getting them since 2000. My mom had them. My grandmother had them.
I couldn’t believe society thought the Kardashians came out with “the brand new boxer braids.”
Don’t even get me started on the Bantu knots. Again, don’t force it.
You tried it.
The idea that black women are bald headed if they wear a weave (when in reality, shrinkage is just real), but white women wear weave ALL THE TIME and no one speaks of it. Nah fam.
The idea that long nails on a black hand (something I’ve seen firsthand in my family) is ghetto, but on a white hand it’s the bee’s knees?
Nah fam.
The idea that on a black woman, big lips get you teased and ridiculed, but when a white girl comes out with makeup and gets the world to try using lip plumping tools and lip fillers to achieve the look that was copied from black women, big lips are poppin’? Nah fam.
The idea that black women need to tone down their curves and dress to minimize them, but Kylie Jenner gets a “Yasssss Queennnnnnn” when she flaunts her Barbie-like shape? Nah fam.
“Cash me ousside. How bow dah.” Who do you think she was trying to imitate? A stereotypical black woman is who I think. And that is not how I want to be represented. But in reality, that’s how they all see us. So now we must ask ourselves how we can change that.
This world is filled with beautiful, genuine, natural black women and we have the ability to change the world’s view about us and to create the image we want the world to see. Do you really want Kylie Jenner advertising OUR black features? Do you want stereotypes blasted all over the internet? The best thing we can do is take all the negative things and replace them with positives. That twerking video? Replace it with you walking across the graduation stage. That picture with your middle finger up? Replace it with a picture of you doing something for the community. That tweet cursing somebody out? Replace it with a compliment to a fellow black queen. The media will take the negatives and run with them, so we have to make sure they can’t find those negatives. I’m not saying we have to change ourselves because there’s nothing to change. We’re all beautiful black women, but to begin, we need to embrace our culture and flaunt it as our own before it’s stolen for good.
To have my culture loved on a race completely opposite of mine? It’s a no from me dog.