Although this post comes a little late in the Lemonade commentary battle, this isn't a Lemonade graduate student interest letter--although it almost was. This post, also, isn't a anti-white or anti-Iggy essay. I don't really care how any particular celebrity does since they don't ensure my survival on this planet. I just thought I'd share my thoughts on Iggy's ignorant comments regarding the phrase "Becky With The Good Hair" and My delayed response to that ignorance. A Delayed Reaction to Iggy's on "Becky With the Good Hair"Columbusing--from Kim K cash cropping our cornrows to Miley Cyrus’ twerk team--is something that's been going on for a long time. Throughout history, Black culture has shaped the way the world advances culturally, to the point where practically everything we do is commercialized and sold for profit, or columbused in layman's terms. When Beyonce released Lemonade, though, I assumed it meant (an extended break) death to columbusing, particularly with African American women and our aesthetic. I thought, “Yes! Black women are untouchable now! We can be loved by the public and be ourselves! Thank you Beyonce! They can’t touch us’” Next thing you know, Iggy Azalea claimed “Becky with the good hair” was a racial slur generalizing white women, and all my hope was shattered. I couldn’t believe it. Iggy Azalea, the poster child of columbusing, had the nerve to make this kind of accusation. Ignoring the fact that the phrase “good hair” is indicative of the woman-in-question’s ethnicity--WE WOULDN’T SAY BECKY WITH THE GOOD HAIR IF SHE WERE WHITE, SHE WOULD JUST BE BECKY--she not only called Beyonce a racist. She assumed only white women were allowed to have “those kinds of names.” Just typing the phrase “those kinds of names” makes my head hurt because I know Black women with all sort of names. "Becky With the Good Hair" |
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