Becky With the Good Hair Was My Auntie: A Delayed Reaction to Iggy Azalea's Comments

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"
​Was My Auntie

From left to right: My aunt becky and my mom at 3 mos.

To Put things into perspective, when I first heard the, now heavily criticized, line come out of Beyonce’s mouth, I thought of my own Aunt Becky--Becky was short for Rebecca-Ursula (Rest IN Peace). She was light-skinned mixed woman with a red afro; and I’m almost certain she was referred to as “Becky with the good hair” in her glory days outside of her nickname, “Big Red,” referencing her hair and lighter skin.  I was cool with Beyonce's line, though, because it spoke to colorism in the Black community and how, a lot of times, we judge each other based on hair texture, skin tone, and even body type, with a european standard (i.e. fairer and smaller is better).

With one phrase, Beyonce made a space for all of us little Black girls and all of our names. She conveyed the fear my mom, and others, Probably have when and assumed a normal name would ensure my job status. simultaneously, she conveyed the stories of other women, like her own mother, who, in spite of that Valid fear within the Black community, decided to embrace their Blackness and named their daughters after Queens, Goddesses, and Royalty, or the women who came before them. 

And with one complaint--one simple-ass accusation--Iggy Azalea diminished the importance of that truth. the truth that lets us know Uniqua is a beautiful name, just like Allison, just like Rebecca, just like Solange, just like Beyonce.  I’m pretty sure, too, that all the names I just listed could belong to anyone on this planet; black, white, brown, whatever. 

To conclude, not one single race owns the rights to a name or set of names. We all have different names that tell different stories of our multi-faceted backgrounds, families, and experiences. You can’t just simply columbus that shit.


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