Black “Respectability” Is a Myth
In the words of one of my favorite social media mavens, Luvvie Ajayi, WHO DID THIS?
Man, listen.
Let me list the top 8 questions and/or issues I have with this picture.
1. All black women in 1968 were not protesting at the Black People’s Rights rally or whatever that is. Black Panther rally, I presume, with the fists in the air and proud Afros.
2. All good Negresses in 2014 aren’t twerking and dancing like strippers everywhere.
3. Does this picture mean that women in 1968 didn’t dance provocatively? Because they did. Look at the HBO movie “Miss Evers’ Boys” and note the dance that Eunice does while at a jook joint. She was almost giving the guy a lap dance. I have a particular older relative who did the same dance at jook joints when she was much younger than her current almost-100 years.
4. When will we stop the lie that black people were just more respectable back then? Maybe they were publicly, depending on where they lived, but black people have not always been on the same page with “respectability” just so that we uplift ourselves and white people will like us more…or whatever.
5. What’s wrong with twerking both for yourself and for Civil Rights?
6. Why are they twerking at a gate? I need context for this picture.
7. Those Afros are amazing. I wish I could grow one.
8. Is the additional commentary on the 2014 women that they have weaves and the women in 1968 did not? That’s because white women were doing extensions and weaves back then. Know your hair-hat history.
What about y’all? Do you have questions or comments about the differences between the two groups of women? Are we worse off now or about the same but we see it more since videos and pictures are more instant now thanks to the Internet? Were some of your parents conceived thanks to a 1968 version of dropping it low and picking it up slow? Let me know in the comments below.
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Category: Politics
