by Tyson Amir
Johnetta became the name that I chose to represent the stories of many of the women I've met over the past few years. Black people are creative in many areas of their lives, especially when it comes to naming their children. I met a Johnetta before, and she definitely left an impression upon me. I didn't want to speak about her specifically, so I made Johnetta a symbolic figure representing the women I was holding a conversation with. The most important thing I wanted her to know was that what I was attempting to say came from a place of love. The message in the poem was crafted free of condemnation and judgment. I wanted to speak openly and honestly about what the world has done to us both, and how we need each other to survive. That last point is essential because I strongly believe you cannot confront black suffering and talk black liberation but ignore the plight of the black woman. This is one of the biggest problems I have with hip-hop culture. At times the narrative of hip-hop speaks to black suffering and empowerment while one of its consistent themes has been bashing the figure of the black woman.
I love hip-hop, but I'm critical of it because of its industry practices toward women. The world of hip-hop, like other genres of music, is a male dominated and heavily unbalanced masculine culture that often demeans and denigrates the woman. She has been commodified in many ways and is primarily exploited as a mindless, soulless physical being. She is often portrayed as a Jezebel figure, a temptress, just a body with curves and orifices for men to sexually conquer. Male dominated hip-hop has done an exemplary job of presenting women as broken one-dimensional figures. I hate that about hip-hop, but hip-hop is a reflection of the greater hyper-masculine culture of America, which has done that to women in all areas of social interaction.
The black woman inside and outside of hip-hop has been through an exhausting experience. She has been forced into a world where her very existence is an affront to her self-worth. If we want to examine some simple hard facts, black women lead all women in labor force participation rates. This means they work more than any other group of women in America. Conversely, they are the most likely to be paid minimum wage, making them prime candidates to be amongst the working poor. Black women are the most likely to die from breast cancer and not due to any biological factor, but due to the "lengthy delays in receiving follow up care and treatment." The medical industry seems to not prioritize black women's health like other groups. Black girls are six times more likely to be suspended from school than their white counterparts, and four times more likely to attend schools with inadequate resources. The most-telling reality of the devaluation of the black woman is that nobody "is more likely to be murdered in America today than a black woman. No woman is more likely to be raped than a black woman. And no woman is more likely to be beaten, either by a stranger or by someone she loves and trusts than a black woman." These stats are from the report Black Women in the United States, 2014, developed by the Black Women’s Roundtable. What this states emphatically is that the black woman is under attack in every area of her life. Even in the horrific categories of death and rape, she can't find equality. While she is among the living, the discrimination is so deep that it even affects the way that she looks at herself because every standard of beauty is contrary to what she is.
Dr. Cornel West spoke of this very issue in his famous text, Race Matters.
"The dominant myth of Black female sexual prowess constitutes black women as desirable sexual partners—yet the central role of the ideology of white female beauty attenuates the expected conclusion. Instead of black women being the most sought after "objects of sexual pleasure," as in the case of black men, white women tend to occupy this "upgraded," that is, degraded, position primarily because white beauty plays a role in sexual desirability for women in racist patriarchal America." He goes on to say, "This means that black women are subject to more multilayered bombardments of racist assaults than black men, in addition to the sexist assaults they receive from black men.”
I'll take a brief moment to discuss the issue of beauty to show one of the many categories that victimizes the black woman in American society. I want to preface this portion of the conversation with a few disclaimers. I am speaking to the stereotypes and myths that pertain to "beauty" in the Western world. I'll be speaking about different aspects of the "beauty" myth for the next few pages, but the greater conversation of this section is not just about women and "beauty." I am a man speaking about "beauty," which has been largely constructed by the privileged white racist Anglo-Saxon Protestant sexual appetite. In speaking about beauty, I am not attempting to perpetuate the myths and stereotypes of "beauty," but it is important to point out how even in the fabricated realm of "beauty," black women are demeaned for what they possess naturally.
As Dr. Cornell West mentioned, a common stereotype granted to black men and black women is that they have incredible sexual prowess. The black man is stereotyped as having the largest and most fulfilling penis of all men and being able to satisfy his partner sexually like no other man. Black women too are granted that same sexual prowess stereotype. According to the stereotype, the black woman's body has a magic that no other woman can match. These stereotypes contributed to certain cultural artifacts like the common phrase, "Once you go black you never go back." That indicates the superiority of the sexual experience with a black partner and how it will force conversion upon contact, leaving the converted to seek worship only at mahogany temples.
These sexual stereotypes are applied to black men and women, but the difference in their application is that the black man is not subjected to the same "beauty" standard/check as the black woman. The black man is granted the stereotype of having the largest and most-fulfilling sexual organ, along with being the more physically superior man. All this makes him the most desirable sexual partner. This stereotype of the black man is not counteracted by a white male standard of "beauty." Oddly, this stereotype allows for the black man to be fetishized/aesthetically appreciated for his natural gifts. However, the black woman does not share this same strange experience.
The black woman is viewed as having sexual power like no other, but Western society possesses a failsafe to strip her of that power, and that is the definition of beauty. The Western standard of female beauty is based on the archetype of the white woman. The stereotype of the black woman's sexual ability is paired with the stereotype of her being the farthest from the "norm" of beauty. Black women are deemed ugly because of the color of their skin and features that are readily associated with the black body, while white women are deemed beautiful due to the whiteness of their skin and their physical features.
We already examined dictionary "definitions" of white and black in an earlier chapter. White is defined as pure and beautiful, while black is defined as dirty, evil, and ugly. Thus, a white woman is already defined as 'beautiful," and by those very same definitions a black woman is said to be dirty and ugly. All of this creates a context where what the black woman offers in a physical sense is debased. Again, this conversation is not limiting women, specifically black women, to being solely physical creatures. However, these definitions and stereotypes are a very real part of the dominant narrative in our society, and they tell the black woman her sexual energy and body is something special, but it would be more aesthetically pleasing if her natural gifts were not on her black body.
This lends one to appropriating what makes the black woman so sexually desirable but applying those things to a white context. The white woman is the standard of beauty in Western societies and her current stereotypical phenotype is that of the Barbie doll. White, tall, slim, big chest, no butt, skinny waist, thin lips, odd geometrically shaped hips, and of course blonde hair with blue eyes. That definition is now evolving to include thick lips, round hips, booty, and tanned skin. These are traits more readily associated with black women and other women of color. Consequently, the white media loses its collective mind when a "white woman" culturally appropriates these black features and displays them for the white world to marvel at.
The
problem with this is that the black woman and her features have been historically made fun of and outright attacked in western society for centuries. Sarah “Saartjie” Baartman (1789-1815) was a woman from the Khoikhoi people of South Africa. She was enslaved in Cape Town, South Africa, and eventually ended up in Britain where she was made into a zoo attraction. The reason for her being made a zoo attraction was the size of her butt. She was on display for four years in Britain and then was eventually sent to France for a few more years of circus sideshow exhibits. Baartman was eventually discarded by her handlers and died a lonely death around the age of twenty-five. Even after death, her body continued to be displayed as her dissected remains were viewable at the Musée de l’Homme (Museum of Man) in Paris for the next 150 years. Her remains were not returned to her homeland of South Africa until 2002. There are so many tragedies in her story, but what is clear is that Baartman's beautiful natural physique was completely demeaned by Western society. They looked upon her and didn't see beauty; they saw her as a freak. She was stripped of her humanity by white society and turned into something to be pointed and laughed at. A thing to be snickered at and studied to prove pseudo-scientific theories of white superiority.
The late nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the Western world saw the emergence of Black Sambo caricatures that always depicted both black males and females with exaggerated physical features. Their skin was jet black, lips were big and red, hair was nappy, and at times for women their breasts and butts were exaggerated to make them look even more foolish. This was replicated in blackface actors and actresses who appeared on stage, television, and film throughout the twentieth century. Almost every portrayal of the black woman in popular culture was unflattering and highly offensive. Her caricature was that of an ugly buffoon. She was never celebrated in her society for anything she possessed naturally.
We still see instances of this in our culture today. Our beautiful strong black champion Serena Williams is constantly insulted by the media because of how they perceive her body. She is often called manly, and some of her tennis colleagues have dressed up in an attempt to insult her by making their butts and breasts larger to make fun of Williams's physical attributes. There have been "fans" who attended her matches in blackface with exaggerated black features. In 2015, much was made of the fact that Williams is the undisputed champion of women's tennis, but Maria Sharapova, who has been defeated by Serena some eighteen times in a row with performance enhancers and all, takes home more endorsement money every year than Williams. Western society claims Sharapova is more marketable, i.e. she fits the Western standard of "beauty."
Serena just might be the greatest tennis player in women's tennis history, and a case could be made for the greatest woman athlete of all time. If you compare her with a black man dominating his sport the way she does hers, that man would not be second to anybody in endorsement dollars, white or black. Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Tiger Woods are black men who have dominated their sports and are compensated handsomely for their dominance. I say this is due to the expectation of physical greatness from black men and no check on that stereotype. Black women can be great physically, but the check is their physical greatness doesn't make them beautiful so they are devalued. Thus, a less-talented and less-accomplished white woman can reap more economic benefit off the court because her ability doesn't really matter; her win is due to the fact that white society claims her as white and "beautiful."
White Appropriation of the Stereotypical Black Phenotype and Style
What happens when white women appropriate from black women? There are plenty of examples to choose from, but the most famous at the moment is Kim Kardashian, whose claim to fame is having a butt like a black woman and sleeping with and then marrying "famous" black men. Her fame is not based on any real tangible skill or talent, but she has capitalized on her fame and used her business acumen to generate a very successful career for herself and her family. And it all began from appropriating a phenotypical trait that many black women possess naturally and packaging it in a white body and marketing it to a white audience.
Kardashian, who ethnically is Armenian and western European, as well as many other so-called "beautiful" white/nonwhite celebrity/noncelebrity girls and women, are more and more enhancing the size of their lips, hips and butts, and bronzing their skin. Some are also found replicating black hairstyles and mannerisms all to mimic the naturally occurring phenotypic and cultural traits of black women. This is cultural appropriation at a very high level, and the inequity inherent in the appropriation is that these traits are now being celebrated on white bodies but have been historically lampooned on black bodies.
In 2014, Jennifer Lopez and Iggy Azalea made an entire song about having big butts and curves, entitled "Booty." Disclaimer: Black women do not have a monopoly on curvaceous figures, but the curves of the black woman have almost always been demeaned in Western society. I watched the video twice, once out of curiosity and a second time for research purposes. The word booty is a slang term from black culture because the curves of the black woman have been celebrated in black culture since time immemorial, while those same curves had been devalued by mainstream white society as marks of ugliness until recently when in the possession of white bodies. Like anything of importance to a people, it will be supported by multiple words for that thing. Black men in particular have had deep love for the curves of their black counterparts and have created numerous words to describe the curvaceous posterior of the black woman.
J.Lo, a very fair skinned Puerto Rican woman who first earned national attention as a dancer on the black comedy show In Living Color, and Iggy Azalea, a super-white skinned Australian girl whose claim to fame is doing a bad white interpretation of a stereotypical southern female black rapper, both danced around on stage in video singing about their booties. Iggy was of course using her blackface-style of performance as they twerked like black girls and mimicked other black styles for a white audience to consume. J.Lo and Iggy were praised for being strong women who were unapologetic about their figures.
A Billboard article was published shortly after the release of the video to describe the greatness of what they captured visually. A few points from the article, Billboard claimed, J.Lo and Iggy together represent a glorious celebration of all things woman and booty. The article highlighted their confidence, power, and beauty, as well as their ability to see beauty in what another woman possesses. Then Billboard showed its evil white supremacist true colors by taking a swipe at Nicki Minaj who had nothing to do with the song or video. The article boldly proclaimed J.Lo and Iggy's booty tribute made Nicki's video Anaconda look like child's play. They actually had the audacity to take a shot at her. Apparently Billboard didn't learn the lesson of J.Lo and Azalea who could appreciate the beauty of another woman because they couldn't write the article without kicking dirt on a black woman, Nicki Minaj, essentially attempting to cancel out her presence in order to elevate the appropriation of these white women. They demonstrate the very essence of what I'm attempting to illustrate. The white woman who appropriates culture and physical traits is praised, but the black woman is belittled. The white women are extolled for exhibiting women's power; meanwhile, the beautiful black-skinned women, who J.Lo and Iggy are trying hard to be like, are told daily that their bodies and skin color do not make them beautiful and that white women make it look better.
Although I spent several sections detailing the beauty myths that affect black women, it is important to note that black women's value is not based on how men or the outside world perceive them. They are not merely physical beings. Black women are the hearts, minds, souls, and creative spirits who have driven America forward. The beauty myths are important to highlight and dispel because they are so insidious and attempt to smother the greatness of black girls and black women. All of that needed to be discussed, as well as how black men at times have served as oppressors to black women throughout their term here in America, to create the context for this piece.
/> The conversation of the black woman is always linked with that of the black man because of the old adage, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Black women and men face racism in America for the same reason, the blackness of their skin. We are bound together in our struggle for survival. In that struggle, the black man as your partner in struggle was unable to do his part in watching your back as you tried to watch his. Slavery, Jim Crow, segregation, modern day policing, and the Prison Industrial Complex have all driven a wedge between the patriarch and matriarch of the black family. The lines in the poem that carry the most visceral pain for me are:
the government has historically made us into outlaws.
See, in slavery days the slave master would make us watch
as he forcefully deflowered y'all,
then crept to your quarters at night making them house calls.
And sadly, your king, meaning me
was without claws
because without cause
he could hang me by my neck
from a tree with a string
until my heart paused.
Pause!
The foundation of the American society was established on the broken bodies, families, and homes of black people. A black man and woman who started a family during slavery times had no protections against the rape, murder, and theft of their bodies or their children's bodies. Imagine being a husband or wife, and you can't legally protect your spouse from being raped by the "slave master," and yes, black men were raped too. Imagine being a father or mother and you can't protect your children from being sold off to another plantation by the "slave master." The level of trauma in those all-too-common experiences for blacks under slavery is incalculable. As a result of that trauma, pain, and hurt, how do those partners see each other as partners? My family has lived through this traumatic experience. On my father's side, my great-great-great-grandfather Bartlett Flemister had to watch his wife, my great-great-great-grandmother Rowena Beckoms, and their first born, my great-great-grandfather Charles Flemister, be sold off from a plantation in Georgia to Alabama. My family lived through this; I carry that history in my blood.
