Hillary Clinton laughs at her own jokes at 2016 Black Girls Rock! Awards
by Mike Orie of http://ift.tt/1QXC23X
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But before I got too deep into my thoughts, I wanted to know who invited Hillary Rodham Clinton and why she thought her staff-written speech was gonna change my vote. It felt like that moment in high school when I won Homecoming King (well I would’ve won but they forgot to put me on the ballot) and that girl that wasn’t sweating me before all of a sudden wanted my number. I wanted to know why now. I was dope last week, and the week before when I tried to make eye contact but you kept walking. That’s what Hillary’s appearance felt like. Like that girl who just discovered I was dope showing up at my locker in between second period right before my midterm. It just wasn’t a good time. Black girls were dope 10 years ago, when you were first reelected to the New York state senate in 2006. But you weren’t checking for them then. I was reminded once again of why I couldn’t trust her, and in the same thought, the 1.2 trillion dollar AA buying power. I thought about how the one night a year that was solely dedicated to Black women, Hillary had to stab them in the back with her sharp boxer braids. Why did she have boxer braids in the first place, and why did she think cornrows were gonna make me her first Black friend? #QuestionsThatStillNeedAnswers
At the same time this was being aired, Kerry Washington was facing a similar battle from the opposite end of the spectrum. Well, kind of, because BET isn’t Black owned anymore although some people still think it is. She posted this heartfelt message on Instagram about her Adweek cover being photo shopped. Somebody upped the exposure so much on the photo that I didn’t even recognize her at first. I thought back to those days I used to go to the club in St. Louis. Right before I got in, there was this sign that said “no sneakers, no t-shirts, no fitted caps, no graphic tees,” and at the very bottom, scratched out, metaphorically “no Black people.” I was thinking, who still wears graphics tees anyway? It was like they re-watched Nelly’s “Country Grammar” video 10 years later and made a dress code policy based off of it. That’s what that Adweek cover felt like. As if they told me, we still want your money, we just don’t want you, so go change and come back. And when you get here, we won’t play more than two hip hop songs in a row, because we don’t want you to have too much fun. We just want your money. And after they got your money, it was like walking up to the DJ, and the DJ saying that he was gonna take your request, but your song never got played. In fact, instead of playing it, as soon as you walked away, he deleted it from his computer. “There are a few things we discussed in the interview that were left out. Things that are important to me (like: the importance of strong professional support and my awesome professional team),” Kerry Washington explained in her Instagram post. Somebody on the editorial team might’ve said, “This part just wasn’t that interesting.” But the Blacktivist in me wonders if somebody really said, “We don’t need them figuring out how to duplicate success stories, we just need to increase our African American viewership by 10%.” Things like that usually happen on a bad hair day though. You overanalyze everything, and when you think the wind messed up your edges, they were actually still Snapchat ready no filter.
I thought to myself, this might be the average day in the life of a Black woman. But somehow y’all still manage to make it through without me noticing. (I wanted to use the word slay, but I don’t really like that word.) If this day was any reflection of what could’ve been a bad hair day, fixed between your lunch break and multiple trips to the bathroom in between meetings, then I’m definitely in awe. I’m voting that we move the annual Black Girls Rock! Awards to a bi-monthly celebration, a monthly day party or a once a week gathering on Taco Tuesdays. Because for all that you go through, they still don’t celebrate you enough. So when I woke up this morning and my hair was still tapered perfectly after I brushed it for a few seconds, I was reminded of how good I had it. Black women, I don’t know how you do it, but even on your worst days, you always find a way to keep your edges in tact. And that's something we should celebrate everyday. Hashtag, Black Edges Matter!
At the same time this was being aired, Kerry Washington was facing a similar battle from the opposite end of the spectrum. Well, kind of, because BET isn’t Black owned anymore although some people still think it is. She posted this heartfelt message on Instagram about her Adweek cover being photo shopped. Somebody upped the exposure so much on the photo that I didn’t even recognize her at first. I thought back to those days I used to go to the club in St. Louis. Right before I got in, there was this sign that said “no sneakers, no t-shirts, no fitted caps, no graphic tees,” and at the very bottom, scratched out, metaphorically “no Black people.” I was thinking, who still wears graphics tees anyway? It was like they re-watched Nelly’s “Country Grammar” video 10 years later and made a dress code policy based off of it. That’s what that Adweek cover felt like. As if they told me, we still want your money, we just don’t want you, so go change and come back. And when you get here, we won’t play more than two hip hop songs in a row, because we don’t want you to have too much fun. We just want your money. And after they got your money, it was like walking up to the DJ, and the DJ saying that he was gonna take your request, but your song never got played. In fact, instead of playing it, as soon as you walked away, he deleted it from his computer. “There are a few things we discussed in the interview that were left out. Things that are important to me (like: the importance of strong professional support and my awesome professional team),” Kerry Washington explained in her Instagram post. Somebody on the editorial team might’ve said, “This part just wasn’t that interesting.” But the Blacktivist in me wonders if somebody really said, “We don’t need them figuring out how to duplicate success stories, we just need to increase our African American viewership by 10%.” Things like that usually happen on a bad hair day though. You overanalyze everything, and when you think the wind messed up your edges, they were actually still Snapchat ready no filter.
I thought to myself, this might be the average day in the life of a Black woman. But somehow y’all still manage to make it through without me noticing. (I wanted to use the word slay, but I don’t really like that word.) If this day was any reflection of what could’ve been a bad hair day, fixed between your lunch break and multiple trips to the bathroom in between meetings, then I’m definitely in awe. I’m voting that we move the annual Black Girls Rock! Awards to a bi-monthly celebration, a monthly day party or a once a week gathering on Taco Tuesdays. Because for all that you go through, they still don’t celebrate you enough. So when I woke up this morning and my hair was still tapered perfectly after I brushed it for a few seconds, I was reminded of how good I had it. Black women, I don’t know how you do it, but even on your worst days, you always find a way to keep your edges in tact. And that's something we should celebrate everyday. Hashtag, Black Edges Matter!
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Mike "Orie" Mosley is a freelance writer/photographer and cultural advocate from St. Louis. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Arts, Entertainment & Media Management from Columbia College Chicago and a Masters in Higher Education Administration from LSU. He is also the co-founder of music and culture website http://ift.tt/1QXC23X. In his spare time, he's probably listening to hip hop & neo soul music, hitting up brunch or caught up in deep conversations about Black music. You can follow him on Twitter @mike_orie or on Instagram @mikeorie
from Curly Nikki | Natural Hair Care http://ift.tt/1SfBYbQ
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