Sis, Speak for Yourself

It’s the self deprecation for me. Recently comedian and entrepreneur B Simone, posted a video of her boosting up songstress and dancer Danileigh. One of Simone’s best bits, is thirsting over rapper DaBaby and Danileigh is dating (& I say that loosely) said rapper. In the clip seen above, Simone hypes Dani up calling her beautiful, sexy, spicy, and pretty much every stereotype rooted in misogynoir thinkable. I’m a big girl, I can take a joke, but what bothers me about this is how she degraded herself and boosted up another woman. What makes it worse is she elevated another race over her own, further driving the conception that Black women are second-best stepping-stools. This is only entertainment, but something about her comments seemed steeped in self-esteem trauma, and that’s fine. We all got issues, but sis…speak for yourself!

Please be careful about the image you perpetuate of Black women. We have been used, abused, and masculinized in the media for decades. We have negative images of Black women bombarding us in tv, music, and fashion. Our swag has been stolen, our bodies fetishized and our creativity exploited for centuries. We’ve been used as workhorses by our men, in our workplaces, and by society. We need to take control of our image and narrative, and downing ourselves and the image of Black women really ain’t it. Now, I’m not saying you need to behave a certain way to be an acceptable Black woman because, f*ck your respectability politics, but, I am saying, we should try our best not to further crystalize negative images by talking down. Learn to compete without comparing. We need to see ourselves and show up as the innovators and beauty queens we are. We come from lineages of strong hearts, strong bodies, and strong minds and it’s ok to flex that. Though we are not above anyone, no one is above us either, and if you feel that way, speak for yourself.

Paz,

-DotCalm