As a Black woman it’s not that I don’t understand the Twitter argument, or am unable to comprehend the systematic degradation that we have endured for the last 400 plus years. That said, I am also a Black woman that doesn’t look towards artists or other public figures to define my beauty, or my self worth.
You see, I learned years ago that being a Black woman in America means several things, and many of them are not bad. I derived from a strong lineage of women who ran their households, followed their dreams, and maybe even left a mark on the world in the process; on the contrary, being a Black woman in America also means not being publicly viewed as the standard of beauty, yet privately worshipped as the standard of beauty.
This reality is one that takes up no space in my brain because I’m more concerned with how I myself can set a good example for little Black girls (and girls of other colors) around the world that need someone to look up to. In this case, what I see as my personal responsibility is much more important than worrying about how the world at large may look at Black women because of Pharrell’s album cover.
And so for the “protestors,” I have a question: When are Black women going to stop expecting others to validate their beauty/existence and actually be the change that they seek?
Of course that would require signing off Twitter, so maybe it will never happen.
