This post is about something different to my recent adventures. I am sure you are you all sick of hearing about Miley Cyrus, I know I am getting a bit tired of it, agreed, but I wanted to comment on something that made me uncomfortable. I don't care what she does with her body, or hair or tongue, can I just add I do care what she does with her tongue when it is that terrifying, or spoils teddy bears forever, or even glamorizes drug use particularly, but I think I agree with what this blogger says about how Miley Cyrus treated her black dancer on stage:
What Miley did last night was easily one of the most racist displays I've ever seen. From her insistence on twerking, to her use of all black women as literal props (they were teddy bears) to her smacking of her dancer's ass and the simulation of rimming, it is very clear to me, that Miley thinks that black women's bodies are to be enjoyed, devalued and put on display for entertainment purposes.
Here's the thing: historically, black women have had very little agency over their bodies. From being raped by white slave masters to the ever-enduring stereotype that black women can't be raped, black women have been told over and over and over again, that their bodies are not their own. By bringing these "homegirls with the big butts" out onto the stage with her and engaging in a one-sided interaction with her ass, (not even her actual person!) Miley has contributed to that rhetoric. And if you think that I'm grasping at straws, just look at the way that the media treats Miley and juxtapose it against how it treats Rihanna. This comparison is made often, and it continues to be relevant. It can be argued that Miley has almost literally remade herself in Rihanna's image, (We Can't Stop, is after all, a song Rihanna rejected) and yet Rihanna continues to be attacked in the media for expressions of her lived culture, while Miley, who dresses up in black codifiers for profit, skates by. Miley is very literally trying on something that Rihanna has been doing for the better part of three years, and yet it only becomes acceptable when presented on a white body, playing into the long tradition of white artists stealing and/or appropriating from black artists and reaping the benefits. (See also, Robin Thicke and Justin Timberlake) And I haven't even touched on her obsession with twerking, and the subsequent mainstream appeal.She made that woman's body a literal spectacle to be enjoyed by her legions of loyal fans. Not only was that the only way that Miley interacted with any of the other people onstage with her, but all of her backup dancers were "black women with big butts" asViolet_Baudelaire so astutely pointed out. So not only are black women's bodies being used as props, but they are also props that are only worthy of interaction if that interaction involves sexualization. Yet another issue with Miley's portrayal is that it presents "ratchet culture" as synonymous for "black". As Phylecia2 pointed out, black people are not a monolith, and neither is black culture.While ratchet culture is a valid expression of black culture, it is not the expression of black culture, and there are millions of black people for whom this particular expression of culture does not resonate. However, due the racial realities of the world we live in, Oprah will be expected to know about twerking because black = twerking. By expressing her desire for a black sound, then turning up with this mess, she is playing into the stereotype that this is all black people are. To her, and anyone else who's frame of reference does not extend beyond her, this is what it means to be black.
Read the rest of the post, it's brilliant and educational.
But what I am struggling with now is this, when I brought this issue up in conversation with various people, the reaction that I mainly got was along the lines of 'but you're not even part of black culture'. and I'm not, I'm very 'white'. Yes distinctly Aryan. I have no knowledge of 'ratchet' or other facets of stereotypical black culture, or any other culture, apart from my relatively bland English white culture. I do have some black Caribbean (Slave Trade) genes, but I don't in anyway think that this gives me claim to another culture. I'm not Rhianna. So sometimes I feel like I have no right to comment on issues concerning race, or exploitation of it, as I'm not really a participant. But surely we should be able to comment on the issue if 'we' (as white people) are the ones at fault? Obviously I put 'we' because it isn't all white people in the world... Yeh I agree, but I would also say that I'm not really part of Miley's culture either, being British, I feel quite distanced from her LA/Southern madness.
Another thing, I have recently started watching '2 Broke Girls'. which I am thoroughly enjoying might I add, however I have noticed that there is quite a lot of, well, almost racist jokes. and it not just be being paranoid (the internet agrees).
It's the story of two white waitresses (Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs) who work in a Brooklyn restaurant whose boss is Asian-American Han Lee ( Matthew Moy). Short, asexual and work-obsessed, Lee is ridiculed for his broken English and failing to "get" US culture. In one episode Dennings' character says, after a run-in with Lee: "You can't tell an Asian he made a mistake. He'll go in the back and throw himself on a sword."
In response to criticism (the New Yorker called it "so racist it is less offensive than baffling"), King argued that his minority status allowed him free rein: "I'm gay. I put in gay stereotypes every week! I don't find it offensive … I find it comic to take everybody down, which is what we are doing."
But how offended am I allowed to be, being not a part of any minority? This is a pretty dramatic picture, but I think it sums up some of my feelings. The question is when does it stop being a joke about a stereotype as you would with a stereotype of a white person ie. bimbo, jock etc. and start being a racial attack?
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