Reposting. Cause well. I wrote it with the notion it was worth reading. Plus I’d love some feedback lol.
#YPoCOpinionPiece
Background on the Author & Thought Process
Hello all.
My name is Tajh Sutton and I am the founder of a budding Non Profit organization called Young People of Color Incorporated. I have dabbled in singing, spoken word, modeling, dancing, and acting since my early teenage years. I have also worked within the public school system as an activity specialist, tutor and mentor throughout the five boroughs since the age of 14 and am currently a childhood education major at Brooklyn College. As an education major I have learned the true value and necessity of a questioning and critically thinking mind and as a step and dance instructor I learned that the performance arts can be an invaluable educational tool. In college I became extremely politically active, joining the Brooklyn College Student Union and participating in Occupy Wall street. These experiences made me aware of the political empowerment I had no idea I was lacking, and made me want to share that empowerment with my kids. I decided to find a way to use the performing arts, critical thinking and political empowerment to create a holistic program for youth PoC to learn more about themselves, their talents, their human rights and how to fight for what they believe in. From this idea- Young People of Color was born.
With all my areas of interest, I still didn’t know a lick about business, but I’m an avid reader and social network user, so I put these hobbies to work and began searching for like minded individuals with an online presence. I hit the jackpot in the form of dozens of blogs, websites and online magazines related to fostering the health, happiness, celebration, encouragement and often, politicization of PoC such as Clutch Magazine Online, For Harriet, Alternet, Oppressed Organize, Crunk Feminist Collective, ColorLines Magazine, I Love Being Black, BlackDoctor.Org, and Afrobella to name a few favorites. Now I was a bit intimidated. Kickass writers all over the world were already saying what I wanted to say, probably better than I could say it. While it was amazing to know that so many people actually CARE and are INFORMED about issues related to people of color, as a newbie all I could think was, “How do I promote MY brand, MY business, MY viewpoint- and make people want to listen/ read/ watch? More importantly, how do I get kids on board so they can learn the lessons I’m trying to teach?” As I asked the question I already knew the answer.
Be yourself. You can’t teach kids that their voice is important and valuable and one of a kind if you’re scared to use your own. These kids are just trying to find their way and they need someone they can relate to to help them with that process. With that said, I’ve chosen something near and dear to the heart of all youth PoC, myself included, to comment on today and that’s MUSIC.
Nine times out of ten, the children I work with are emulating the speech, supposed attitudes and clothing choices of their favorite musicians. I often hear the art-form of hip hop being blamed for the state of Black America, and I don’t mean to, but I can’t help but laugh at this thought process. I’ve had moments where I want to slap Black folk for “making me look bad as a Black person.” But I’ve learned to stop and think about that mentality and I find that it is one of self hatred. When the White dude on the train is buggin’ it’s not, “OMG those White people!” Its “OMG that guy.” Why should it be different for any other race? I’ve learned that there’s a societal construct at work when you see a group of loud Black Girls on the train and think “They’re making me look bad.” Be clear. One Black person is not the spokesperson for the entire race. Folks act like we need to be, but we don’t, and while it’s natural to want your constituents to act with dignity and class, you have to know that there are various types of people included in every race and it has nothing to do with how ‘black” or “white” they are. I agree that celebrities in our communities play a large role in shaping the perception of our youth but I also believe that parents are the first teachers, and that schools and communities at large should be showing our kids more than how to memorize dates and get home before dark.
If you do not acknowledge the socio-economic and educational disparities between PoC and non PoC at the macro-economic level I really can’t speak to you about the smaller scale reasons for racial and economic inequality and cultural differences. Don’t call me sensitive. Don’t call me butt-hurt. Don’t act as if I’m making excuses. It is what it is. If every person that belongs to the Black Diaspora started wearing ONLY business attire, speaking ONLY grammatically proper formal English and miraculously found employment, it would do nothing for public schools in poor neighborhoods or the prison industrial complex. Like it or not, our issues cannot be solved by just us- and since they are the effects of things that were done TO us, you would think we wouldn’t have to solve them alone. But I digress.
Opinion Piece:
I was on youtube the other day, checking out a group of talented young men that go by the name Mindless Behavior since they’re all the rage with BOTH the step groups I currrently teach, one downtown Brooklyn, the other on the upper East Side of Manhattan. At the end of the video, the screen is full of related videos, and one is a freeze frame of a young woman with electric blue hair. I click the video and watch. I later find out this young lady is Zonnique “Star” Pullins, daughter of “Tiny” from the old school all girl R&B group Xscape, step daughter to rap icon T.I., and 1/3 of recently signed girl group the OMG Girlz. The song? Gucci This (Gucci That)- their first major label single.
My initial feelings caused me to shake my head and wave an imaginary disapproving finger. I was concerned for the girls image and the content of the song. As you’ll see from the video posted above, they wear HEAVY make-up and sport long, luxurious, multi-colored weaves. In this particular song- their first single- which is setting the stage for their image- they sing “I’m so official yall/ you can check my record/ my dress code is elevated/ no one can do it better/ what type’a chick you know/ rock Louie (Vuitton) from head to toe?/ I’m incredible” Immediately I’m reminded of my issues with mainstream rap and r&b today. The obsession with material items is truly astonishing, and the fact that these young ladies are 15 and 16 promoting Gucci, Fendi and Louie blows my mind. I’m wondering whose idea it was to dress them this way, and to give them this song? I’m thinking the world out side of young, urban listeners will immediately see this and think “ghetto!” I’m saddened by this.
But then I have a thought. Why is it that a young Black girl with bright pink hair is deemed “ghetto” when if a White girl dyes her hair some unnaturally bright color she’s considered “edgy” or “badass?” It’s the same with tattoos. Then I’m floored by a societal construct. I realize that as Afrocentric as I think I am, I have internalized a multitude of beliefs that did not originate in my own mind and that I was allowing them to affect how I perceive my very own people. Ridiculous! Am I still annoyed at the content of the song? Definitely. There is much more these young ladies could be talking about than clothes and swag. Am I turned off by all the make up? Without a doubt. Because all 3 of them are gorgeous and they don’t need it! Same goes for the weaves, but I quickly rub my temples and take a second look at the video with the industry in mind.
After the second look, I’m kinda groovin. Taking myself out of the role of teacher/ parent and just listening to the song as a young adult and someone with an understanding of the formulaic methodologies used to make hit records- it has some great qualities. It’s up-tempo, so you can dance to it (which they do), and it’s an anthem, very catchy, something every young woman would love to sing and think about herself. (See you might have the same outfit/ But if you ain’t got my swag you can’t rock it like this!) Plus, as tired as I am of hearing the word swag (God help me) at 15 and 16 what else are they going to sing about? Relationships? Sex? Cause no one’s buying an album about how they feed their pets and go to school. Not to mention that with society’s machismo double standard, if they came out with an album all about boys the way Mindless Behavior dropped an album about nothing but girls, they’d be heavily scrutinized and I would bet one of my kidneys that their virginity would be questioned. After considering the alternatives, I decide that swag is a-okay to sing about.
I also realize that although the song suggests that the girls wear nothing but name brands, you don’t see a single one on them throughout the entire video. They’re in brightly colored leggings, t shirts, boots and jackets for one scene and colorful jeans, a skirt, a tutu and plain tops for another. No Fendi. No Louie. No Gucci. Just swag. They giddily try on shades and hold shirts up to one another for approval as they pretend to shop and dance around. And you know what? They’re adorable.
So what do we have here? A group of pretty, confident young girls that like to shop and dress up with a catchy hit record on their hands? Or another addition to a generation of young women of color only concerned with their physical appearance and rockin’ the latest gear? Personally, I wish them the best in all their endeavors because I always like to see young people of color succeed, and I know if I had the means to make my child a star, and they wanted to have a career in music, I would make that happen for them by any means necessary. What people think about you, and how you actually are rarely coincide when you’re in the spotlight and I’m sure that is an especially difficult task for our young people to handle. On one hand. I want to ask some of our young and even our adult artists- what are you doing? Where are your parents? How do you think people will look at you after they hear this song? On the other hand, why should it matter to our kids, our adult entertainers and even the loud “ghetto” girl on the street how people who don’t know them personally look at them? Should we be teaching them to be the best they can be and do what makes them happy with themselves in mind, or teaching them that they have to be twice as good/ smart/ pretty/ well dressed/ manner-able as someone with a different complexion to receive the exact same accolades? Sometimes it’s hard to call it.
What do you think of the OMG Girlz new video “Gucci This?”
