I always joke with my white friends that "white ain't right and black don't crack". I am far from the "soul sista with the fist raised" when it comes to being a black woman and I try not to take to heart the blatant preference for lighter skin over darker skin, however, I can not let this slide.
Do you remember this adorable clip from sesame street about the little black girl that loved her hair in all different fashions? Please watch!
It was cute and adorable, and black women everywhere were proud to be recognized in such a way and especially if they had daughters who could see it. So of course, this wonderful pride had to be capitalized on. This would not be a problem except for the fact that this is how FOREVER 21 chose to present her.
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| The original |
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| Forever 21's shirt |
WHAT THE HELL???? Do you notice a problem here?
The girl in the video that so many people identified with has been bleached to be more mainstream and TO LOOK MORE WHITE! Its my damn blog and I do NOT have to be politically correct! WTF is this shit? High yellow girl with blue eye shadow is NOT how she was presented. I would have been first in line to buy this shirt if it was actually a BLACK girl. DARK SKIN! CAN WE HAVE ANYTHING? And look at the person modeling it! Can you expect me to believe that SHE is rocking a frock of curly locks? No ma'am.
If you know me, you know that race is not an issue for me. Even as I have always been the token in my honors classes, deans lists, college classes, and professionally, I like black jokes, white jokes, gay jokes, straight jokes, (all except Christian jokes...leave my Jesus out of this) and anything else that you can dish out, but I hate feeling like I am not being represented in the world. Fashion statements and boldness are two things I pride myself on and I would have loved to have this shirt to jazz up with heels and jewelry. They ruined it for me. Maybe I am over reacting and it isn't that serious but I am truly disappointed.
What do you think about this? I would love to hear from all races about this. Am I overreacting?
Thank you. I was interested in buying the tank until I saw it. That is no way a representation of the initial video or me.
ReplyDeleteJust from my perspective - I'm a white female - I do think it sucks. From the perspective of the screen printers, it might've been an issue of color contrast, but given the iconic nature of the video and what it stands for, if that was the issue they really should have chosen a lighter or different colored shirt as the background.
ReplyDeleteSomeone else brought up the screen printing issue as well and I hadn't thought of that. Thats for your perspective... calmed down my rage a bit hahaha
ReplyDelete