{"id":2231,"date":"2017-05-15T11:26:28","date_gmt":"2017-05-15T11:26:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/?p=2231"},"modified":"2023-11-17T10:18:40","modified_gmt":"2023-11-17T10:18:40","slug":"to-be-black-woman-and-alive-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/?p=2231","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;To be Black Woman and Alive&#8217; (2016)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"left-column\"><!---\n&nbsp;\n\n\n<div style=\"position: relative; height: 0; padding-bottom: 56.25%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"position: absolute; width: 100%; height: 100%; left: 0;\" src=\"h&lt;iframe width=\" width=\"300\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe>\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"&gt;<\/div>\n\n\n---><\/p>\n<div style=\"position: relative; height: 0; padding-bottom: 56.25%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"position: absolute; width: 100%; height: 100%; left: 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vnUKbR6dXeU\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"right-column\">\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Crystal Valentine &amp; Aaliyah Jihad\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To Be Black Woman and Alive <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(2016), is the embodiment of the millennial black woman\u2019s call for awakening. By exposing the black community\u2019s internalisation of white patriarchy, both speakers tackle institutional racism in both mainstream society and the black community exemplifying its monumental influence on black women\u2019s identity.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Initially, we are confronted with the objectification of women. As Jihad explains that \u2018a nigga\u2019s biggest weakness is a white girl with a fat ass\u2019 she simultaneously exposes the double standards of beauty, through the superlative \u2018biggest\u2019. Black women are stereotypically depicted by whites, as having large buttocks this is repeatedly sexualised and cheapened.This contradiction is so internalised within black society that the speakers, mimicking black men, say in unison<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2018these black girls better watch out; cuz white girls is winning.\u2019 Both speakers exclaim this in unison to emphasise how millennial racism manifests itself through men\u2019s provocation for women to compete. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both speakers, continually mimicking black men, then speak alternatingly about the different races of women they fetishize, \u2018like that latin type\u2019. The inclusion of these different ethnicities affirms black men\u2019s preferential treatment of mixed women. As the women revert to a feminine tone to describe the black mothers who birth these \u2018oriental mixfish[es]\u2019, they simultaneously detail the plights that black mothers have endured. Jihad refers intergenerationally to the history of African-American women who \u2018came from sugar cane and segregation,\u2019 in order to exemplify the political and physical degradation black women have overcome. By exposing how her origins are \u2018from too much pride and not enough perm,\u2019 Jihad uses intensifiers like \u2018too much\u2019 to emphasise the defiance of black women. This line focuses on black woman\u2019s hair and mentality: during the Black Panther movement the afro was symbolic of black pride and defiance, those who wore it refused to destroy their heritage in order to conform to the eurocentric norm. Valentine\u2019s description of \u00a0\u2018<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">mama from the gutter from section 8,\u2019 directly criticises how gentrification has marginalised black women. By comparing \u2018the gutter\u2019 and \u2018section 8\u2019 she exposes how<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Section 8 of the U.S housing act led to the inflation of rent and left many African-American\u2019s in squalor. Consequently, both women go on to describe<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2018HOODRAT BLACK BELLY\u2019. The intertextuality of this phrase goes deep into the \u00a0African-American women\u2019s trauma. The \u201choodrat\u2019s\u201d \u2018the main purpose is to provide sexual favours\u2019 for money\u2019 (Collins 2009:91) &#8211; this is a direct consequence of the abjectification of black women. The way the speakers use alliteration of the plosive \u2018b\u2019 emphasises the violence that black women continue to endure. This reflective tone is interrupted by their reversion to male mimicry as they proclaim: \u2018I DON\u2019T FUCK WITH BLACK GIRLS.\u2019 The way the speakers declaim in unison emphasises the disrespectful mentality of black men: because they have internalised negative images of black women they disregard them as ugly. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Consequently, the speakers use their own voices to describe the detrimental outcomes of this intra-racial hatred. As Jihad describes how the ideology of \u201clight is right\u201d has embedded itself into her psyche, she confesses that she \u2018know[s] four brands of hydrocortisone by heart.\u2019 Hydrocortisone and \u2018lemon juice recipes\u2019 are skin damaging methods that black women use to lighten their skin. The fact that Jihad reveals this taboo, supports Valentine\u2019s confession as she exclaims that \u2018too dark is the answer to a question [she\u2019s] given up asking\u2019. Again the intensifier \u201ctoo\u201d to highlights the socio-cultural influence \u201clightness\u201d has on beauty. As Valentine explains that \u2018to be woman and black is to know your beauty does not belong to you\u2019 she separates gender and race in order to assert the \u201cdouble oppression\u201d that black women face. Enduring this oppression both women describe their vital tool for survival, self-love. By describing how they are \u2018the first and last [people] to love [themselves]\u2019, Valentine describes the methods of self-love. Alternatingly, Jihad describes <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">why <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">self-love is crucial by disclosing that they \u2018are not desirable to [their] own kind.\u2019 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both speakers contrast this sombre tone with empowering language and affirmation. As Valentine proclaims \u2018to be woman and black is to be magic\u2019 we hear a celebratory scream from the audience. This line refers to the hashtag \u2018Black girl magic\u2019 which a <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is a concept and movement that was popularised by <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/CaShawn_Thompson\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CaShawn Thompson<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in 2013. The themes of endurance and trauma correlate in the alternating lines: <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2018is to survive the white man with his needles and their nooses, and the black man with their hearts and their knuckles,\u2019 as the speakers express that they are not cherished anywhere. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As the lines: \u201cTO BE BLACK AND WOMAN AND ALIVE IS TO BE RESILIENT, MY VERY EXISTENCE IS DEFIANCE\u201d \u00a0are shouted in unison the speaker\u2019s message is emphasised by their use of tone, half rhyme and personal pronoun (my). These lines are exemplified throughout the poem. They empower, enlighten and enrich the millennial black woman.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Crystal Valentine &amp; Aaliyah Jihad\u2019s To Be Black Woman and Alive (2016), is the embodiment of the millennial black woman\u2019s call for awakening. By exposing the black community\u2019s internalisation of white patriarchy, both speakers tackle institutional racism in both mainstream society and the black community exemplifying its monumental influence on black women\u2019s identity.Initially, we are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":2590,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,21,22,25,27,28,29,30,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2016-2017","category-2017-2018","category-2018-2019","category-2019-2020","category-2020-2021","category-2021-2022","category-2022-2023","category-2023-2024","category-it-isnt-enough-to-awake-we-need-to-stay-woke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2231"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2504,"href":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2231\/revisions\/2504"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}