https://music.yahoo.com/photos/2014-billboard-music-awards-red-carpet-arrivals-1400453201-slideshow/
Shaking my head DAMN!!! This devilish devil is at it again with a bag full of tricks and wit to say the least of it. Judging from the above photograph the dastardly deeds of the devil aren’t clearly apparent. But once you copy and paste the above link into your browser, you shall get wind of his variety of wickedness. Occasionally, my inclination is not to always spell things out because I rather lead the horse to water, as opposed to place the cup directly up to his mouth. Allow me to provide an analysis of the discrepant behavior.
The above photo is of the incredibly beautiful Kelly Rowland. She is one of the only surviving members of the original Destiny’s Child girl group next to Beyonce. She has gone on to have a, well singing career of her own where she has recorded a number of albums comparable to the amount that her former band mate has had.
Well, the current debacle that prompts me to compose this post includes the other brown-skinned woman featured in the above photo with Ms. Kelly Rowland. Her name is Estelle, and she is an R & B chanteuse from across the pond. She too, has had a pretty fruitful career in her chosen profession. My question is: can you pick out which one of these lovely ladies is Kelly Rowland and which one is Estelle? A hint is: neither of them is Cyndy Lauper, who is off to the far right. If you answered that Kelly is the lady showcased smack-dab in the center congratulations you have passed your annual eye exam. The unfortunate thing is that the so-called “professionals” at Yahoo Music can’t seem to differentiate between the Blacks they report news on. Looks like whomever captioned Kelly Rowland as Estelle needs to immediately re-consider a career change PRONTO!
I must say that I believe the person who made this “oversight” (I prefer to refer to it as an undersight if we’re going to be completely honest) is of the Caucasian persuasion. It’s simple to draw this conclusion because Black people don’t look alike to other Black people. Additionally, Black people understand the implications, even if not aware of the historical context of the idea of use all looking alike. People can resemble each other, even remind us of people we know…I’ve even heard that all Black people have a twin in Africa. But the fact that this event took place in America, we can abruptly dispel that hypothesis. The practice of mis-identifying Black people as someone else is practice that I find is often reserved for Black females.
These are not mishaps or incidentals in the system of racism white supremacy…NO! This is a tactic of war. A contrivance to render the “other” as invisible; or diminish the value, virtue or humanity of a so-called minority within the system of racism white supremacy is certainly worth examining. It is also worth affirming that this strategy is rooted in the fact that Western society often devalues the contributions and presence of Black females as less desirable and the lowest of the rung.
White supremacist preoccupation with homogenizing the Black image is nothing new. Just take a look at what appears on television and in the movies. While depth and variance are prized within the context of whiteness, Black people who attempt to deviate from the norm or challenge the status quo are often criticized for being too abstract or having their works denounced as frivolous, improbable and unrealistic. But isn’t the depiction of fantasy and imagination the primary ingredients of the media implementation, other than, for let’s say the news? Fiction is fiction, and if one considers all the editing techniques and camera angles utilized in film and TV manipulation, we must conclude that even depictions of whiteness are works of fantasy and fiction so forth.
But back to the homogenization of Blackness. This idea that “all Blacks look alike” was cemented into American society’s consciousness when research conducted in 1914 referred to this practice as the cross-race effect. The theory goes “that humans tend to perceive people of other races than themselves to all look alike. All else being equal, individuals of a given race are distinguishable from each other in proportion to their familiarity or contact with the race as a whole.” To understand this theory more acutely one must ponder 1) whom are the researchers referring to as “human”, and 2) what was the ethnicity of the test subjects? These questions are important to consider when historically most non-white people in the U.S. and abroad within the system of white supremacist are doused the ideals, behaviors and thought processes of whiteness. Thereby, white supremacist thinking is imposed upon all persons of color whether we are consciously aware of this phenomenon or not. This is what becomes adopted into the mainstream and later become better known as ways of being because we are products of our environment. So when they indicate that some specific practice is consistent with “human” nature, we all fall right into line and become human, as opposed to hue-man, which about 90% of the world population is, in all regard.
They say the devil is in the details and it’s the details that paint the picture, and as we well know a picture says a thousand words. This tacky practice of misidentifying Black people as other Black people was well publicized at the latter of last year with the flagrant faux pas of identifying the luminous actress Alfre Woodard with the equally acclaimed actor Idris Elba. Notice the distinction between actress and actor to signify that one is a female and the other is a male. Yes, the wonderful people at the Giorgio Armani brand branded a Black woman as a Black man…despicable! But this should not be a surprise because these are typical antics. This is an entity who has a duplicitous agenda to create and provoke confusion in all areas of human relations.
And recently at the vainglorious Met Gala, another hiccup occurred when the hip-hop legend Q-Tip (aka Kamaal the Abstract) was mis-identified as the U.K. rapper Tinie Tempah. Via his Twitter, he quip’ “we all look alike”. Although the undertones of his comment appeared on the surface innocuous, it was an appropriate condemnation of Vogue.com, whom later made the correction to accurately identify the man in the above photograph indeed as Q-Tip. Once again, this should not be regarded as an inculpable act. It is a conscious act of white supremacy that oftentimes expresses the Black presence is so insignificant that it is not worth exercising effort to be accurate about it, according to the rules of racism white supremacy. I conclude the if Blackness didn’t matter, why would the dominant society work so feverishly to erase it? It’s because Blackness is the primary muse for which this construct of whiteness can existence. In order to put forth diligent efforts to erase an object of obsession, you must be eternally consumed with it is all that I’m saying.
By the way, this is a photograph of Tinie Tempah:
So, if I were honest with myself I would conclude that the two men do indeed look alike; I mean, they both are wearing spectacles, are Black, male and rap. Yup, I mean you would have to be blind to see otherwise. But that is the condition of racism white supremacy. It’s fundamental purpose is to synthesize everything and everyone that is not white into something uninspiring and monotonous. Just another day on the job for the devil.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-race_effect
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/19/armani-instagram-fail-black-twitter-attacks_n_4302110.html
The Devil Finds Work 