deerstalker
https://www.essence.com/fashion/18-woke-kwanzaa-gifts-for-your-fashionista/
Now that Christmas is over, and all the wonderful holiday presents have been unwrapped, there’s no reason to halt the momentum and spirit of giving. Enter the season of Kwanzaa, a joyous celebration of African-American culture that highlights seven core principles: Umoja (Unity), Kujichagulia (Self-Determination), Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility), Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics), Nia (Purpose), […]
The post 18 Joyous Kwanzaa Gifts For The Woke Fashionistas On Your List appeared first on Essence.
Cardi B just flexed and I think the whole world flinched
Bish is bad AF! Look I am a Bronx transplant. Been here for over 10 years now, I rep that ish – those who know me know this. Cardi is BRONX through and through and her flex is something I will always stand behind cuz she only flexes in the X. This video is a masterpiece, I’m talking cinematography, choreography, costume. Every beat hit hard and delicate at the same time. This was a show of money, power, and respect if I ever seen one.
Let me get it straight when this song came out I was not the biggest fan, that’s the truth. For me, Cardi can do no wrong, and I say that meaning she does a lot wrong and she gives less than any fux so – hey she is doing her and that is ALLLL right. When the song dropped, I was like ok, dirty beat as always, flow is nice, we talkin’ bout money of course, but I was not blasting that in my car like Bodak Yellow. Mind you, it grew on me fast, the amount of videos people posted just killing choreography, I was like okrrr. She Bad. I assumed there was already a music video – NAW yesterday this dropped, my jaw hit the floor and I matrix-style learned how to twerk.
Cardi B a Golden Goose shi$$ing Golden bricks on us from on high.
This girl didn’t just only flex herself, she rolled out deep with women just posted in power poses in every which way, shape, and form. She said free the nipple, girls in their full beauty, boss bish garb and attitude. AND a video with little to no men, passing the Bechdel test in oh so many ways. This is the kind of video that makes me feel like Laura Dern in Jurassic Park.
Then I did the thing we all need to do – I got critical and looked for the bad moments. Some people are pulling out all the references to other women rappers and the odes that they feel may be copying rather than odes – naw naw naw, she knows who came before her and I believe and best believe it was intentional. Cardi is BX all day and disrespect is something we do not do. Remember how I said this was a show of Money, Power, Respect? Cardi of course went to the gram to make sure ya’ll heard.
I know someone out there is looking to find what is wrong with it and will make things wrong with it, but I couldn’t. Even her not so dope line ” I will black on your ass….Wakanda forever” didn’t bother me as it should – I was like alright shout out to Black Panther why not, I shout that out whenever, wherever for… WHATEVER. She even says she loves dark men, shout out to my black brothers. This video was like a…”Hey, I been working out. Look at my steez”. And If someone comes out saying nonsense about sex symbols and women and respectability politics I am going to make a reenactment of this video just to join the I can be sexy however I effing like movement.
“You shake it real fast, you get a little more”
This video gave me the vapors I do declare. As someone who identifies as a woman, being sexy is something I revere, something I hold so dear and the naked body is one of my most beautiful prized possessions and mastering my body’s ability is a journey I strive on. Cardi has achieved those things and more in her life thus far. This video said “it’s my time let me show you who I am” and I never seen her more clearly than I do now. She not only depicted what her life has shown her but juxtaposed that with her future financial goals and her dedication as a mommy. A soft strong vulnerability making me duck the shots of pride fired. Her sitting at the piano bare then looking at you like WHAT! I was like, girl, I recognize. Don’t worry.
STUNTIN’
I can’t bring all this up without bringing up the visionary behind this and many of Cardi’s looks and imagery. Director Jora Frantzis is killing it!!! Jora’s eye for greatness is something to marvel at in this. The ability of a director to use their style wholeheartedly to embody, embolden, and emphasize an artist’s brand, ability, and swag is ultimate goals – and also a match made in heaven. Frantzis is also responsible for Cardi’s “Invasion of Privacy” album looks, her “Careful” images and Cardi’s pregnancy photo shoot. They were all just *mwah* *mwah* magnifique! She has been able to elevate Cardi’s style to new heights like stuntin’ on a pole strength.
That is another thing! Pole is so hard and we begin the video like this!!
Not only do we see a talented woman doing moves that I can’t fathom even trying, but we get multiple women showing this feat AND Cardi herself flossing the skills. I am in awe of our multitude of powers and abilities as women. Who woulda thunk Cardi’s music video would have me floored and contemplating our full potential? But I was, I am! This video is going to be hard to top for Cardi, but she has plenty of time to grow and evolve to places we cannot predict. For now, we can just bask in her golden glory. Yes Girrl! OKRRRRRR! AAAAAOOOOWWW.
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The post Cardi B’s Money Video Was Born to Flex appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.
The aforementioned quotes are the words that Jordan Peele, writer, and director of the film Us, delivered just before unveiling the movie trailer. His words were a beautiful foreshadowing of what was to come in the trailer. Us is a very important psychological horror film that plays on themes prevalent in the Black horror genre to create an experience that is unrivaled by anything we have seen thus far. Like Get Out, this film promises to set the world to thinking about the power that we give away so freely to constructs like race, class, and the phobias that we inherited along the way.
Take a look at the trailer before moving further. There are many spoilers ahead.
From the very beginning, the visuals make it clear that Peele is deconstructing stereotypes and generalizations about the Black identity. The first scenes of the trailer are very important. They not only introduce us to the family (played by Winston Duke, Lupita Nyong’o, Shahidi Wright Joseph, and Evan Alex), the Wilsons. There is also another purpose at play here. Look at how the family sings such a popular rap song, but their AAVE (African American Vernacular English) is not quite what it needs to be for a precise recitation. They are a dark-skinned Black family, clean cut, and clearly affluent or comfortably middle class. They are going to a beach house where, Nyong’o’s character (Adelaide) presumably grew up, and meeting with white friends who they seem to genuinely love and connect with on an organic level. In a subtle, yet nuanced manner, the representation of this beautiful, well-put-together family onscreen defies everything that we have been conditioned to think, know and feel about blackness.
The Unfair Assumptions That We Internalize
It is widely assumed that all Black people listen to rap and allow their children to listen to rap music, and as this is a generalization-it is a fallacy. For example, in the trailer of Us, the Wilson children have no idea who raps this song, nor do they know the words to “I Got 5 On It”. The Wilson clearly defy that stereotype. Additionally, they are well-adjusted children who are acclimated to going to the beach, boating and enjoying family time on road trips and beach trips. Another defied trope is that the Wilsons’s are an articulate, brown-skinned family placed as the nucleus of the narrative, not just a supporting cast or an after-thought. The visuals within the narrative of the trailer are clearly deconstructing negative ideas about blackness that are generally prevalent amongst Americans.
Yes. This beautiful, Black family is going to the beach. They are not afraid of water. They have white, friends that they genuinely trust and they appear to be comfortable with their upward mobility.
Releasing Generational Fears
This family has done what so many Black families have done since the Great Migration — made themselves affluent and educated enough to navigate the world. Oftentimes, as a means of survival, they have had to disconnect themselves from certain experiences, defy assumptions, and prove the stereotypes wrong. Like so many others, The Wilson’s, know the “urban” version of the Black experience, but they don’t live it. They enjoy the music and other elements of “Black culture” that they’ve chosen to preserve, however, their lives are also steeped in a different world beyond the communities from whence they may have come from. They’ve made it, and in doing so paint a portrait of a black family that has arrived. At least until they receive a visit from some uninvited guests.
The Manifestation of It All
That is some heady analysis, but it’s necessary in order to understand the latter parts of the trailer. Four figures that look exactly like the Wilsons, but more sinister and alien-like appear at the end of the driveway of their home. Presumably, a darker, more dangerous, foreign and sinister version of themselves. Let us consider Peele’s words at the beginning of this piece. Now, look at the danger presented by the figures once they enter the home. Now go back. Right after we meet the white friends, the son, Jason goes missing while everyone is on the beach. He’s found, but it seems like something has changed. Something is amiss, but the boy is found. We think the figures at the end of the drive and the situation at the beach may be connected.
Whatever happened at that beach triggered something, probably some of the dark residue that the family thought they had overcome. Something triggered that Black trauma. In Black horror, the trauma of the Black experience in America is connected with other themes to create a truly horrifying event. A Black mother’s missing son, when they are with their white friends is enough to do just that. All the mistrust of whiteness, the remnants of micro-aggressions, and the leftovers of thoughts that are not only irrational, and tainted by something that is deeper than the now affluent folks understand.
We think it brings out a manifestation of that dark energy, the residue, in a similar way that produced Baby in Beloved by Toni Morrison. She was a manifestation of grief and trauma that the main character Sethe could not contain. Beloved was dark, evil, and there to do harm to the family. Whatever happened to the Wilsons that day on the beach triggered their dark trauma and out if came an evil embodiment hell-bent on doing the family harm.
So where do the scissors come in? Well, look at them. They are two identical heads looking in opposite directions. To make the scissors work, each head must pull in an opposing direction and then come back together. They have to work in unison to make this happen. This leads us to believe that the way out for this family is to somehow come to terms with their own darkness. They must reconcile all that built-up inner trauma in order to survive. They must figure out how to reconcile all the elements that have darkened their struggle — race, classism, and the historical trauma— in order to get out alive.
This is our deep dive into the trailer. What are some of your thoughts? Agree with us? Disagree? Let us know in the comments.
Us hits theaters in 2019.
The post ‘Us’ is the Intellectual Horror that Drags the Fear Out of Us All appeared first on Black Girl Nerds.