Black things

by anonymous

Miley Cyrus added dreadlock extensions to her hair in her 2015 VMA hosting. Taylor Swift twerked in her “Shake It Off” music video. Iggy Azalea was considered “Raps Queen” by some. Kylie Jenner sported cornrows. Rachel Dolezal claimed a transracial identity. The list goes on.

Black things. Bodies of black culture, stolen and exploited like slaves. This new slave trade is renamed cultural appropriation. For extended periods of time, we'd  labored to throw off the burdens of forced acclimation to white America. Creating our own culture, trying to lay down roots in the land that'd stolen us from ours. Our new culture blossomed, and we celebrate the fruits of our labor. Only for them to be uprooted yet again. Black things.

We love our black things. They love our black things too. They just don't like the black of it. They want our hair, our music, our dancing. But they don't want our struggles. The don't want the isolation, and feelings of loss and groundlessness that comes with being black. The struggle to ground oneself in a land whose shifting sands don't offer ground for you to stabilize. They don't want those black things.

But to take a culture, add your own extensions, and call it a new style, you ignore your own original roots, as well as the roots of the extensions you're adding. Black things. They grow like hair, they fight to be rooted like hair. But like our hair, there's more to black things than just an avenue for your entertainment, your experimentation, your plagiarism.