Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Twerking is part of Black Culture? Really?




Taylor Swift is what?

I try not to write entry's just off the top of my head but ...I have been reading about a lot of people, yes, black people, having issues with Taylor Swifts' new video:  Shake it off.

Part of the problem , or the problem others see is that Swift is dancing with a team of black female dancers who are twerking.   Twerking seems to be cause of a lot of problems.  From what I have gathered, Twerking is a part of Black Culture and with artist like Miley Cyrus , twerking is a big thing.
I mean twerking is not like Pharell on the Elle cover wearing a Native American headdress.  The headdress is sacred in Native American culture.  It is not just something to wear, it is something you earn.  Nor does it compare to the offensiveness of the Washington 'Redskins'.

The problem I have with things like twerking supposedly being a part of black culture is ....well let me put it to you in a story.

I was in Wuhan, a city in China, as a language student.  There were a number of students from around the world.  We all got along.  One day one of my classmates sat next to me and told me that he loved American culture.  He was from one of the countries in Africa.   I asked him about some various about America and he didn't know anything.  So finally I asked him what did he love about American culture.  His answer was everything that was hip hop and rap.  That is it.  He was not the only one.   This is the image of America that is sinking in world wide!  I don't know about you...but that bothers me.

Another issue that was pointed out in an article I read by Prachi Gupta  about the Shake it off video some people find offensive or uncomfortable is this...
Yup, Taylor Swift crawling through the legs of twerking women(Note that not all of them are black).  Actually this kinda takes me back to my childhood.  Why do you ask?  Take yourself back in time to 1991.  Vanilla Ice is Hot as is his song 'ICE ICE BABY'.  Well, we have it on VHS (We have VHS but no player) …we have Vanilla Ice sliding on his back underneath the humplike moves of his black male backup dancers.  So how is this worse than that? 
 
Now there is a rapper named Earl Sweatshirt.  This is part 1 of 3 of his tweets about Shake It off.
This is point where you have lost all sort of credibility with me.  You haven't watched the video but you are criticizing it?  How does that even seem logical?  I had a teacher at Columbia College Chicago who assigned me to watch the movie Troy and write a paper on a theme.  She didn't like my theme and argued with me pulling examples from the classic the Iliad not the movie.  I asked if she had ever watched the movie and she answered, "No, and I probably never will."  Does that make sense?  No, and that is the same case with Earl Sweatshirt. 

And while a person is just judging something they deem to be  harmful and offensive that person  should also be asking themselves questions. Is this something is really offensive? Is this  (blank) culturally important to me? Why is this  important to my culture? If it was more than one color of person doing this....why am I focusing on this particular one person? Those are just example questions but be honest with yourself and go from there.  Don't be like Sweatshirt.

Kevin Fallon from the Daily Beast wrote about how the video was disappointing and how it seemed to say Taylor Swift's message was, ", “I’m a pop star now, bitches!” And our reaction is, “Booooo!” I couldn't disagree more.  She gave a fun flashback video that is clearly speaking about her reputation and her awkwardness and how it's okay to be that way.  (I am also okay with my awkwardness...)











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