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Recently on social media, there has been a lot of talk about whether or not Black women should wear their bonnets outside of their homes. If you are unfamiliar with what a bonnet is, it is a silk or satin cap that is worn to protect Black women's hair, usually when they are sleeping. This was all prompted by comedian and actress Mo'nique posting a video on her Instagram talking about how Black women should not wear bonnets to the airport and should look "presentable" in public spaces. Ironically, Mo'nique made the video in a bathrobe and no makeup, and posted it to her page, where she has 1 million followers, but I suppose we have different definitons of what constitutes a public space. Mo'nique's video offers a look at exactly what respectability politcs is. Respectability politics was made by and for Black people, which says that if we act, dress, and present ourselves in a way that white people can respect, then they will see our humanity. The problem is that respectability politics doesn't work. We have seen this time and time again that respectability politics are doing nothing to save anyone. Just look at the amount of Black men and women are killed by the police every day, or the the fact that laws have to be made so that simply wearing our natural hair doesn't bring discrimination. In her video, Mo'nique implores Black women to "represent [themselves] with pride", therefore placing her own standards on to people who did not ask for them. Black women are not allowed to come out of their homes looking anything but "presentable", but presentable looks very different for different people. You see it in the debates about weaves vs. wigs. vs. braids. vs. natural hair, in conversations surrounding Black women's bodies and how it should look in the workplace (see Teacher Bae), and in conversations about what appropriate hairstyle to wear on your birthday (yes, that actually happened). In short, leave Black women out of your respectability politics. If that's how you would like to center and present yourself to the world, then more power to you. But those same standards shouldn't be placed on other people, especially people you don't even know and likely will never interact with. Respectability politics aren't going to save anyone's life or make someone's humanity more clear to people who aren't interested in seeing it in the first place. Black women are constantly policed on how they should look or act, and enough is enough. How someone else chooses to present themselves in a public space is up to them, and how you feel about it isn't their problem, it's yours. Leave Black women alone.
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What is the BTT Blog about?We wanted to expand more on the topics that we post on Instagram and talk about in our podcast. Be ready for rants, think pieces, and anything else. We have a lot to say. Archives
June 2021
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