Ok July, you’ve made an entrance. I’m not sure if it’s because Leo season has dawned upon us but baby this humidity makes me miss my dry heat out west. Not only affecting me as I’m in the house under fans and the AC but the people outside are going through it. Now I’ll keep it brief and get to business because I’m sure this heat is behind this week’s “Shut Up Fools”.
-The Fool Who Doesn’t Want It For (Us).
It wasn’t legacy but Affirmative Action that gave our first fool their start. In fact, according to a PBS (Brought to you by viewers like you) documentary “Clarence and Ginni Thomas” Jussie- oops wrong “J” I meant Justice Clarence Thomas had options and chose to attend YALE’s Law program. Long story short, things didn’t pan out how he thought: Attending a prestigious school should grant him the same opportunities as his white classmates but it didn’t. Thomas wasn’t receiving the ideal job offerings once attaining that piece of paper stamped by YALE. The year is 1991, the opportunity arises and buddy Clarence earns his seat with the Supreme Court to stew for 32 years in the game and now decides to pull the ladder dismantling Affirmative Action . “Due to an “Overcorrection by the courts during the civil rights movement, Asian students have suffered” (Oh Really?) and Justice Thomas continues with “Today’s youth do not shoulder the moral debts of their ancestors”. So we are ignoring systemic racism Clarence?
-Shut Up Fool
-The Fool Gatekeeping “Mainstream Respectable Culture”.
“Sometimes I shave my legs and sometimes I don’t”. Well sometimes I show my Tiddies and Sometimes I Twerk, according to India Arie I am still a queen. Does this affirmation only apply to India? The “I Am Not My Hair” singer had “Expectations” for Meg Thee Stallion & Janelle Monae’s performances at this year’s Essence Fest.
Now India… “No one has the power to hurt you like your kin” right? When we step out and face the world, we ARE on a stage. What we say, what we do, is all under scrutiny; on its way to become something popular aka “Mainstream”. Individually, we are the pulse that keeps culture going and when those who look like us attempt to snatch wigs with respectability expectations on expression, that abuse alone is what folks wish to liberate from. Following Monae’s journey from Metropolis to “The Age of Pleasure” we have watched them come into their own standing proud fighting systems of oppression. Meg makes it her duty to express loving yourself unconditionally and sends a big “Eff You” to the haters who think you shouldn’t during her show. So the real question is, are we alluding to being queer and “body confident” as disrespectful? Should these be kept as cultural context with, “What goes on in this house” type of discretion? Yet again you did say, “Everything is not for EVERY BODY” or did you mean everybody auntie? Because grammar & spelling expectations matter and we know you’re not shaming queens you “LOVE like you love us all” right? but you also said you don’t care.
-Shut Up Fool
-The Fool Who Doesn’t Know The Code.
Keke Palmer’s baby father took to Blu Ivy’s internet, tweeting a misogynistic message while the new mother was in Vegas enjoying U-S-HER-R-A-Y-M-OND in concert. The tweet brought out the moralistic & standard side of Black Twitter with accusations of “Policing” his wife’s (with no ring) wardrobe. We find this quite interesting seeing as in April Darius Jackson had no issue showing off the “You’re a Mom” figure in that leopard catsuit stating “My son don transformed @keke” (Keke you were wearing that boo).
Hmm, I can be Akeelah for a second and spell J-E-A-L-O-U-S-Y. Darius, you are not the first to feel some type of way when your partner goes to see Usher in Vegas. It is C-L-E-A-R. It wasn’t about the outfit but rather more about who experienced the outfit up close in person. Motherhood doesn’t have a dress code but what does have a code, is the relationship between you and your partner.
-Shut Up Fool
Written by: Libra Audacious (She, Her, Purrs)