Light from a LAMP

As a member of the bubbly Black girl delegation, I would like to pose a question to the Black delegation if I may;

When will bubbly Black girls be accepted into the Black community in the same way that y’all have accepted Black anime fans?

No shade to them at all. We were all rooting for you and we are so happy to see you that you made it into the club. I’m just saying, I’ve been standing outside for a hot minute now, and there are a lot of bad bitches waiting out here. I’m confused on the requirements for entry.

It feels like the Black community would rather throw away bubbly Black women than to do something like, I don’t know, stop listening to R. Kelly. For some reason, a known pedophile is still seen as a valuable asset to Black culture, whereas bubbly Black women are not…”Black enough?”

I don’t know, what’s the actual issue? Because by casting us out for simply existing, the tools of white supremacy continue to be upheld within our own community.

After all this time, it seems with as many people who have recognized just how Black women have been consistently misrepresented, those same people still expect us to fit into one of the stereotypical tropes created from white supremacy that have become so deeply ingrained in the culture, if you stray too far, you risk being exiled.

We tell Black women they are so intelligent, so innovative, they can do anything. But only if it falls within the preconceived parameters of what Blackness should be.

We are excluded by our own people, but still expected to show up and support the very ones who dog on us just because our outfit is “doing too much.”

White people said the same thing about Obama in a tan suit, but okay.

I use Black anime fans as the example because I remember how they were not accepted into the community for years. They had to enjoy their shows in private, they could not share their cosplay outfits with anyone outside of the anime community because Black people called it ‘white people shit’ which never made any sense anyway. It’s anime.

Over the last decade or so, there’s been a massive shift. In fact, if you’re Black and you DON’T watch anime, you’re now the outcast.

However, for Black girls and women, it is still not widely accepted for us to be filled with joy and whimsy. We are told we’re not allowed to be a ray of sunshine. We are not allowed to experience a ‘soft life’ because that’s reserved for white women. We are still expected to struggle and experience hardships at every corner. And if you’re not going through any, trust and believe, someone will make it their priority to ensure that you do.

White women are allowed to be cute and colorful. They get to be as bright and bold as they want. They can listen to country, pop, rock music and be considered musically diverse. But god forbid a Black woman listens to EDM and goes to the rave, then suddenly she must be doing crack in a dirty port-a-potty with white boys who haven’t showered in a week. Whole time, she’s just handing out trinkets of the kindness of her heart. (Isn’t it interesting that you see a Black person in a space that you’re unfamiliar with and your first instinct is to assume they’re on drugs? But that’s a different conversation on internalized racism for a different day.)

Being Black and having a fun, bubbly personality will force you to become very comfortable with being independent and thriving on your own. If you aren’t accepted in predominantly Black spaces, they’ll still judge you for being in non-Black spaces. If you aren’t accepted in non-Black spaces, you have to find your community online.

People will constantly make assumptions about you and choose to believe the false narrative they built in their heads rather than actually get to know you. People think if you’re protecting your peace too fiercely, then you’re stuck-up and they should walk all over you to humble you. People will treat you like a child just because you carry a song in your soul like a Disney princess and ignore that you do have bills and your bills are paid. Most of them anyway. Men will either treat you like a pixie dream girl that they must trap in a jar or like a freak-show that they have to dissect. Women will find any excuse to tear you down, while simultaneously preaching that we must fight the patriarchy.

Black women experiencing happiness is already such a threat to society. To have our own community toss us out in a world where we are already in danger in most spaces is doing nothing but bringing harm to the community and even more harm to Black women.

If we want to continue growth as a community and culture, then we cannot keep using white supremacist tactics to push kind, smart, creative Black women to the sidelines. We cannot keep treating bubbly Black women as abnormal.

Being Black in America is not a one-size-fits-all type of deal. Part of the beauty of the Black American experience is how we create our culture. We are the trailblazers, we set the standard, we create the trends. But for some reason, bubbly Black women and girls have yet to receive an invite to the cookout.

Hayley Williams got an invite before we did. Love that woman, I do, but make that make sense.

What’s most frustrating about the entire thing is that bubbly Black women are some of the most generous people you will ever meet. The most talented people you’ll ever meet. The most loyal people you’ll ever meet. Everything we do comes from the heart. Even after years of having ours broken, we still shine brighter than most.

So to my fellow bubbly Black women, keep your head high and your nips up. You look incredible today.

To the Black delegation, thank you for your time and I look forward to the discussion.

-LAMP