Today in Post-Race History: Kreayshawn
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WJFjXtHcy4&feature=player_embedded
*sigh* Well, there’s one (or more) for every generation.
I think Kreayshawn (nee Natassia Zolot) is a fraud. I don’t believe she’s serious; I don’t believe she’s real. Some good discussion about Kreayshawn and appropriation is happening, but I’m still at the start line refusing to believe her alleged biography about being the child of a teenaged mother and growing up in East Oakland.
White people do this kind of thing–and by “kind of thing” I mean fabricate a story that somehow makes them more authentic, more “down”–all the time. Vanilla Ice was never really stabbed five times; Margaret B. Jones was never really a gang member in L.A. despite what her memoir said. (Apparently, folks love to lie in memoirs.) So, I’ll just take Natassia’s stage name at its word: Kreayshawn = Creation.
Perhaps the truth will come out now that she’s inked a record deal.
We should, I suppose, ask: What would the point be of making all of this up? To prove that even in Obama’s America, even during the recession, blackface money can always be made? To remind us that white people acting how they think black people do will always prove endlessly fascinating and lucrative? To suggest that talent only actually matters when you’re the person whose likeness is actually being appropriated?
What say you about Kreayshawn?
I agree with you on the point about “blackface money,” but I don’t know if you can immediately assume that this is Kreayshawn’s purpose. The thing about race is that some folks have mobility, or at least attempt to be mobile. It could very possibly be that Kreayshawn has had a “down” history; regardless of its truth, we should recognize the desire to be apart of Black culture. In fact, I only saw her partaking in Black culture by language. Everything else is just creation (no pun intended). So I think a larger question should be aimed toward the necessity to validate a Black experience and its connection, if any, to acceptance/racial mobility.
I agree with you on the point about “blackface money,” but I don’t know if you can immediately assume that this is Kreayshawn’s purpose. The thing about race is that some folks have mobility, or at least attempt to be mobile. It could very possibly be that Kreayshawn has had a “down” history; regardless of its truth, we should recognize the desire to be apart of Black culture. In fact, I only saw her partaking in Black culture by language. Everything else is just creation (no pun intended). So I think a larger question should be aimed toward the necessity to validate a Black experience and its connection, if any, to acceptance/racial mobility.
Hi Keantre,
I’m not assuming that blackface is Kreayshawn’s purpose–I’m not even sure if I’m clear on what it means for one’s purpose to be blackface–but her presentation compels such discussions, no? Indeed, it could be possible that the life she described was, in fact, the life she lives. However, history tells us that white folks often fabricate these kinds of stories in the quest for authenticity. So until I see some kind of “proof,” I’m not going to believe her. I disagree on your point about language. I think Kreayshawn comports herself in a variety of ways that for larger culture signals blackness, particularly as black identity is understood as some gritty, monolithic pathology, etc.
I’m not sure what you mean by your last sentence and/or how it connects to my blurb on Kreayshawn, but if you could clarify what you mean, I’m happy to engage.
That said, thanks for reading.
Hi Keantre,
I’m not assuming that blackface is Kreayshawn’s purpose–I’m not even sure if I’m clear on what it means for one’s purpose to be blackface–but her presentation compels such discussions, no? Indeed, it could be possible that the life she described was, in fact, the life she lives. However, history tells us that white folks often fabricate these kinds of stories in the quest for authenticity. So until I see some kind of “proof,” I’m not going to believe her. I disagree on your point about language. I think Kreayshawn comports herself in a variety of ways that for larger culture signals blackness, particularly as black identity is understood as some gritty, monolithic pathology, etc.
I’m not sure what you mean by your last sentence and/or how it connects to my blurb on Kreayshawn, but if you could clarify what you mean, I’m happy to engage.
That said, thanks for reading.