Meanwhile On Tumblr: Ms. Afropolitan As Frida Kahlo And “The Good, Racist People”

By Andrea Plaid

In between the “are-they-or-aren’t-they-having-an-affair” gifs of Scandal’s Kerry Washington and Tony Goldwyn and the ongoing privilege-reading on Tumblr, Racializens loved a couple of gems from the past, like Minna Salami, a.k.a. Ms. Afropolitan, who joined our tweetversation about African feminisms a while ago, photographed as Frida Kahlo:

Photo credit: © Bumi Thomas Photography. Via Minna Salami’s Facebook page.

And Racializens loved another great post from the Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates, who reflected on actor Forest Whitaker’s harassment in a New York deli:

The idea that racism lives in the heart of particularly evil individuals, as opposed to the heart of a democratic society, is reinforcing to anyone who might, from time to time, find their tongue sprinting ahead of their discretion. We can forgive Whitaker’s assailant. Much harder to forgive is all that makes Whitaker stand out in the first place. New York is a city, like most in America, that bears the scars of redlining, blockbusting and urban renewal. The ghost of those policies haunts us in a wealth gap between blacks and whites that has actually gotten worse over the past 20 years.

But much worse, it haunts black people with a kind of invisible violence that is given tell only when the victim happens to be an Oscar winner. The promise of America is that those who play by the rules, who observe the norms of the “middle class,” will be treated as such. But this injunction is only half-enforced when it comes to black people, in large part because we were never meant to be part of the American story. Forest Whitaker fits that bill, and he was addressed as such.

I am trying to imagine a white president forced to show his papers at a national news conference, and coming up blank. I am trying to a imagine a prominent white Harvard professor arrested for breaking into his own home, and coming up with nothing. I am trying to see Sean Penn or Nicolas Cage being frisked at an upscale deli, and I find myself laughing in the dark. It is worth considering the messaging here. It says to black kids: “Don’t leave home. They don’t want you around.” It is messaging propagated by moral people.

Check out what and who else is happening (or not) on the R’s Tumblr!