Blake Lively isn't racist because she used a song lyric. Blake Lively isn't 'appropriating black beauty standards. Blake Lively is just a woman who posts on Instagram when she knows she looks baller.
L.A. face with an Oakland booty
A photo posted by Blake Lively (@blakelively) on
Blake Lively, the Gossip Girl star, is a bomb-shell - Check, glad we got that out of the way. She has it all: the face, the boobs, the hair, AND the booty. Just a few years ago, it wasn't cool to be a white girl with a black girl butt. (I know, I was the girl that looked white, but actually had to be black because I had a black girl butt, ask my middle school friends if you don't believe me.)
LA Face
No one would've gotten upset had she only said L.A. Face, because she does in fact have an LA face (she was born in the San Fernando Valley). But one joke about LA is that everyone is a Barbie doll because they are all made of plastic. This may or may not be true, but in Lively's case--she has had a little work done.
This alone is completely fine for she has been born and raised in an environment where your nose is never thin enough, your boobs are never big enough and you always need to lose 5 more pounds. Especially for an actress or model, these critiques are almost impossible to avoid in the LA job market.
Although LA ranks 23rd on WalletHub's most ethnically diverse cities, it is percieved as predominately white or latino city. This could be because the film industry, housed in LA, is incredibly racially whitewashed. However it is widely known that California is home to more Hispanics than whites. So the two races commonly associated with the city are white and hispanic. Blake Lively is indeed Californian by birth and by profession.
...with an Oakland Booty
Oakland was a major city receiving the influx of black people in the Second Great Migration from the 1940s-70s. Oakland absorbed these people into the job markets and culture. Even though the population was still over half white, the city had grown over 31 percentage points in thirty years. During these three decades, the Black Panther Party was founded in Oakland in 1966. This has brought a lot of media attention to the city and identified the city as an African-American haven.
This unfortunately changed the way that the world saw the city and it's affiliation with black people.
"Many white Americans couldn’t get over their first impression of the Black Panthers. Coverage of the 1967 protest introduced them to the party, and the fear of black people exercising their rights in an empowered, intimidating fashion left its mark. To them, the Black Panthers were little more than a group of thugs unified behind militaristic trappings and a leftist political ideology." -- Nick Wing from Huffington Post
According to SFGate.com, the city is losing its black population in droves. Whether this is due to its connection with the party and negative images in the mind's eye of white Americans, is unknown. What is known is that it is a massive population shift of 25% in 10 years. In 2015, the same study from WalletHub proved that Oakland is the 5th most racially diverse city in America with the entire population almost broken into quarters between black, white, hispanic, and asian.
Unfortunately, it seems as if the one drop rule is coming into play, where if the city was once known for being a black haven, it always will be black.
Blake Got Back
Sir Mix-a-Lot himself embraces the Instagram caption, as he should as it is bringing his one-hit wonder back into the spotlight, but he wants white women to accept black women's' beauty standards.
“I think we have to be careful what we wish for as African Americans, because if you say she doesn’t have the right to say that, then how do you expect her at the same time to embrace your beauty?…I think it’s almost a nod of approval, and that was what I wanted. I wanted our idea of beautiful to be accepted.” -- Sir Mix-a-Lot told Sam Reed.
But I bet you didn't notice Khloe Kardashian's SAME post a few months back.
LA face with an Oakland booty 😝😝
A photo posted by Khloé (@khloekardashian) on
Black women have been accepting white beauty standards forever. Black women have spent countless funds in getting their hair straight (many times to look professional), skin bleaching creams and colored contacts -- all of the above to embrace a whiter look.
Let the white women embrace black culture, welcome them with open arms; if someone trips about it, what's the wrong with "looking like a black girl" because black girls are beautiful.
Blending Black and White Beauty Traits
However much we research into our country's racist past, we can always find negative and racist backstories for every situation. We can look up demographics and historical landmarks of black and white culture all over the place. Are they still relevant? Of course. Does that mean Blake Lively is a racist? No. I think it means we should embrace beauty from every culture, every race, and every person; whether it be #BlackGirlMagic #WhiteGirlWitchcraft or #SouthAsianSuperstition. We are all beautiful.
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