If you haven't been following the rap scene lately, Drake and Pusha T are the hottest topics. If you want to follow the timeline of their feud and get up to date, click here.
So in Pusha T's latest diss track, he used an image of Drake in blackface as the track cover and boy, people had a lot to say about that alone.
Of course, it's a controversial topic — it's blackface. It has a dark history. And in my opinion, it is a lot similar to the use of the "N-word" and who can or can't use it, if things like this should be used to make a statement or if it should disappear altogether. But that's a discussion for another day.
The topic I'm diving into is about some of the comments I saw in response to the image which discussed Drake's blackness and if he "really" was black. It even went as far as spurring conversation about how mixed people are not black or if a black person is "too light-skin" their blackness is limited.
Ah... let's get a dialogue going.
Can we overcome this mentality? This mentality that there are four different types of black within the black community?
Because news flash: at the end of the day, we are still going to be viewed as black by the rest of the world no matter the skin tone.
But let's take it a step deeper.
Let's think about how this could affect the younger generation. Like how mentally draining and scarring it could be for a mixed child to battle with an identity crisis because the white kids say he/she is "too black" yet the black kids say he/she isn't "black enough."
Yet at the same time, if someone mixed does not properly acknowledge their black roots, they are white-washed and delusional.
Or even the idea that someone who is fully black but has lighter skin cannot truly be "all black."
And as a matter of fact, if you are one of the people saying who's "black enough" who gave you the right to go around carrying a "Scale of Blackness"? Because you're just adding to the problem.
There's still a lot to be done for our community to reach its full potential but until we learn to stop thinking that being dark skin is ugly or being a lighter skin tone makes you less black, we are only taking one step forward and five steps back.
So what do you think?
