Bothered by Badu's Bootay?

Do you see me, or just my skin,

Do you feel me, or did you bypass what’s within,

I am more than just Black,

Dancing and singing,

I am here with you.

Bothered by Badu’s Bootay?

Facts and Observations

The video for Erykah Badu’s Window Seat has struck a nerve with a few people. Just in case you haven’t seen the video, allow me to recap. In the video, Badu takes a strolls in and around the grassy knoll, an area known as the murder site of John F. Kennedy. Step by step, she drops an article of clothing until she is completely naked. As she disrobes, it is noticed that the word “evolving” is written across her back. Just seconds after she removes her last article of clothing, her underwear, a gunshot is heard and she falls to the ground. The viewer is left to assume she was shot and killed. The word “groupthink” is yelled from behind the camera shot. Blue blood pours from her head. The color of the blood is significant, in that blood when exposed to air turns red. Per the Washington Post [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/02/AR2010040203668.html], Badu was cited for disorderly conduct.

Analysis and Comment

In order to logically exercise my opinion about the underlying reasons for the negative reactions to the video, I must pose a few questions. If Badu were a white woman, would the response be the same? How is her nudity any different than the nudity we expose our children to at museums, in photos labeled as “art”, and at home? Deep down inside, what is really rubbing people the wrong way?

Badu’s expression has struck a nerve with insecure white women, fantasy-driven white men, and confused people of color. Those who understand art will get the gist of the intended message and overlook her chosen path to the end. Many artists preceding Badu, have created video footage and photos exposing themselves to the general public. However, those bodies were not African bodies. Therefore, no one was cited, and everyone lived happily ever after. Along comes the big mean bodied African American woman, and the reactions fits into the category of “prudish puritan neo-slavery American”. I offer the “truth breakdown” for the two vested and concerned parties:

White Women

White women are intimidated by African beauty. From the full bosom, lips and ass, African women demand attention. They are the true definition of sexy. America’s mainstream media makes every attempt to counter the power of African beauty, by over-saturating the market with the images of White and/or alternative beauty. This tactic is employed so much that young girls of color wish to have straight hair, lighter skin, pencil thin bodies, and blue eyes. The moment that someone counters or slightly reveals the truth, white people are outraged. In particular, white women are outraged. What stops a white man from acknowledging African beauty and leaving their white women for mother earth? One way to keep the white man in his place is to use the vice of marketing. The other is to dress the fantasy away through clothing…a bra, a shirt, a pair of panties, all items that were removed from Badu’s body. Each article of clothing that Badu removed from her body represented the laws, the structure, and the totality of the institution that has suppressed the truth. Removing those clothing items left Badu, and every onlooker, with nothing but the bare truth. Africans are beautiful and powerful. But somewhere along the way, Africans have bought into a system and a story that doesn’t represent an eight of the truth. Truth breakdown - White women fear that their men will not want them after seeing mother earth in all her glory.

White Men

White men secretly desire African beauty. White women innately understand that they lack certain features that are naturally bestowed upon the African. Therefore, white women will augment their bodies to emulate that of an African woman. This is not something that is said in public, but the evidence is in the beauty techniques used by white women, from lips, bosom and butt implants, to tanning salons and tanning makeup. The message to witnesses of this debacle is “we know we aren’t good enough, but stay out of our men’s fantasies!” Yes, African women are the stuff that fantasies are made of. Let a sister with ample bosom or buttocks take a stroll down the grassy knoll, and men of all backgrounds will turn their heads and follow her with their eyes until she is out of sight. Historically, white men have found ways to partake in African beauty. Some have kept an African mistress, others have been bold enough to marry outside of their race, and some have sorted to outright rape. Truth breakdown – White men fear that they will succumb to their deepest sexual fantasies of African beauty and fail their “race”.

Oh yes Ms. Badu, you struck a nerve! As it pertains to America, it is a nerve that has been pulsating for hundreds of years. You are being treated unfairly due to the lack of truth. The public response to your video only further drives home the point of the video, individuality versus groupthink [collective oppression]. America, stop agreeing to the masquerade!

I challenge those that read this to share the topic with your friends and family and to challenge your own thoughts regarding beauty. Hotep!

Badilisho
http://ibwriting.blogspot.com