Naima Adedapo

I've started watching American Idol, and there is a jem of a contestant this season named Naima Adedapo. She is the daughter of jazz singer Adekola Adedapo.

According to her Wiki entry, you know Idol has a history of keeping biographical info to themselves to that they can 'manage' their contestants identities, she is a mother of 5 children, with 2 biological children, and three step-children. She studied Dance at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and continues to dance in Ko-Thi an African Dance Company, and sings in a band with her husband. 

This girl sings and dances. Her signature Afrocentric ascethetic cannot be denied. Despite being on a mainstream show that is famous for candy-coating its contestants, she remains true to her style. However, it is evident that American Idol did make her cut her dreads shorter. Other than that, she stills stands in contrast to the Eurocentricism standard that is usually upheld on the show. Beyond Naima's dress, she brings an afrocentricism to her performances that have been unseen in previous seasons. She did a reggae number in the middle of performing Rihanna's "Umbrella," and added African Dance to her performance of Lionel Richie's "Dancing in the Street."

Based on those performances, it is clear that she is stretching the boundaries of American Idol karaoke style performances. But this is in the midst of one of AI's least diverse season's to date. The only African American performers left are Naima and Jacob Lusk. Ashton Jones, another African American contestant was voted off March 10th. Thia Megia is repping for Asian Americans, she is a Filipina, and Karen Rodriguez, who was voted off on March 17th, was repping for the Latin@s. And of the entire top twenty-something, there were 4 more people of color.

Although she is turning the standard on its head, it is quite obvious that she has a very light complexion and blue/green or hazel eyes. It begs the question, could dark skinned contestant of African descent break with the Eurocentric standard of dress and hair style. Is Naima given a pass because she has light skin?


Racism and white ideals still prevail in much of popular culture, but there are cracks. And I'll keep looking for them.

Summer is Upon Us/ Fantasia Barrino Sings "Summertime"

This performance still gives me chills. I just wanted to remind myself that summer is coming. Fantasia's rendition of Gershwin's "Summertime" gets at the complexity of a black life with ease. The song was written for the opera/musical Porgy & Bess, which explores the hardships of African Americans Summer is a season known for its fair weather and lush vegetation that reminds us of the bounty that the earth offers human beings. The song contrasts this with the limitations of life expectations of African Americans, who lead lives that are constantly being limited by systemic racism and abject poverty.

Enjoy!

And doesn't Quentin Tarantino sound like a jerk at the end? 

Amber Rose: The Latest Fat-Shaming Victim

Ahh, yes, Mediatakeout is up to it again. They are running a story calling Amber Rose fat. My take on it is: She is not fat, and if she was, So What!?! I am so sick media outlets doing stories like this. Amber Rose is what we, in the black community, call thick, meaning that her body is voluptuous in all the right places. But I digress, fat is a feminist issue, a woman's issue, a human issue. We should be banding together against body snarking (making fun of people's physical appearance) , body policing, and shaming fat people/fatness/fat in general. 

Women's bodies are policed by popular culture in many ways, but I'm going to stick to the size issue for now (there will be more to come on this topic). They are often judged by the size of their clothes rather than their talent and intelligence. If you are against sexism, and claim to be a feminist than stop policing women's bodies. Do not judge a woman by the size of her pants. Sexism, and patriarchy have convinced us that the amount of fat on a woman's body is a measuring stick for her worthiness. Take a minute and think about how misconstrued the reasoning is on this issue.

Moreover, African Americans/ black folks, should not be checking for this stuff because we have been marginalized in popular culture because of the color of our skin, body type, and plain old racism. We need to be standing up against exclusionary practices rather than validating and participating in them.

Amber did not make things better by tweeting: "I'm 5'9" and 148 lbs." "How am I fat?" As if to say, hey look at my numbers, I'm not fat. A feminist response would have been to say, 'I love my body, so you can kiss my ass' in her Tyra Banks voice. (Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Tyra went back on her bodacious bodily love by getting all skinny again claiming that she still wants to model, but they cant take that youtube clip away from me.) I can dream, cant I? 

Here is the clip of Tyra telling the press to shove it!

 

Welcome to Black Pop Culture Watch

I started this blog because I wanted to see a different type of Popular Culture Blog for African Americans. I am  growing tired of the unrelenting snark on the gossip blogs, but still did not see enough coverage of African Americans in mainstream popular culture websites. So, I am starting Black Popular Culture Watch. This site will cover a variety of topics from television shows, movies, youtube celebrities, fashion, mainstream and queer (LGBT) celebrity news (minus the snark), book reviews, film reviews, natural hair information, health news, and commentary on the news items that affect African Americans. And I'm going to do all of this with an intellectual flair and a feminist perspective (I hope). 

Like Margaret Cho said, "I'm the one that I want."