When neo-soul singer Erykah Badu announced her third pregnancy in 2008, some fans attacked her for having children outside of marriage with more than one father. One online commenter labeled the singer, known for rocking a mega ’fro, ‘trash with great hair.’ A Zimbio.com article that referred to Badu’s ‘growing list of baby daddies’ featured a ‘Knocked Up Again’ headline. A blog article wondered baldly if the singer was ‘a ho.’ She was derided as a poor example of black womanhood. The storm got so heavy that Badu bit back in a lengthy and poetically unapologetic online post about her family that ended with an entreaty to ‘Kiss my placenta.’ Three years later, when Beyoncé announced she was expecting, she was publicly applauded for doing pregnancy ‘the right way,’ and celebrated for being a model of black womanhood. Even Diddy’s 18-year-old son, Justin Combs, weighed in on Bey’s proper use of her uterus. Combs tweeted: ‘Beyoncé dated, married, THEN got pregnant…young ladies take notes.’ (No word on whether Combs’s dad, who has never married but has five children, is also taking notes.)
Tamara Winfrey Harris
As a black male, I can assure you this criticism, from the black community at least is warranted. Marriage in the black community is almost non existent. If role models, like the Great Ms. Badu has multiple baby daddies, then what are the black youth supposed to do. People think that you can’t love something and be critical of it at the same time.
Marriage…unions between 2 people….they’re necessary!
(via vivalaevolucion)
sigh. no. shut up. you never tell someone that the way they’re living is WRONG. unless they’re oppressing someone else with their actions, you have no right to comment on what they do. & your “marriage in the black community is almost non-existent” bit is not true & a stereotype. i know plenty of black married folks. black womyn are not your or the black community’s mammys!! are you paying her bills? are you helping to raise her children? then once again, you dont get to tell someone their life is WRONG. its not erykah’s job to serve the “black youth” by which you probably mean young black boys, by doing something she doesn’t want to do or changing herself. you can get that sick, twisted idea of liberation up outta here. control your own life.
(via hiphopcheerleader)
uggh so called conscious brothers come get your people. time to come collect the garbage, i.e vivalaevolucion. they’re up to their slut shaming, black motherhood policing ways, family structure erasing again!!
(via navigatethestream)
