Performative Blackness
This is why Jasmine Crockett acts the way she does
One of the dangers of generations growing up in what is labeled “Black Culture”, is that when you do not grow up the stereotypical way, then there is an unhealthy desire to prove your blackness.
This can be demonstrated in how young men sag their pants out in public, but as soon as they get in their car and drive home to their gated community, they will pull up those pants and fasten their belts before the gate closes behind them.
Or, when young women choose to get long fingernails, fake eyelashes and braids, even when they know those things are not becoming of them.
Even more troubling is when adults who have done relatively well for themselves, feel the need to prove their blackness by being loud and obnoxious when it comes to the wait staff at a restaurant or fast food joint.
The sad reality is that behavior like this is not frowned upon as it once was in black communities.
Before the Civil Rights movement, black families were intact. Black People had a respect for their community, for their families, for their country, and for their God.
This was such a prevailing notion that Hattie McDaniel mentioned this sentiment in her Academy Awards acceptance speech.
But, today, being a credit to your “race” is not the driving force in the black community. Nor, is standing on Biblical Principles.
No, the overwhelming attitude in the black community is driven by ghetto culture that was inherited from the Redneck culture in the south.
Thomas Sowell accurately describes this in his book, “Black Rednecks and White Liberals”.
This culture is exhibited by
rudeness
dishonor
cursing
quick-temperedness
promiscuity
lewdness
fatherlessness
godliness
Therefore, if someone wants to achieve political success in this environment as a black woman, then you must learn performative blackness.
Performative Blackness is when a person acts in a ghetto manner in public, even though that person is far removed from what would be considered ghetto or “Black Culture”.
Case in point, Jasmine Crockett.
She attended law school. She would be considered an educated black woman.
Yet, when you hear her speak, one would think she rolled out of 3rd Ward in Houston.
That is performative blackness.
She is not what would be considered “black” based on her background, however in order to gain political power and influence, she feels compelled to act “black”.
Jasmine Crockett did not grow up in the hood. She grew up as the daughter of a pastor and attended an all-girls Catholic high school in St.Louis.
She attended law school. She would be considered an educated black woman.
Yet, when you hear her speak, one would think she rolled out of 3rd Ward in Houston.
That is performative blackness.
She is not what would be considered “black” based on her background, however in order to gain political power and influence, she feels compelled to act “black”.
It’s the same compulsion that young black boys and girls face who do not grow up in adverse conditions.
That’s why young men feel the need to prove their blackness by joining a gang or why young women feel the need to be promiscuous.
And, because it is rewarded by the mainstream, Jasmine Crockett will continue to perform.
It’s a vicious cycle of performance that will ultimately end in her political career ending prematurely.
Because, one can only perform for so long before the audience becomes tired of the act.