Why is the Harlem Renaissance not celebrated as much as 'The Great Gatsby'?
From China to Gatsby to blackface: Plan the party, skip the cultural appropriation
I treat social media accounts like I treat phone numbers. I couldn’t care less about either of them. It’s rare for me to keep either of the two for more than a year (minus my 15-year Twitter account up until Elon Musk). And while I’ll always need a phone number (but not everybody having access to call or text me), there are moments on social media when I shake my head and think, “I should just log off and do something productive.”
And this thought usually comes to mind when I see a social media trend. The latest troubling trend: Themed parties with absolutely no education in the history, symbolism or culture of the highlighted event (or group).
No, that is not Chinatown nor Chyna Town
While Jess Hilarious has every right to apologize for hurting Sexyy Redd’s feelings, I’m leaning more on the side of Kenny Burns. Everybody does not need to step to the mic. I don’t understand why anybody would blast lyrics like this, but your music playlist is your business. Still, after all the times that black people have asked non-black people to stop using cultural appropriation on Halloween and the other 364 days of the year, us doing it to other groups makes zero sense either.
First example: Sexyy Red with the Chinese-themed party. I am willing to bet every last dollar I’ll earn in 2024 that Sexyy Red has no idea why the rib on certain Chinese umbrellas must be made of five-year-old bamboo. I’m having a tough time believing she knows about the similarities between “youzhi” and “youzi,” or even that the umbrella is seen as a symbol of fertility. From the looks of it, she put a slit in what should be a kimono — never mind the sometimes-controversial topic of Japanese kimonos versus Chinese kimonos — and just wanted to twerk with her friends in front of a ginormous Buddha statue. Everything about this party makes me cringe.
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Leonardo DiCaprio, who starred in ‘The Great Gatsby,’ is white. But was book character Jay Gatsby passing?
Believe it or not, there’s another themed party that makes me cringe way more than Sexyy Red having Chinese parties and announcing the color of her genitalia. It’s black folks throwing “The Great Gatsby” parties. While I hesitate to criticize teenagers, I’m puzzled about why the incredibly talented Lauryn Hill gave a thumbs up on her daughter Selah Marley’s Gatsby Sweet 16 party.
It brings back my confusion and disappointment while seeing Romeo Miller doing the same thing at his “goodbye” party on “Growing Up Hip Hop.” Cast member Tahira "Tee Tee" Francis noticed. But instead of paying attention to the larger point she was trying to make about segregation and Jim Crow in the ‘20s, Tee Tee goofed and said black people were “slaves” then. Twitter lit her up all night about that gaffe.
Foot meet mouth, but brain meet book. Every time I see black people celebrating “The Great Gatsby,” I always wonder if they realize Jim Crow laws were enforced from 1877-1954. This movie theme was right in the middle of it all in the 1920s. She mentioned the wrong century, but her primary point was strong.
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While white people during this time were trying to keep melanin-rich folks in their place, there was a place for black folks to wear similar clothing, read and write way better literature, play amazing jazz music, and not have to enter and exit through the back doors. It was the Harlem Renaissance, starting in the 1910s and lasting into the mid-1930s. And as someone who almost got expelled for going at it with an entire English department (one instructor specifically and then the English department dean) about the Harlem Renaissance, I want to know why this era isn’t good enough for a party theme too.