native, latina, and black girls have been pushing boundaries and trends with what little monetary means we have for as long as the collective american fashion memory exists; it’s been us who have been making and wearing jewelry considered gaudy, cheap, and obnoxious, it’s been us making fashion statements our of dollar tube tops and high waisted leggings, it’s been us doing our hair tight or big, we are the origin of resourcefulness, girls on reservations and in the poorest neighborhoods were drawing on their beauty marks and getting glossy long before girls on instagram, we are queens of the dollar store and beauty shop, and it astounds me that not only are these looks being taken without a nod to the source, they are being put at designer price points. meanwhile we’re still out here doing our highlighter with two dollar shimmer eye shadow and scrubbing thrifted white adidas shoes clean with plastic toothbrushes, and we’re looking great
(Source: soih)
I love Junglepussy and Dev Hynes music but using Miss Lilys as some kind of authentic Jamaican aesthetic cred for their video shows that they don’t actually look into things like black owned businesses.
Miss Lilys is a 100% culturally appropriated restaurant owned by European white men who fetishize females of color in service positions.
Last summer it was over 100 degrees in the restaurant with no air conditioners and the owners refused to replace them. I broke out with a rash all over my face and arms. One of the line cooks fainted and would have fallen into a vat of hot oil had the other cook and busboy not held him up from falling.One of the (non-black, non-American) owners also put up a confederate flag in Jamaican colors in the dining room. He said verbatim “It’s like reclaiming the word nigger” to these press photographers who came to photograph the flag in the space for a feature in a magazine. There is so much to this story. I have a an entire project/book coming about it.
If you want to be seen as truly “woke” as a part of your identity as an artist you need to see it all the way through. I am in no way devaluing their talent and I’m sure they didn’t know, but that’s kind of the point. People need to understand how racist Miss Lilys is, and soon they will.
I’m far from perfect but if you show me where I contributed to something hurtful I will always move to fix it.