For the last day of Pride and Black Music Month, I had the honor of joining the voices of some of Hip Hop biggest indie stars on NBC in a discussion around queer voices in this genre that we all know and love as we celebrate Hip Hop's 50th Anniversary year.
Well on that same day, the Supreme court found a way to literally rain on our parade.
**Before I go into my journal- I'm throwing my first hip hop music festival with my girl Mary Mac, and the homies at ArtCrawl Harlem. Pay What You Want tickets are on sale for today. I'd love it if you supported- I'm paying for this out of pocket and don't want to have to apply to work at the PYNK after the festival is over.LOL**
What happened this past week?
The U.S. Supreme Court carved out a significant exception to public accommodations laws to allow refusal of service and discrimination based on message. (In this case a web designer did not want to create a website for a same sex couple. And the Supreme Court upheld that decision.)
So, what about a cemetery that refuses to engrave a headstone with the words "beloved partner," or a web designer asked to simply announce the time and place for a same-sex wedding, or a tailor who refuses to make a suit for a same sex groom? Or what about the dressmaker who refused to make a gown for Melania Trump to wear at her husband's inauguration in 2017?- NPR
As a creative who has refused playing certain events and certain artists' music- I've rarely gotten this much pushback, but I do understand a small business having the right to choose who they provide services to- HOWEVER, it gets murky because, in the history of this country, it can turn into Jim Crow 1950s at the drop of a hat. The Supreme Court pushing through this ruling feels like a step in the wrong direction.
(it's giving 19JimCrow o'clock!)
2. The Supreme Court Overturns Fifty Years of Precedent on Affirmative Action.
In two cases, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina, Chief Justice John Roberts, joined by all five conservative Justices, held that race-based affirmative action violates the equal-protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. According to the majority opinion, the use of affirmative action by colleges and universities to admit a diverse student body violates the guarantee of equal protection of the laws and the prohibition on discrimination based on race. - The New Yorker
As a black student who went to PWIs for both undergrad and grad school. I've had to face my fair set of microaggressions and crawl my way out of the sunken place - several times while I decide "should I snap on this mofo" or "should I smile, be polite and not say anything".
You could guess that 90% of the time the culprit was a young white student (usually male) who was probably at the College due to his great-great-great grandfather being a rich purveyor or "old money" or his dad/uncle/[fill in the nepotism here) donated a large amount of money to the school and he got his pass. Not to mention, the vast majority of these kids had jobs waiting for them upon graduating. They didn't have to do anything except graduate. They could barely show up- didn't even have to make good grades- just get a diploma and a nice six figure salary titled job was waiting for them.
Meanwhile, I graduated with a 4.5 GPA (at the time it was weighted due to taking college classes in high school); I made straight A's, graduate 3rd in my class; played every sport- including basketball where we won not 1 but 2 State Titles, won the pageant title of Miss Columbia High my Senior Year, was selected for South Carolina Governor's School and was Percussion Captain and in Honors Band for 2 years- I'm going to stop there because I don't want to sound audacious- but the mediocrity in these entitled little boys for questioning my existences when I WORKED MY ASS OFF to get into this school, and they were just... BORN- existed- it was beyond disrespectful!
I'm not going to blindly say that every white student has a silver spoon in their mouths, nor that every black student comes from the suburbs where both their parents have college educations (both mom, dad (and my sister) went to South Carolina State University- our #1 HBCU in SC. I want my children to go to HBCUs as well for undergrad at the very least.) But I will say that Affirmative Action helps a lot of people that fall into groups who have been discriminated against in previous generations. (And that includes more than black folks.)
Let's be honest, statistically, white women benefit most from Affirmative Action. But we all know that wherever there's racism, there's sexism and homophobia isn't far behind. This feels like a cowardice response to progress.
OKAY, that's my soapbox (which looked amazing this past wknd)...now some joy- FIRST, Good Vibes in the Park was so dope!!! Big Up Motion <3
3.This week in memes #UknowwhatImeme (credit: @adriennemareebrown, @mytherapistsays, @kkellyyoga)
L is for Love,
Fay <3
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