rasx() on Media: Let There Be Q
There was an idea in mind to start taking pictures of ‘thought provoking’ promotional materials out there in the “urban landscape” but I just could not get started. My initial idea was to provide visual references from “evil corporations” with some semblance of fair use. I have not checked with Lessig and paparazzi thugs but I assume that it is still legal for people who do not work for (or with) the police department to take pictures in public places… Anyway, I just could not get started! The initial idea was to show just how strict the neo-Hollywood, Black codes are when it comes to compositing people with African features into mass marketing materials. This angry study has been done before so many times in various ways… bell hooks is heavily invested in this… So I just could not get started until I saw the billboard pictured above.
Do I find this Motorola billboard offensive? Hell no! What a great place to start! I took this picture in the middle of commuting traffic because it is so rare to see images like this, on this scale, in the Americas. And I need to show off my post-teen-hormone discipline when I use the word images. I could have just as easily said the word “woman”—but sorry to say all you faithful consumers of pornography: this is an image—this is not a woman. Not to sound so high and mighty, to speak on behalf of my younger self, let me mention that this ‘image’ represents an ideal of womanhood that I would have loved—beyond love—to have been saturated with in my childhood and young adulthood. Unfortunately this was not the case. And I had to investigate this matter thoroughly because when I write love beyond love I am not fucking kidding.
The following sentence provides the executive summary of this issue for the ever-so-slightly concerned: There was not a single moment in my life when a woman that even remotely resembled this woman in this complexion and build was rejected by me because of her looks. On the contrary, kids… On the contrary… Someone is likely to ‘get to her’ before I would have… So, for those of you with the ‘proper resources’ concerned as I have been (to the core of my being) about this matter, I beg you to get your new-millennium sociological research project going. I urge you to survey 100 professional (and amateur) models that resemble the image in the billboard to query them regarding the following assertions:
- The model probably may have at least one memory of being psychologically abused by relatives or other people “close” to her during her formative years. This abuse was related to her physical appearance. The abuse could have been something as passive as neglect or something sick and active. This abuse made her appreciate kindness from anyone and eventually began to associate physical traits with kindness. This means, “Black people can’t help, white guys represent opportunity.”
- The model is very likely to have at least one devout worshipper—perhaps a priestly and sincere fashion photographer from Milan who spends “a great deal of time” in Africa. He’s got Ethiopian girls eating pasta and Nigerian girls straightening their hair. He says to me laughing in halting, broken English, “Hey, bro do not player hate.” And I’m like: ‘Hey, when in Rome… they do what they got to do…’ This guy knows more about “real Africa” than I do. You know, he did that spread on Liberian girls with the guys of the UN. This coupled with the six-figure income from photo gigs makes him an “interesting guy.” She’s got the plane tickets in the mail and she’s off to Europe, baby. What do I have? Just a bunch of dead ancestors?
- This model may be a product of hip hop. She may be an associate of someone like Idia Arie, Andre 3000 or Erykah Badu—or an associate of an associate. She can go from a few music video appearances to big-ass billboards. She could be paying her way through school following her mother’s doctoral-Black-hippie footsteps short of Alice Coltrane vegan vitality. Yeah! …Note that I do not even begin to speculate that she might come out of gangsta, bling-bling circles—because too many of these Negro patriarchs are proud to flaunt the “light-skin-ded” girls…
- This last one is highly unlikely but very potent: The model may have memories passed down from her equally photogenic mother about idealistic Blacks parading their thin veneer of African bullshit rhetoric around and, as soon as the 70s started to wane and the Black Power Party started to flip towards MTV Disco, all of these so-called Black Revolutionaries are nowhere to be found—many of them getting married to “the enemy” Baraka style. Suddenly these strong African complexions are “out of style.” The message from mother to daughter is: watch out for that “Black shit”—it’s not to be trusted.So, like I said before… on the contrary… on the contrary, kids. Once we get past the pornographic impulse we need to take a look at the behind-the-scenes footage and truly respect all human beings. We need to listen to their stories and learn about people—not faceless asses and tits wrapped up in institutionalized schoolboy fantasies. Eventually, my young 007, these fantasies will come back to haunt you. Anyway, I do not find this Motorola billboard offensive. Let there be Q baby! The only other place on the web where you can find photography like this (where the photography is produced by Black people) is megafunk.com. This is a project funkyfied by R/Kain Blaze.