WHAT DO MODERN FEMINISTS, JADA PINKETT SMITH, & "THE POLITICS OF RESPECTABILITY" HAVE IN COMMON?

4:53 AM 10/16/2023 Mon

"People hate Jada because they think women who marry attractive, successful men should only show gratitude and reverence at all times."
-A certain Modern Black Feminist, who has made a name for herself on the back of a Black woman for whom she couldn't touch the hem of her garment

The above quote comes from our Little Ms. Modern Black Feminist interlocutor's Twitter/X (that's what I choose to call the platform) timeline and, as of this writing in mid-Oct 2023, only a few days old. Our Modern Black Feminist is a prolific tweeter, with her timeline being active at all times of the day and night (the tweet in question reads "1:55 AM", for example). As a personal aside and observation, she is by no means alone - quite a few fellow traveling Modern Black Feminists are also rabid tweeters, and seem to find the time and energy to fire off barrages of them that would make former Pres. Donald J. Trump green with envy.

At any rate, it's pretty obvious that our interlocutor thinks that "Auntie Jada" is the sugar, honey, iced tea. And in a very real way, she is. For the past several years, Jada Pinkett Smith, married(?) to one of the most successful actors and before that, one of the earliest rappers to win a Grammy in the 50-year history of Hip Hop, has been publicly taking a dump on her quarter of a century marriage(?) to Will Smith. Just when you think her latest display of incorrigibly distasteful behavior couldn't get worse, she manages to dive to a new low. Baltimore must be proud.

But for our Modern Black Feminist in question, Jada's deplorable public behavior - which includes among other things, conducting an affair with a man young enough to be her son, inciting her "husband" (since she now alleges that she hasn't referred to him in that way for the better part of a decade) to assault a host of the Oscars (resulting in his ban from Hollywood) and now hawking a tell-all memoir detailing a bunch of other nonsense, is just more grist for the mill. In another tweet she exclaims, "Jada has lived a life! I love an auntie with stories" - yes. Stories of how to act a plumb dang fool.

To be fair, acting a fool isn't the sole preserve of Modern Black Feminists; indeed, and in keeping with aping their White Feminist Mistresses, acting a fool seems to be a prerequisite to being a feminist in general. A century ago, Anais Nin carried on with all manner of impropriety, complete with a meandering, multi-volume memoir detailing it all (because you see, only GENTLEMEN aren't supposed to "kiss and tell", don't you know). She too was seen as an anti-patriarchal heroine of White feminists, with a revival of her sloring it up in print coming in the latter half of the 20th century. But Nin wasn't married to an icon of Black excellence, talent, competence and respectability, like Jada. But ahhh, that's just it, isn't it? It's the respectability of Will - in image if not in deed - that's the real rub here. And that is where today's post gets down to the white meat - guided by our Modern Black Feminist's own smartphone swipes - it's the respectability, stupid.

You see, "showing gratitude and reverence" is what respectable people do when they have someone in their lives they actually admire and respect. Controlling your baser instincts and honoring your promise before others and God is what respectable people do when they get married. And keeping private matters in the home instead of making it a launching pad in the place of a stalled out career, is what respectable people do. But in the minds of Modern Black Feminists - like the one in question today - flouting all of these conventions, is "keeping it real"; it's seen as throwing off the shackles of a (White) patriarchal enforced "politics of respectability". It's seen as "Authentically Auntie".

Wow. Just...wow.

For those of you who may not know, "The Politics of Respectability"  - the term and idea itself - dates back to three decades ago in the year 1993, as the 20th century was drawing to a close. Coined by Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, a professor of Afro-American studies at our interlocutor's alma mater, the very prestigious and very WHITE Harvard University. Hmmm. Anyway, EBH is best known for her book, "Righteous Discontent: The Women’s Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880–1920", which is where the term "the politics of respectability" comes from. According to EBH, the politics of respectability "emphasizes reform of individual behavior and attitudes both as a goal in itself and as a strategy for reform of the entire structural system of American race relations.".

One wonders what EBH, now well into her 70s, thinks of what Modern Black Feminists like out little lady interlocutor has done with her idea? We don't know for certain, but we can certainly point to evidence of their handiwork in our time today. For example, Ms. Modern Black Feminist has a YouTube video called, "Being "Good" Won't Get Black Women Wifed" (Jul 15, 2023), in which she makes the case that good behavior and the expectations of civility, kindness and decency won't get Black women "wifed" and as such, they should just focus on other pursuits instead - with a a side order of uncouth, of course. Talk about single women keeping women single, huh?

Or, how about this one: "Black Feminism, Popular Culture, and Respectability Politics", a Mar 31, 2016 YouTube video presentation by Brown University's Tricia Rose. Among other things in her address, were asides to Beyonce' and Nicki Minaj as exemplars of sistas fighting the power. Or, "The End of Respectability: Black Feminism and Ratchet Politics", another YouTube video presentation by the ever-expanding "Professor Crunk" Brittany Cooper of Rutgers University (Sep 24, 2022). A brief synopsis reads in part, " A lecture by Brittney Cooper examining the construction and practice of respectability politics as rational and rooted within a specific historical context as a means to secure claims to citizenship, political and social power, and selfhood for Black people, which have ultimately failed to materialize. Instead, Cooper argues that the practice of respectability politics are anachronistic and unproductive, and instead proposes that political possibility lies in the refusal to conform to power structures, and to acknowledge the costs of patriarchy, heteronormativity, and Black exceptionalism in order to get free." Cooper in fact seems to have been one of the mothers of "Ratchet Feminism", which is defined in part as follows:

"Ratchet feminism emerged in the United States from hip hop culture in the early 2000s, largely as a critique of, and a response to, respectability politics. It is distinct from black feminism, womanism, and hip hop feminism. Ratchet feminism coopts the derogatory term (ratchet). Other terms used to describe this concept include ratchet womanism as used by Georgia Tech professor Joycelyn Wilson or ratchet radicalism used by Rutgers professor Brittney Cooper. Ratchet is an identity embraced by many millennials and Gen Z black women and girls. The idea of ratchetness as empowering, or of ratchet feminism, has been articulated by artists and celebrities like Nicki Minaj, City Girls, Amber Rose, and Junglepussy, scholars like Brittney Cooper and Mikki Kendall, and through events like Amber Rose's SlutWalk." Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

One wonders about the effectiveness of this "ratchet politics" - a post for another day, for sure.

To be fair, and as it turns out, our Modern Black Feminist actually interviewed the great EBH herself on the term she gave a name to, eight years ago almost to the day, called "Wrestling with Respectability in the Age of #BlackLivesMatter: A Dialogue". I leave it to you, dear reader, what to make of that interview. (For the record I thought it was an interesting, if a bit rambling, read). In the meantime, if you're interested in seeing and hearing for yourself what Prof. Higginbotham has to say about the matter in her own words, by all means I invite you to checkout her presentation, "A Quarter-Century of "The Politics of Respectability" on YouTube, Nov 15, 2019. Based on my reading of the good professor, I am not entirely sure she would agree with "Professor's Crunk"'s oppositional stance today.

At any rate, it is clear that today's Modern Black Feminist - like our interlocutor here - clearly thinks that being civil and respectful, to say nothing of respectable - isn't something any Black woman should strive towards, and especially with regard to any Black man - no matter how tall, handsome, accomplished, or faithful he may be. In the mind of Modern Black Feminists, Black women should be free to "live a life full of stories" - no matter how many lives they wreck in the process - just like "Auntie Jada" Pinkett Smith.

Yay.

My name is Mumia Obsidian Ali, a founding father of the Black Manosphere and one of the four horsemen of the Black Manosphere Conclave, and I approve this message!