so good as always😍you grilled me with that negative feedback loop tho… i gotta get on my zoom and expand my circle haha thanks for relighting my lost bravery🙂↕️🙂↕️🙂↕️
This is the first article I have ever read on Substack and I am so glad it is! I found your work via TikTok and your title really spoke to me as a teenage black girl who grew in up in the predominantly White suburbs of Minnesota. I feel like at times I too have fallen victim to the “High culture” fallacy and thinking I am socially “superior” to those who engage in supposedly “Low culture” activities. I believe written works like these are especially important because it is so easy to externalize a problem rather than to look inwards and see where the issue truly lies. I look forward to reading more of your work, and if no one is reading it, I am dead.
Sincerely,
A literature and commentary obsessed black girl! <3
Hey Lailah! I moved to Minnesota from the suburbs of Detroit 17 years ago. The adjustment took me a minute but now I Iove it. One of the things I found helpful is to focus specifically on why so many black cultural products are considered “low” when they share many of the aesthetic markers of “high culture.” Example - Hip-Hop, shares many formal and structural similarities with Jazz, with the line between the two genres being a constructed one. Once I was on that road, I dropped the whole “talented tenth” pose.
Anyways, I write about this extensively on my Substack if interested. If you are still in MN let me know - might need to start a Minnesota BlackStack meetup!
Hi J.D.! I am unfortunately no longer in MN, I live in the south now, AKA Houston, TX. The weather is almost unbearable here compared to MN! Nevertheless, I have never thought of challenging my internal biases by examining how Black cultural products are rebranded as “High culture” to appeal to the wider masses. The example you used of the constructed line between Hip-hop and jazz allowed to me to have a newfound realization. I definitely will check out your Substack once exam season stops kicking my butt lol, but thank you for distilling that gem of insight! <3
I’m so honoured to be your first Substack read Lailah🥹 As someone who formerly used to externalise all my problems I started writing so I could be more introspective. hope you stick with me as I pick myself apart! 🫶🏾
Articulated everything I was thinking! Great read and agree people are not aware a lot of the times how exercising their agency can impact their lived reality in this context
This is so good. That anime comment made me laugh icl. Does the commenter have any idea how large anime is within the black community? And I agree, when you reach a certain age, it becomes your job to make the effort to have black friends. If every black person distances themselves from you, have you ever thought you’re the one pushing them away?
excellent analysis! i've always found it so odd when alternative/weird Black girls say things like this and you convey the anti-Blackness of it all perfectly. as a Black girl who grew up in a majority white town and went (and still does) go to a PWI, i cannot relate. i've literally always had Black friends, even if there was only one other Black girl in my grade, she was my friend! also why are we pretending like alternative Black women are some type of rarity? if you are a grown adult with no Black friends (like, come on, girl not even online???) its giving that's a you problem. maybe there's a reason no one wants to be your friend lol.
I’ve been thinking about this exact topic! Your writing is so incredible. It’s so often internalized racism that causes people to alienate other black people to specific interests. Thus they align with whiteness instead of existing in that niche within their community.
so good as always😍you grilled me with that negative feedback loop tho… i gotta get on my zoom and expand my circle haha thanks for relighting my lost bravery🙂↕️🙂↕️🙂↕️
This is the first article I have ever read on Substack and I am so glad it is! I found your work via TikTok and your title really spoke to me as a teenage black girl who grew in up in the predominantly White suburbs of Minnesota. I feel like at times I too have fallen victim to the “High culture” fallacy and thinking I am socially “superior” to those who engage in supposedly “Low culture” activities. I believe written works like these are especially important because it is so easy to externalize a problem rather than to look inwards and see where the issue truly lies. I look forward to reading more of your work, and if no one is reading it, I am dead.
Sincerely,
A literature and commentary obsessed black girl! <3
Hey Lailah! I moved to Minnesota from the suburbs of Detroit 17 years ago. The adjustment took me a minute but now I Iove it. One of the things I found helpful is to focus specifically on why so many black cultural products are considered “low” when they share many of the aesthetic markers of “high culture.” Example - Hip-Hop, shares many formal and structural similarities with Jazz, with the line between the two genres being a constructed one. Once I was on that road, I dropped the whole “talented tenth” pose.
Anyways, I write about this extensively on my Substack if interested. If you are still in MN let me know - might need to start a Minnesota BlackStack meetup!
Hi J.D.! I am unfortunately no longer in MN, I live in the south now, AKA Houston, TX. The weather is almost unbearable here compared to MN! Nevertheless, I have never thought of challenging my internal biases by examining how Black cultural products are rebranded as “High culture” to appeal to the wider masses. The example you used of the constructed line between Hip-hop and jazz allowed to me to have a newfound realization. I definitely will check out your Substack once exam season stops kicking my butt lol, but thank you for distilling that gem of insight! <3
I’m so honoured to be your first Substack read Lailah🥹 As someone who formerly used to externalise all my problems I started writing so I could be more introspective. hope you stick with me as I pick myself apart! 🫶🏾
Articulated everything I was thinking! Great read and agree people are not aware a lot of the times how exercising their agency can impact their lived reality in this context
This is so good. That anime comment made me laugh icl. Does the commenter have any idea how large anime is within the black community? And I agree, when you reach a certain age, it becomes your job to make the effort to have black friends. If every black person distances themselves from you, have you ever thought you’re the one pushing them away?
excellent analysis! i've always found it so odd when alternative/weird Black girls say things like this and you convey the anti-Blackness of it all perfectly. as a Black girl who grew up in a majority white town and went (and still does) go to a PWI, i cannot relate. i've literally always had Black friends, even if there was only one other Black girl in my grade, she was my friend! also why are we pretending like alternative Black women are some type of rarity? if you are a grown adult with no Black friends (like, come on, girl not even online???) its giving that's a you problem. maybe there's a reason no one wants to be your friend lol.
I’ve been thinking about this exact topic! Your writing is so incredible. It’s so often internalized racism that causes people to alienate other black people to specific interests. Thus they align with whiteness instead of existing in that niche within their community.
Thank you 🥹 and clock it!