{"id":45592,"date":"2016-02-12T19:22:22","date_gmt":"2016-02-12T19:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=45592"},"modified":"2016-07-03T01:47:08","modified_gmt":"2016-07-03T01:47:08","slug":"on-jackson-five-nostrils-creole-vs-negro-and-beefing-over-beyonces-formation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=45592","title":{"rendered":"On ‘Jackson Five Nostrils,’ Creole vs. ‘Negro’ and Beefing Over Beyonc\u00e9’s ‘Formation’"},"content":{"rendered":"

On ‘Jackson Five Nostrils,’ Creole vs. ‘Negro’ and Beefing Over Beyonc\u00e9’s ‘Formation’<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

ColorLines<\/a>
\n2016-02-08<\/p>\n

Yaba Blay<\/a><\/strong>, Dan Blue Endowed Chair & Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science
\nNorth Carolina Central University, Durham, North Carolina<\/em><\/p>\n

As you know, the video for Beyonc\u00e9 Knowles’<\/a> “Formation” does the most, from invoking police violence, to flashing back to Hurricane Katrina<\/a>, to celebrating Blue Ivy’s<\/a> adorable afro. Here, Yaba Blay, a dark-skinned, New Orleans<\/a>-bred scholar who researches skin color and identity politics, gets into a topic we’ve been avoiding: the message Beyonc\u00e9 is sending about complexion and worth.<\/em><\/p>\n

I was born and raised in New Awlins<\/a> and never miss the opportunity to remind folks of that. So when Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s<\/a> video for \u201cFormation\u201d dropped on Saturday, I, like the majority of my homegirls<\/a>, was hype<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I wasn’t excited because I\u2019m a certified Beyonc\u00e9 stan<\/a>, because the video is visually stunning, or because this seemed to be the Blackest iteration of Beyonc\u00e9 yet. I was hype because she seemed to be reppin\u2019<\/a> New Awlins hard, and not in a tepid \u201cI heart N.O.<\/a>\u201d kind of way, but more in line with our playfully defiant brand of Blackness. That she unleashed the video during Mardi Gras<\/a> weekend? It just couldn\u2019t get any better!<\/p>\n

Until it got worse…<\/p>\n

…I cheer Bey on as she sings, \u201cI like my Negro nose with Jackson Five<\/a> nostrils.\u201d<\/strong><\/em> But I cringe when I hear her chant, \u201cYou mix that Negro with that Creole make a Texas bamma<\/a>\u201d<\/em><\/strong> about her Alabama<\/a>-born dad and her mom from Louisiana<\/a>. This is the same reason I cringed at the L\u2019Oreal ad<\/a> that identified Beyonce as African-American, Native American and French and why I don\u2019t appreciate her largely unknown song \u201cCreole<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having grown up black-Black (read: dark-skinned) in colorstruck New Awlins, hearing someone, particularly a woman, make a distinction between Creole and \u201cNegro\u201d is deeply triggering. This isn’t just for me but for many New Orleanians.<\/p>\n

For generations, Creoles\u2014people descended from a cultural\/racial mixture of African, French, Spanish and\/or Native American people\u2014have distinguished themselves racially from \u201cregular Negroes.\u201d In New Orleans, phenotype\u2014namely \u201cpretty color and good hair\u201d\u2014translates to (relative) power…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On ‘Jackson Five Nostrils,’ Creole vs. ‘Negro’ and Beefing Over Beyonc\u00e9’s ‘Formation’ ColorLines 2016-02-08 Yaba Blay, Dan Blue Endowed Chair & Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science North Carolina Central University, Durham, North Carolina As you know, the video for Beyonc\u00e9 Knowles’ “Formation” does the most, from invoking police violence, to flashing back to Hurricane […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,8413,369,8,20],"tags":[21939,22943,9947,3922,1438,7993,3343,7992],"class_list":["post-45592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-communications","category-louisiana","category-media-archive","category-usa","tag-beyonce","tag-beyonce-giselle-knowles-carter","tag-beyonce-knowles","tag-colorlines","tag-new-orleans","tag-yaba-a-blay","tag-yaba-amgborale-blay","tag-yaba-blay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45592"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45595,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45592\/revisions\/45595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}