But enough with the pleasantries lets get straight to it. Although I was refraining at all costs to make my first blog post about this racist white woman, I decided after I received a good deal of commotion on a status I wrote about her to take the time to break down my lines of thinking concerning why I find her pictures with the Arizona can to be problematic. I'm sure for many of you my leap in the status from Trayvon Martin to the sexualization of the black male body was a Grand Canyon sized one. For those of you that don't know, my ADHD defines a large part of who I am, so often times my thoughts move way faster than I can even express at times. So, lets slow this thing down right quick with the hopes of making my ideas clear to you all.
In case anyone has not seen the photos in question here they are:
In order to understand the ideas ascertained from these photos you must view these two photos in the context of all the other photos Miley takes with Terry Richardson. Those photos can be found on his blog terrysdiary.com. In addition, Miley Cyrus' recent grotesque displays of cultural appropriation must also be taken into context to understand where i'm coming. I'm not going to go into the VMA performance because i'm sure you've all seen it and heard the arguments that she uses her black dancers as accessories (also it's just a shitty performance all around so I don't want to give it anymore life than it already has stolen). But keep those sentiments in mind while I lay my thoughts out.
When you look at her recent media displays it's painfully clear that she is flirting with black culture. While i'm sure that black people will never be her target market, she is most definitely trying to capitalize on the 'cool factor' that is part and parcel to black culture ('cool factor' from a capitalist, lets make money off of the niggers stand point). When you watch that piece of shit video for that piece of shit song with her, mike will made it, and Wiz my above point cannot be any clearer. She wants to tote herself like a black woman without having to take on any of the racial oppression that is a part of being black. Essentially, she wants to be 'the down white girl' (whatever the fuck that means).
With all that in mind lets cut to the photos from the Terry Richardson shoot. Throughout those photos she performs her minds idea of what blackness is, what it looks like, how it comports its body etc. That this shoot is another one of Miley's minstrel shows is the most obvious when you look at the photo of her with the blunts in her mouth with a tshirt on you would see Kid Cudi wearing and her throwing her fingers in the air like gang signs. That photo ladies and gentleman is Miley Cyrus telling us what she sees when she looks at black people. Miley Cyrus continues to tell us what black people, specifically now black men, look like to her in her photo with the Arizona can that's doubling as a penis (ouch!). I'm not going to explain why that's a phallic reference because we all know it is, and if some of us don't google articles about phallic symbols and educate yourself please and thank you.
So, if so far we have shown that Miley Cyrus has been essentially performing in black face recently, and if we have shown that this photo shoot is a continuation of that, then it is safe to say that her understanding and perception of the black male body is a sexual one. The grape flavored arizona iced tea can is a clear symbol of blackness here (we all know black folk love grape flavor and they love arizona), the can is also quite large; therefore black males = big dicks (If you missed the jump there re-read this paragraph). Miley Cyrus is making the statement that the essence of the black male is sexual predator and since she has made subtle (but not so subtle) statement after statement that she wants to participate in blackness, in that photo she is screaming that she wants the black man to do his job and fuck her (for anyone that feels the need to talk shit right now, this is not an assumption. She left her white fiance and is messing around with the producer Mike will made it who is black).
In the midst of her yearning to sexually express herself through her performances of blackness, the only thing Miley Cyrus actually expressed is that she is a culturally unaware fucking idiot. Why so harsh you ask? Well because the girl who's trying to parlay into black culture (in addition to further codifying black males as sexual beasts with large schlongs) used a socio-political cultural symbol that JUST RECENTLY caused great pain in the black community. Skittles and Arizona will never be the same; however, Miley Cyrus chose to ignore the weight of those symbols and include them as props in her minstrel show anyway. I'm sure if you ask her why she did it her answer would be "The Arizona iced tea can isn't a racial symbol, it's just my favorite drink" (see http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/earshot/miley-cyrus-racist-vma-criticism-635529)
R.I.P. Trayvon Martin
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