WEBVTT - What Makes A "Professional" Black Girl? with Dr. Yaba Blay 0:00:11.280 --> 0:00:15.200 Welcome to PM mood, the no Talking Points, no Bullshit 0:00:15.320 --> 0:00:18.880 podcast that takes you behind the curtain, off the red carpet, 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:21.880 and to the front lines of progress with change makers 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:24.880 and innovators that are doing the work to shift our 0:00:24.880 --> 0:00:29.880 culture and expand our social impact. I am so so 0:00:30.040 --> 0:00:38.000 excited to welcome to PM mood. The wonderful, the fabulous scholar, activist, 0:00:38.159 --> 0:00:45.560 public speaker, creator, brilliant mind behind Professional Black Girl, doctor 0:00:45.880 --> 0:00:49.639 Yaba Blair. Welcome to PM Mood. I am so excited 0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:51.760 to have you here. Thank you for having me. You know, 0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:55.080 I have to tell people that if you have not 0:00:55.960 --> 0:00:59.680 seen the web series Professional Black Girl, if you are 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:06.320 not following Professional Black Girl on Instagram, you are missing out. 0:01:06.760 --> 0:01:09.839 Everybody who knows me knows that I am full of 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:13.480 doom and gloom. But the place that I go to 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:18.480 for sunshine, for happiness, for the celebration of black women 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:22.800 is Professional Black Girl. Yeah, but tell me what made 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:27.120 you launch Professional Black Girl? You know, a Professional Black 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:30.640 Girl was a project that I actually didn't set out 0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:34.280 to make into a thing. It kind of became a thing. 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:37.480 I actually was trying to do another show that didn't 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:40.840 pan out, But essentially I was living in North Carolina 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:43.600 for about three years in Durham, and when I moved there, 0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:47.400 I came across one of the largest beauty supply stores 0:01:47.440 --> 0:01:50.560 I have ever seen in my entire black life. It 0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:54.720 is a converted grocery store, so they're like, wow, something 0:01:54.840 --> 0:01:58.559 aisles of product and hair and just all kinds of things. 0:01:58.600 --> 0:02:02.440 And I have always loved beauty supply store, so random 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:06.120 actually had ascerations of owning one. And so really the 0:02:06.160 --> 0:02:09.520 first time I oh, yeah, the first time I went there, 0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:12.440 I was there for like two hours, and it was 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:15.040 just like an adventure for me. And so, of course 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:17.080 I had moved to a new city, and so my 0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:19.120 home girls were coming to visit and see about me, 0:02:19.200 --> 0:02:21.040 and every time one would come, I'm like, you want 0:02:21.040 --> 0:02:24.120 to go to beauty World. And so we'd be in 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:27.720 Beauty World like kids in a candy store. And I mean, 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:30.320 we could go down an aisle, open up a bottle 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:33.280 of pink or moisturized or smell it, and immediately be 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:37.720 transported back to our team. And what I recognized was that, 0:02:37.919 --> 0:02:43.160 you know, we bonded so much over not just beauty culture, 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:47.240 but what felt like essentially a black girl experience. And 0:02:47.320 --> 0:02:50.320 so I just had this bright idea. I wanted to 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:54.120 film another series that would be based in the beauty 0:02:54.120 --> 0:02:59.400 supply store. Unfortunately, the proprietor of Beauty World would not 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:01.440 let me film in the store, which is a whole 0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:05.399 other critical conversation, but in any case, the plan originally 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:07.160 was to do this show in the beauty supply store 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:10.320 and then to end each segment with a feature of 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:13.200 what I was calling a professional Black girl. At that time, 0:03:13.280 --> 0:03:16.440 I had already started using the hashtag professional black Girl 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:20.200 as a way to note and shout out things that 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:23.560 I saw that were like peak black girl nows. And 0:03:23.600 --> 0:03:26.560 so when I say a professional Black girl, the professional 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:30.320 part is subversive. Right Again, attached to that moment in 0:03:30.400 --> 0:03:32.920 time in my life, I was teaching at an HBCU, 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:37.080 which I felt was going to be a great home coming, 0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:39.280 which it was for the most part, because I had 0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:41.840 spent most of my career teaching at PWISE. But what 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:46.880 I know just was that my black women colleagues and counterparts, 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:50.920 many of them, were training our black women students away 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:54.480 from themselves, meaning they were saying things to them. You 0:03:54.480 --> 0:03:57.000 know that you have to look this way, dressed this way, 0:03:57.080 --> 0:04:00.640 speak this way in order to be seen as professional 0:04:01.080 --> 0:04:03.960 in the quote unquote real world. So whether they were 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:08.240 doing that at HBCU, this respectability I mean, because that's 0:04:08.280 --> 0:04:12.200 like peak respectability politics right there. I mean yeah. But again, 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:15.560 you know, with proper contextualization, we know the history of 0:04:15.680 --> 0:04:19.400 HBCUs right that many of them weren't even started by 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:22.159 black people. They were started by well meaning white folks 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:24.599 who wanted to show niggros how to act. So it's 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:27.760 in line with the history, right that you have to 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:31.520 basically change who you are in order to be received 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:34.680 well in the quote unquote real world. And so you know, 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:38.200 having students who might have been named Keisha Danielle being 0:04:38.200 --> 0:04:41.240 advised to go by k Danielle or being advised to 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:45.039 put on another voice, you know when they answer the 0:04:45.080 --> 0:04:47.800 phone for a job interview and things of that nature. 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:50.279 And you know, me too black for my own good, 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:54.320 I was completely you know done, because I'm if you 0:04:54.320 --> 0:04:57.000 could see me right now, my eyes are like wide open, 0:04:57.120 --> 0:04:59.800 like I am like out done to put on the 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:02.000 yes I put on what take the base out of 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:04.920 your voice? To take the black out of your voice? 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:09.080 You know, And again it's no particular shade to HBCUs 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:12.520 alone because most of the world acts that way, right, 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:14.280 most of the world treats us that way. Most of 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:17.440 the world has that expectation of us that we have 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:20.440 to change fundamentally who we are in order to be 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:24.040 received well. And so me saying professional black girl was 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:26.520 a way for me to turn that language on its head, 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:28.839 so that if you're a little black girl, you know, 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:33.240 dancing in front of your computer tiktoking like, that's professional. 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:36.360 You know, if you got your baby hair's laid, that's professional. 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:39.160 And so the things that I connected as like peak 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:42.120 black girlness, I was calling that professional black girl. So 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:45.239 I just connected those dots. And so the first season, 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:47.719 if you watch the web series, is essentially on my 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:50.479 home girls who came to visit, and I did segments 0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:54.080 with each of them talking about what made them professional 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:56.320 black girls. And so I knew that folks would enjoy 0:05:56.360 --> 0:05:59.480 it and appreciate it. I was not prepared for it 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:02.719 become a thing. Usually the projects and campaigns that I've done, 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:05.839 I've got a plan somewhere in my head. I didn't 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:09.719 have a plan for this. It really just became what 0:06:09.760 --> 0:06:12.280 it is and what it's become on its own. I mean, 0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:16.640 did you realize just how needed it was, right, Like, 0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:20.480 did the need surprise you that people were you know, essentially, 0:06:20.520 --> 0:06:22.960 and I said this at the top, you created an 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:27.159 oasis for black women in the desert of our lives. 0:06:27.240 --> 0:06:31.440 We are so invisibilized in so many spaces and places, 0:06:31.560 --> 0:06:33.919 and you see us where you shocked by that the 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:37.000 one thing that you didn't plan right to pop off, 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:40.000 it really did pop off on its own. I wasn't 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:43.800 surprised or shot. It definitely took me aback, but I 0:06:43.920 --> 0:06:46.080 rolled with it. You know, here we are, y'all love it, 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:49.880 Let's keep it going. I wasn't prepared for it, if anything, 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:51.480 and I really did, Like I said, I didn't have 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:53.240 a vision for it, and I didn't know what it 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:55.760 would take to keep it going. But we kept going, 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:57.440 and so it was interesting. And you know, it started 0:06:57.480 --> 0:07:01.320 as the web series. I posted on YouTube and Facebook, 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:03.479 and then when it was over, of course, folks are like, 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:05.280 what's next, and I'm like, well, I don't have any 0:07:05.320 --> 0:07:08.279 more money, so I don't know what's next. So that's 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:11.440 when I launched the Instagram page. So the Instagram page 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:14.440 actually came almost a year after the first season of 0:07:14.480 --> 0:07:16.800 the web series, launched and that was just the way 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:20.360 to try and hold folks over, and so it has 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:24.760 really grown in those last almost three years. Now then 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:27.200 I'm like, okay, I want a season two. Then we're 0:07:27.240 --> 0:07:29.080 going to have to create it. And so I launched 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:33.480 the Kickstarter and was able to raise the funds needed 0:07:33.560 --> 0:07:37.080 in order to film season two, which is based in 0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:40.280 New Orleans, and that kickstarter we may go in two days, 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:43.200 and by the end of the thirty day campaign we 0:07:43.240 --> 0:07:45.640 had almost doubled it. And so again it was just 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:50.640 really affirming and again just really making me aware, as 0:07:50.640 --> 0:07:52.560 she said, how much it was really needed and how 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:54.560 much we just really want to see ourselves. And so 0:07:54.640 --> 0:07:57.280 I was shocked by anything. I think. I was shocked 0:07:57.280 --> 0:07:59.880 by the simplicity of it. You know, like we're not 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:02.760 asking for much, Like even in the spaces that we 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:06.400 would name black right in the media and the quote 0:08:06.440 --> 0:08:09.000 unquote black shows that we get, the black programming that 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:11.840 we get, it's still a particular type of blackness. It's 0:08:11.880 --> 0:08:15.560 still you know, whether it's stereotypical or whether it's one 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:20.160 that it's aligned with respectability. Everybody can't relate. So either 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:23.000 you're looking down on it and being too critical of 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:26.600 it or you're aspiring to be that, and there's really 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:29.480 not a lot of middle ground to say, like, that's me, 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:32.319 that's a reflection of me just as I am. And 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:34.800 so I really believe that, particularly for black women and 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:38.160 for black girls, that's what professional black girl represents for them. 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:41.240 It's just a simple reflection of who we are, without judgment, 0:08:41.360 --> 0:08:43.920 you know, with lots of affirmation. One of the things 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:46.280 that I particularly love, and I mean the full disclosure 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:50.320 to people listening. I send Yaba pictures and videos like 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:54.319 everybody else does. On a regular basis. I see something, 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:57.360 I'm like, oh, this has to be buzzing. Normally you've 0:08:57.400 --> 0:09:00.360 already seen it and I've already put it in your election. 0:09:00.440 --> 0:09:02.360 But one of the things that I do love is 0:09:02.480 --> 0:09:06.000 when you kind of check people in the comments section. 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:09.079 You know, you can kind of see in some ways 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:13.800 with some post how respectability politics kind of comes in. 0:09:13.960 --> 0:09:17.200 Where you'll post a video, like you said, of a 0:09:17.320 --> 0:09:20.679 young black baby girl, you know, dancing or rapping or whatever, 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:24.679 and then always in the comments will be, well, I 0:09:24.720 --> 0:09:28.000 hope she knows her ABC's or like I hope you know, 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:31.400 I hope she's getting an education, or that mother shouldn't 0:09:31.400 --> 0:09:34.280 have done, you know, So how do you deal with 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:37.000 again you check folks in the comments, But I know 0:09:37.080 --> 0:09:40.720 that it must be disheartening too, right because you're creating 0:09:40.720 --> 0:09:44.600 this space to celebrate all the different layers and levels 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:49.360 and contextualizations of blackness, and yet you see that play out. 0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:51.680 I mean at first, I mean, I was of course 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:54.080 taking it personal, not just because it was my project, 0:09:54.080 --> 0:09:56.000 but it's also me, you know what I mean. I 0:09:56.000 --> 0:09:58.840 don't see myself separate from black women and girls in 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:01.360 the variety of ways that we show up in the world. 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:04.679 But I think, if anything, what was disheartening, and I 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:08.040 say was in the past tense because now in this moment, 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:10.680 I make conscious decisions about who I'm going to engage, 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:12.040 and while I'm not a lot of times I let 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:14.360 the comments sit there and let the community deal with them, 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:16.640 or I just selete and block them. You know, I 0:10:16.640 --> 0:10:19.160 don't want to spend too much time in that negative space. 0:10:19.200 --> 0:10:21.720 But the thing that is hurtful and disheartening is, for 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:24.400 the most part, yeah, they're white trolls that come through 0:10:24.400 --> 0:10:26.240 and say whatever they say, but a lot of it 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:30.600 is from us, and so again, me trying to meet 0:10:30.640 --> 0:10:33.280 folks where they are not trying to judge. I know 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:35.760 where those comments come from, because again, there is this 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:39.880 anxiety about how we present ourselves in the world and 0:10:39.920 --> 0:10:43.760 what that will mean ultimately for our conditions in this country, 0:10:43.760 --> 0:10:46.760 as if those things are aligned, as if white supremacy 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:49.839 is actually making a decision where you're doing something this 0:10:49.880 --> 0:10:52.360 way and that's why we are treating you this way. 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:55.400 One has nothing to do with the other, right, And 0:10:55.440 --> 0:10:57.840 so I think for me, it's more disheartening that we 0:10:58.160 --> 0:11:01.120 same situation with having gone to an HBC, you having 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:03.680 taught at an HBC, you having worked at an HPCU. 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:06.560 It's disheartening to know that a lot of times we 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:09.960 are most critical of ourselves. But again it's very much 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:14.480 deeply seated in internalized white supremacy. And so again, you know, 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:17.680 I make decisions about who I engage, but it also 0:11:18.200 --> 0:11:20.800 fuels me to want to do it more. The thing 0:11:20.800 --> 0:11:23.400 that's also interesting, and I'm keenly aware of right now, 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:25.760 and I question is I don't know that professional Black 0:11:25.800 --> 0:11:27.880 Girl would be what it is, or would have been 0:11:27.920 --> 0:11:30.360 able to become what it is, had I not been 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:34.080 doctor Yaba Blay. It's like I have the privilege of 0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:37.920 affirming the variety of ways that we are, because folks 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:39.319 would be like, well, she must know what she's talking 0:11:39.360 --> 0:11:42.000 about because she's a doctor, or maybe this is research, 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:44.880 or you know, both and kind of thinking. And so 0:11:45.040 --> 0:11:48.240 I wonder if I wasn't doctor yaba blay, if folks 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:51.720 would take this seriously, which is also a problem. Yeah, 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:53.720 and you know what, I didn't even think about that, 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:56.840 but I wonder. I wonder if not for that, but 0:11:56.920 --> 0:12:00.240 also your very large body of work. Right, I was 0:12:00.360 --> 0:12:02.720 very fortunate enough that you asked me to be a 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:05.440 part of Pretty Period, And I want you to talk 0:12:05.480 --> 0:12:09.360 about Pretty Period as well, because again, you do so 0:12:09.440 --> 0:12:13.440 much to block white supremacy and lift us up. And 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:15.800 I know for me in the work that I do, 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:18.719 how challenging that can be. But I look at you 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:21.600 from the outside and I say, wow, she really turns 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:27.520 these what feels like some days insurmountable challenges into exceptional beauty. 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:31.120 And I feel like Pretty Period was one of those moments. 0:12:31.120 --> 0:12:33.320 So can you talk about that project and that work. 0:12:33.440 --> 0:12:37.120 I'm in that project hashtag pretty Period, and the visual 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:40.160 project that came out of that was really Again, when 0:12:40.160 --> 0:12:42.000 I think of the body of my work. Most of 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:45.160 it is a reflection of my own existence. You know, 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:49.600 unlike many academics, you know, we're trained to separate ourselves 0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:52.760 from my work allegedly, right that there's this thing. What 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:55.439 am I trying to say, Danielle, We're supposed to remove ourselves? 0:12:55.559 --> 0:13:02.680 Oh yeah, so how much? I don't do that? But yeah, 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:05.760 you're like, what's that word? Right? We're supposed to be 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:08.520 objective somehow. Thankfully for me, the blessing is that I 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:11.120 was trained in Black studies at Temple University, the home 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:15.480 of afrocentricity, and we were trained to center ourselves that 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:19.200 as black people, particularly, that it is dangerous for us 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:22.280 to separate ourselves from black people in order to quote 0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:26.000 unquote study them. So I've always centered myself in the 0:13:26.040 --> 0:13:28.680 work that I do. So my dissertation was on skin 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:32.760 bleaching in Ghana because I am a first generation Gunny 0:13:32.800 --> 0:13:36.640 and born in America whose maternal aunt bleached her skin 0:13:36.760 --> 0:13:40.160 for most of her life. She died unexpectedly. I've always 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:43.679 believed that it was because of the long term effects 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:46.680 of having those chemicals on and in her body, and 0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:50.679 so I wanted to research that. It became my dissertation, 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:55.120 Skin color politics my expertise since because I'm a dark 0:13:55.120 --> 0:13:58.240 skinned black girl who grew up in color struck New Orleans, 0:13:58.360 --> 0:14:01.640 and I knew that I would black black, you know, 0:14:01.720 --> 0:14:04.720 from a very early age. I knew colorism from the 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:06.920 time I was a child, before I even had the 0:14:07.000 --> 0:14:10.720 language for colorism. And so pretty period for me. Whereas 0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:13.719 a lot of my academic work seemed to, as you say, 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:16.640 doom and gloom, it seemed to as a lot of 0:14:16.679 --> 0:14:18.440 the work we do as black people and poor and 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:22.800 about black people, our approach to fighting white supremacy oftentimes 0:14:22.920 --> 0:14:26.320 is unveiling and unmasking the incigious ways in which it 0:14:26.440 --> 0:14:29.760 operates and functions and impacts our lives right, which is 0:14:29.840 --> 0:14:34.200 necessary work, but it's also draining work. I remember coming 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:36.280 to a point where it's like, I don't know how 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:39.200 long I can keep doing this because I don't want 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:40.600 to get out the bed every day to deal with 0:14:40.640 --> 0:14:42.760 this world, you know. And so there was a turning 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:45.960 point for me where my approach to fighting white supremacy 0:14:46.120 --> 0:14:49.920 was to sensor black joy and black possibility and black hope. 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:52.480 And I feel like it is an honor to our 0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:55.840 ancestors to nod to our ancestors to recognize that, like, 0:14:56.240 --> 0:14:58.360 we're not supposed to be here, you know, Like how 0:14:58.360 --> 0:15:01.320 did we survive? And I will not dismiss joy as 0:15:01.320 --> 0:15:05.120 a part of our survival mechanisms. And so pretty Period 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:08.160 was really about turning the conversation of colorism on his 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:10.280 head in a particular way to say, yeah, we know 0:15:10.400 --> 0:15:12.680 these things are happening, not to dismiss them. We're going 0:15:12.720 --> 0:15:15.040 to continue to do work to call it out, but 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:17.720 we're also going to affirm who we are. So no, 0:15:18.360 --> 0:15:21.640 I'm not pretty for a dark skinned girl, I'm pretty period, right, 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:24.640 So we can question beauty standards in the ways that 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:27.360 they are seated in white supremacy and the ways in 0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:30.760 which oftentimes our beauty or our ability to be seen 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:34.200 as beautiful as predicated on white normative standards of what 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:37.120 beautiful is. And so we are always comparing ourselves to 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:39.720 white standards, we will always come out in the negative, 0:15:39.840 --> 0:15:42.600 you know. And so pretty period was about affirming who 0:15:42.600 --> 0:15:45.200 we are as we are, because again, I'm such a 0:15:45.280 --> 0:15:49.440 visual person. I know how much representation matters, even censoring 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:51.840 my own experiences, but I know how important it is 0:15:51.880 --> 0:15:54.640 for us to be able to see ourselves, which is 0:15:54.680 --> 0:15:58.400 why I'm so in love with social media in this moment, 0:15:58.480 --> 0:16:01.000 for better or for worse. But I love that in 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:04.600 this moment, we are not solely reliant upon the quote 0:16:04.640 --> 0:16:07.720 unquote mainstream black or white to show us ourselves. So 0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:10.720 y'all can create whatever shows y'all want. But we also 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:13.760 don't have to buy cable anymore. We don't have to 0:16:13.800 --> 0:16:17.440 tune it into your network. We've got lots of creative, 0:16:17.600 --> 0:16:21.840 brilliantly creative folks creating content online. You know I don't 0:16:21.840 --> 0:16:24.800 have cable. Yeah, a lot of people cut the corn, 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:28.880 you know. You know I can see myself every single 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:31.880 day on my phone, on my computer. You know. The 0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:36.400 benefit of this generation now has hashtags Melanan magic, Melan mondays. 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:39.280 You know, so many folks bigging up Melanan, so many 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:43.000 folks honoring the beauty of dark skin. Like, that's beautiful 0:16:43.080 --> 0:16:45.760 to me that we don't have to wait to the 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:48.880 mainstream to show us ourselves. Because I was twenty four 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:51.360 years old before I saw was that alect wack. Yeah, 0:16:51.400 --> 0:16:54.840 I lect wak on the cover of Elle magazine, and 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:57.880 I remember literally jumping up and down in the aisle 0:16:57.960 --> 0:17:00.440 of the A and B in New Orleans seeing her 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:02.520 image on that magazine. I was twenty four years old. 0:17:02.560 --> 0:17:04.760 Even though you know, again the dark the light thing 0:17:04.840 --> 0:17:08.120 is all relative to experience, right, So what folks might 0:17:08.160 --> 0:17:11.080 have been saying even now, what folks say, are dark 0:17:11.080 --> 0:17:12.720 skinned women in the media, they don't look like me. 0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:15.760 The hair doesn't look like mine. So yes, I affirm it. 0:17:15.920 --> 0:17:18.320 Thank god they're there. Thank god we do have some 0:17:18.480 --> 0:17:22.399 variety now. But I'm still not seeing myself. Now I 0:17:22.400 --> 0:17:25.040 can look on Instagram and see women my complexion and 0:17:25.240 --> 0:17:30.080 darker and everybody's affirming that they're beautiful. That's magical to me. 0:17:30.600 --> 0:17:32.159 You know. I want to go back to one of 0:17:32.200 --> 0:17:35.800 the things that you just said with regard to centering 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:39.760 black joy as a way to battle against white supremacy, 0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:43.040 because the idea, right like, there was something that just 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:47.000 came up recently on social media, social media, Black Twitter 0:17:47.080 --> 0:17:51.200 having to come to the rescue of a young black 0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:55.959 woman entrepreneur, you know, having her hair products in Target 0:17:57.400 --> 0:18:00.600 and her commercial airs. You know, in the commercial, she's 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:03.399 talking about the fact that she wants other young black 0:18:03.440 --> 0:18:05.960 girls to be able to see that they can be creators, 0:18:05.960 --> 0:18:08.159 that they can be entrepreneurs, that they can do these things, 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:15.359 these white women came for her in the comments in 0:18:15.440 --> 0:18:20.520 the reviews to trash this woman's products, all because, all because, 0:18:20.560 --> 0:18:24.960 she said in the video, I hope that young black 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:29.080 girls can see that they can be entrepreneurs. Yea, all 0:18:29.160 --> 0:18:33.199 lives matter. I just don't you know some days and 0:18:33.280 --> 0:18:34.720 I you know, the question that I have for you 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:37.280 is just like, how do you hold on to joy? 0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:40.439 For me, it's a struggle on a day to day basis. 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:42.520 I mean, I host another show called Woke as Fuck 0:18:42.600 --> 0:18:45.640 for Christ's sakes, like it is a daily struggle to 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:49.440 try and be that conscious every single day. How do you, 0:18:49.960 --> 0:18:53.760 in the face of white supremacy that just never seems 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:58.520 to slow down, that never seems to get exhausted, continue 0:18:58.560 --> 0:19:01.520 to cent her joy in your life. I'm very particular 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:03.760 about what I allow into my space. In a lot 0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:06.560 of ways, I'm willfully ignorant. I don't tune into everything. 0:19:06.600 --> 0:19:09.199 I don't watch the news. Call it what you want to, 0:19:09.440 --> 0:19:12.040 but if I did, I'd be depressed every day. It 0:19:12.119 --> 0:19:14.320 would be doom and gloom for me. I'm not willing 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:17.440 to sacrifice myself, my health, my mental health, my well 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:20.399 being just to be informed. I know what the world 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:22.200 is I know what the world is going to be. 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:24.560 I don't want to see it every single day. Now. 0:19:24.600 --> 0:19:26.119 That doesn't mean I don't want to fight it. That 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:28.760 doesn't mean that I don't come to see it. But 0:19:28.800 --> 0:19:31.280 it means that I'm not centering my life on looking 0:19:31.280 --> 0:19:35.199 for it or being consumed by it. For me, I 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:40.360 find it a privilege to be very particular about my environment, 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:42.439 about who I let into my space, about what I 0:19:42.520 --> 0:19:45.159 let into my space, and quite honestly, my life is 0:19:45.280 --> 0:19:50.120 black as fuck, and I love feated in black stuff. 0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:52.359 I go to black things, I talk to black people, 0:19:52.480 --> 0:19:54.879 I love on black people. My work is about black people. 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:57.520 So yeah, at white folks, they follow a professional Black Girl. 0:19:57.640 --> 0:20:00.480 Lots of white folks follow and support my world, even 0:20:00.520 --> 0:20:03.760 to know that season two A Professional Black Girl was 0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:07.400 filmed by a white man and his wife, and I 0:20:07.440 --> 0:20:11.280 admit that I was hesitant at first to work with them. 0:20:11.720 --> 0:20:13.960 For everything that I am right, I want to support 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:18.359 and work with black creatives primarily. But my co producer, 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:20.119 who was on the ground in New Orleans, which I 0:20:20.119 --> 0:20:22.359 needed because I wasn't in New Orleans at the time, 0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:25.280 she was like, look, I work with them, they are amazing. 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:28.320 Trust me. I trusted her, and it was one of 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:31.119 the best experiences creatively that I've had. And what I 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:34.960 appreciate about them was the fact that he knew to 0:20:35.000 --> 0:20:37.879 step back. He knew this wasn't about him, he knew 0:20:37.920 --> 0:20:40.720 that this was about black women and girls, and he 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:44.720 would always always defer to me to make sure that 0:20:44.760 --> 0:20:47.639 this message was coming across how I wanted it to. 0:20:48.240 --> 0:20:52.000 And I appreciate him so much for knowing his place. 0:20:52.560 --> 0:20:55.520 And many people don't have that opportunity to work with 0:20:55.560 --> 0:20:59.160 white people in that way. And so yeah, I'm very 0:20:59.160 --> 0:21:01.439 particular about I work with, you know, the kinds of 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:04.960 environments that I'm in, the kind of experiences that I have. 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:07.960 I recognize again that it is a privilege I don't 0:21:08.040 --> 0:21:10.640 have to work with white people on a daily basis. 0:21:10.920 --> 0:21:13.480 And again, there are white folks who support my work, 0:21:13.720 --> 0:21:16.440 but they also know their place, right, They're not coming 0:21:16.480 --> 0:21:19.200 in my comments talking about oh, when I was little, 0:21:19.280 --> 0:21:21.280 or what about me? Most of the folks that come 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:23.760 into the comments with that don't even follow the page. 0:21:24.040 --> 0:21:26.840 They probably found a post on their Explore page. They 0:21:26.920 --> 0:21:29.280 want to come and lend their voice. And so because 0:21:29.320 --> 0:21:31.879 I ask Petty as I am, I will let you 0:21:31.920 --> 0:21:35.320 write an entire paragraph thinking that you're about to engage, 0:21:35.320 --> 0:21:38.120