Hoops and Everything

Telling one group of people they can't wear a certain type of jewelry or makeup because those things are popular with another group of people....

When students questioned the message painted on the wall, Alegria Martinez, a resident assistant at the college sent out this email:

[T]he art was created by myself and a few other WOC [women of color] after being tired and annoyed with the reoccuring [sic] theme of white women appropriating styles … that belong to the black and brown folks who created the culture. The culture actually comes from a historical background of oppression and exclusion. The black and brown bodies who typically wear hooped earrings, (and other accessories like winged eyeliner, gold name plate necklaces, etc) are typically viewed as ghetto, and are not taken seriously by others in their daily lives. Because of this, I see our winged eyeliner, lined lips, and big hoop earrings serving as symbols [and] as an everyday act of resistance, especially here at the Claremont Colleges. Meanwhile we wonder, why should white girls be able to take part in this culture (wearing hoop earrings just being one case of it) and be seen as cute/aesthetic/ethnic. White people have actually exploited the culture and made it into fashion.”

I love how she says that white people made it into fashion. What can you say to that, other than, "you're welcome"?

Another student, Jacquelyn Aguilera, had this to add:

“If you didn’t create the culture as a coping mechanism for marginalization, take off those hoops[;] if your feminism isn’t intersectional, take off those hoops[;] if you try to wear mi cultura when the creators can no longer afford it, take off those hoops[;] if you are incapable of using a search engine and expect other people to educate you, take off those hoops[;] if you can’t pronounce my name or spell it … take off those hoops,” Aguilera said, clarifying that “I use ‘those’ instead of ‘your’ because hoops were never ‘yours’ to begin with.”

I remember when feminism meant you wanted women to have the same personal, social, and economic rights as men. Now you have to be "intersectional". This is how you make enemies out of people who have no desire to be your enemy. This is how you get eight years of Trump.