“Dreams are always crushing when they don’t come true. But it’s the simple dreams that are often the most painful because they seem so personal, so reasonable, so attainable. You’re always close enough to touch, but never quite close enough to hold and it’s enough to break your heart.”
— Nicholas Sparks, Three Weeks With My Brother (via books-n-quotes)
And after, I couldn’t bear the ocean for thelongest time. Until today, when for the first time I wanted to touch the sand again. And after I got back home I realised that you would never be able to forget me; that like that sand you can never completely free yourself of me. You think you’ve washed me all away and then you find me in between your toes or in your ears, laughing and making you miss me. Reminding you of how good it felt to be covered in me and how nothing can even remotely compare.
Black people, who invented hip-hop, jazz, and rock and roll, have long been tastemakers of American cool. In many ways, fashion, music, and slang are dictated by black people no matter how little credit they get for it..
In fact:
āOur research shows that black consumer choices have a ācool factorā that has created a halo effect, influencing not just consumers of color but the mainstream as well,ā said Cheryl Grace, senior vice president of U.S. Strategic Community Alliances and Consumer Engagement, Nielsen.
Thus, presumably, if you want to be cool and sell records, you ought to start acting black. In fact, itās great if youāre not black and act black because you get the benefits of being cool without the baggage and limitations of being subjected to racism.
Its what the Kardashians, Iggy, Justin Bieber, Ariana, and alot of other celebrities do in order to rise in popularity as well as be accepted into the black community.
Ā
Grandeās music is largely influenced by hip-hop and R&B, meaning that in order to build a fanbase, she needs to court listeners (ahem, black folk) with those musical preferences.
Grande, who is quick to shut down any perceptions about her ethnicity being anything but Italian. Most people presume Grande is Latinx, not necessarily black, when mistaking her race, but I am here to tell you,Ā most Latinos are part black, sis.Ā
Thus, for years, Latinx women have been sounding the alarm: Grande is doing brown face. Look at her tan!! Look at how she speaks! Look at her music!
The point is: Most of us donāt get to pick and choose which parts of blackness we get to have ā only white folks seem to have that luxury. And we need to give her the SAME ENERGY we give the kardashians.
