Racism

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Eugenie Bouchard: Taylor Swift ‘portrays herself as the victim a lot’

Canadian tennis pro Eugenie “Genie” Bouchard is seen by many as one of the future stars of the game. She’s got “the look” of a tennis star – she’s blonde, adorable and bouncy, and she gives off a puppy-ish energy that is definitely endearing. She’s currently ranked 40th in the world, but many expect her to really step up to the plate in the coming years. And like so many youngsters (Genie is just 22 years old), she’s very in tune to pop culture. I mean, so is Serena Williams, but Genie is still so young, she’ll talk on the record about celebrity gossip in the middle of her press conferences. Case in point: Genie was playing the Citi Open this week in DC, and at her press conference on Wednesday, she was asked about the ongoing Kimye-Taylor Swift controversy. Genie has previously professed her love of all things Taylor Swift, and has even met Swift backstage at one of Swift’s concerts last year. But Genie is tired of Swifty’s perpetual-victim shtick. Oh, Genie! I heart you. Start around the 5:55-minute mark. A tennis star with a HUGE backhand directed at Taylor Swift — says she’s sick of the singer always portraying herself as the victim … just like she’s doing in the Kanye West feud. The tennis star is 22-year-old Eugenie Bouchard — who’s a huge pop culture fan — and was asked about the Taylor vs. Kanye situation after she was knocked out of the Citi Open this week. “This is probably the hardest question all day,” she said. “I love Taylor Swift and I went to her concert and I love her songs and everything, but I feel like sometimes she portrays herself as the victim a lot and she did this time around, and that she said she wasn’t aware of that specific line. The B.I.T.C.H line. But she heard the other line about having sex so, I’m like really, what’s the huge difference? You approved the thing where Kanye said he’d have sex with you, but you didn’t hear the time he said b****? Come on. It’s all the same thing for me. I think she just way overreacted. I think she just tried to get attention by saying she didn’t approve of that. But it’s the celeb world, and it’s just entertaining. It entertains me when I’m on my own in D.C.” [From TMZ and News.com] Dear Taylor Swift: when your core audience – white women in their teens and 20s – turns on you, it’s time to pack it up and go silent for a few months. No more emails to TMZ. No more implicit racism to People Magazine. No more words. Just drop it, take some time off, get a massage, go for a run and regroup. I mean, half of the #Taymerica squad won’t even publicly defend her!! And now her high-profile fans are saying that Tay is just acting like a thirsty liar with the Poor Innocent Blonde Child act. Best. Night. Of. My. Life. @taylorswift13 pic.twitter.com/Vu1g67r3JK — Genie Bouchard (@geniebouchard) July 8, 2015 Photos courtesy of Genie’s Twitter, WENN.

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Iggy Azalea thinks she’s a victim of racism because she’s been called ‘Becky’

We are about to reach Peak Irony with Iggy Azalea, and I can’t help it… I am giggling the entire way through this. First, let’s do some backstory. When Beyonce dropped the lyric “you better call Becky with the good hair” on Saturday night during HBO’s Lemonade, the internet exploded. Most people understood the reference as I understood it: Beyonce was telling her husband to call one of his white side chicks. “Becky with the Good Hair” was, to me, simply a reference to a bland, basic white woman, or perhaps just a non-black woman. As it turns out, some people believe that “Becky” is slang with a more specific meaning, something about blow jays. Perhaps some people combine the two meanings to mean a white woman giving oral sex. Which brings me to Iggy Azalea. On Monday night, she was just sitting on Twitter, interacting with her fans, as one does. One of her “fans” called her a racist and that’s when Iggy sort of had a meltdown, because… she’s been the victim of racism too. Because people have called her Becky. First, she responded by tweeting: “girl BYE. do you know how many time ppl have called me BECKY? it didnt have any kind of positive intention behind it. dont start. generalizing ANY race by calling them one sterotypical name for said race. i personally dont think is very cool, the end.” To which she got some replies: @FameKillz_ the point is: no one likes to be called out their name or generalized. the end. — IGGY AZALEA (@IGGYAZALEA) April 25, 2016 @rNicaRo I love you too, but something doesnt have to be in order for me to be uncomfortable with it. — IGGY AZALEA (@IGGYAZALEA) April 26, 2016 Do you see the argument she’s making? She’s been a victim of racism too, people. She’s been maligned racially because people called her Becky. Iggy continued by tweeting other replies to other people, writing: “Those are my feelings about it because of the way the name has been directed towards me in real life…other people might not mind and that’s fine too, but i personally want to be called by my own name. don’t stress it…its clearly not okay for me to call any other race a generalized name (i agree)…but at the same time, you know its intention is “white” thats why you called me that… to be called a generalized name that gained popularity as a way to describe oral sex and then generally white women. no thanks. [From Iggy’s Twitter] So now outlets are running headlines like “Iggy Azalea slams Beyonce for racism!” And “Iggy Azalea says ‘Becky’ is racist!” I will say that if Iggy doesn’t want to be referred to as a Becky, she should not be. But I’ll also say that I think this might be a case of textbook white fragility, in that Iggy Azalea is a culturally appropriating, racially insensitive white Australian who honestly thinks she too is a victim of racism. For being called Becky. Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.

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Emma Watson needs a better explanation for her Lancome skin-whitening ads

Several years back, Emma Watson got a lucrative beauty contract with Lancome. She became one of their “faces,” and she appeared in print ads for many different Lancome products. Her contract is done at this point, and I have no idea if Lancome simply didn’t renew it or if Emma just didn’t want to be in their advertising anymore. But this week, people started discussing a print ad from 2013. The print ad (seen above) features Emma as the “face” of a skin-whitening Lancome product being sold in Asia. As you can imagine, the reaction was really, really bad. People have been itching to write off Emma as just another non-intersectional white feminist, and this gave them a perfect opportunity. Beauty companies have long sold “skin lightening” products in countries with large (or nearly exclusive) populations of non-white women. Lancome is not the first nor will they be the last. Colorism, racism and the white-dominated hierarchy of beauty standards all come into play when we talk about skin lightening. We’ve talked about it before too, with Freida Pinto talking openly about her disgust for Indian society’s obsession with getting lighter skin. Anyway, the conversation centered around Emma and how she’s basically Peak White Feminism because she has profited from selling this bulls—t. So Emma’s publicist came out and this was literally the only statement made. “I cannot comment on my client’s previous contractual arrangements with Lancôme. However, my client no longer participates in advertising beauty products, which do not always reflect the diverse beauty of all women.” [Via People] If it sounds like Emma’s people are sort of throwing Lancome under the bus, that’s because I think they are. I also think there’s a very real possibility that Emma’s images were used by Lancome for skin-whitening products without her explicit or implicit endorsement. Oh, and a Lancome representative told People: “Blanc Expert was created by Lancôme 20 years ago. It helps brighten, even skin tone, and provides a healthy looking complexion. This kind of product, proposed by every brand, is an essential part of Asian women’s beauty routines.” [Via People] That pisses me off more than Emma’s rep’s statement. Skin-lightening products are not now and never have been an “essential” part of Asian women’s beauty routines and f—k you very much for saying so, Lancome. As for Emma and white feminism… I find Emma less harmful than someone like Lena Dunham, honestly. I think Emma is trying and she’s attempting to educate herself beyond the narrow feminist beliefs she held just a few years ago. Does she deserve some backlash? Sure. Does she owe her fans a better explanation of why her image ended up on skin-whitening ads? Yes. But Lancome is the villain here, make no mistake. Photos courtesy of Lancome, WENN.

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Iggy Azalea: ‘I’m not going to suddenly start rapping about political matters’

This is the second five-page, intensive, wordy magazine interview I’ve read in the past 24 hours. Tina Fey was worth it – Iggy Azalea is not. Iggy covers the new issue of Elle Canada and she looks like a sad Barbie doll in the editorial. While she freely admits that she’s had work done – and sure, I’m happy that she admits it – I still don’t understand why she’s messed with her face to this extent. She was pretty before all of this. Anyway, Iggy is about to release her new album, Digital Distortion. And she’s trying to rebrand herself in ways beyond her new face. In this Elle interview, she even comes close to sounding regretful. You can read the full piece here. She’s back on social media after a self-imposed hiatus: “I’m back. But this time I’ve given myself some rules so I don’t get too sucked in again. For me, what happened, not just on social media but with everything in my career, was like a whirlwind. I started to feel like I was losing control over my own life… I even think back to the Papa John’s incident and ask myself ‘Why did that piss you off so much?’ I see now that it spiralled into something so quickly because I felt like I didn’t have any power over my own life. At that point, I needed to take some time, step away and just get that control back.” Her fraught relationship with the hip-hop community: “So many people think that I don’t care about rap music and the community, but I absolutely care about it, to the core of my being. That’s why the Q-Tip incident annoyed me so much: Why do you think I need a history lesson? Because surely if I did know anything about hip hop, I wouldn’t mix pop and rap together? Or I wouldn’t rap in an American accent if I truly understood? I just have a different perspective about rap music. I love learning about hip hop, I love reading about it and I actually love having debates with other people about it.” Whether there are valid criticisms aimed at her: “Do you not like me because I rap with an American accent and I’m not American? Well, that’s valid on some level because that’s your opinion and I can’t change that. But I’m not trying to sound black—I just grew up in a country where on TV and in music and film, everyone was American or any Australian person in them put on an American accent. So I never saw it as strange at all. And I think it’s hard for Americans to understand this because, when you look at the entertainment industry, American culture is the dominating culture across the globe. A lot of people say ‘Imagine if someone rapped with a fake Australian accent.’ Well, okay, but you don’t turn on the TV and hear American people with fake Australian accents, so I don’t think it’s a fair comparison. I grew up watching Nicole Kidman speaking with an American accent in every movie. Even Keith Urban sings with an American country accent. And that’s just what you have to do to make it in this industry and be accepted. It’s what I heard and it’s what I saw, so how can you not understand that that would be influential for me?” The racial part of the conversation: “It’s black culture and black music, so it becomes a racial conversation—versus Keith Urban, who is making country music, which is considered white. It becomes a very muddy area. And it became especially difficult in 2015. The United States has such a fraught history with race, and I don’t think I realized how prevalent racism still is and how hurt people still are until I moved here and saw it for myself. As I was growing up in Australia, it was easy to think ‘Well, that was then and obviously it’s not like that now.’ It’s not something you can understand when you’re on the other side of the world. But many people think I still live in that bubble and that I don’t understand that the United States is set up in a way that doesn’t benefit minorities. I’ve lived here for 10 years now, and I don’t want it to be that way either. I’m marrying a black man, and my children will be half black—of course I care about these things. And I understand if you’re not comfortable that I rap with an American accent, and you are totally entitled to your own opinions, but you don’t have to listen to my music. I’m still going to keep making music.” Her future goals in music: “I think it’s important for music to reflect what is going on socially and for there to be those kinds of voices within the industry. But I want to be that person you can listen to for four minutes and not think about that stuff at all, and it’s important to have that too…. I’m not going to suddenly start rapping about political matters; it’s just not what I do. There are other great people who do that, like Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole. I’m not here to offer that commentary, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care. I don’t think everyone has to be everything—like, does Katy Perry have to start making songs about politics? I think it’s good to still be able to have a little fun.” Her plastic surgery: “I think, in 2016, people should be more accepting of the fact that both famous and non-famous women are having cosmetic procedures. That’s just the reality. And I think more people need to admit that sh-t so it doesn’t have to be so taboo—because we’re all doing it anyway. I wanted to change my nose because I didn’t grow up with a bump on it—that happened when I got smashed in the face with a soccer ball when I was 16. Now I feel like my nose looks the way it’s supposed to look. But for how long do we have to acknowledge that I got a nose job? For the rest of my life?… There’s nothing black and white about beauty or plastic surgery. There are no guarantees that it will fix how you feel about yourself. All of those women [who criticize someone for having surgery]—if they had $10 million in their account tomorrow, I’d dare them not to change one thing about themselves or at least think about it. Yes, there are some women who wouldn’t change a thing, but, for the majority of us, we’d be thinking about that one thing. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I just hope that in 25 years the conversation will shift to where if a woman wants to change her body, all we say is ‘Good for her!’ instead of shaming her for making decisions about her own body.” [From Elle Canada] G—damn it, I found myself agreeing with her at several points in this interview. Do I still think she’s a culturally appropriating douchebag? Sure. But I also see her point – to a certain extent – about how American culture dominates across the world, and how that affected how she raps. Does that explain everything? No, of course not. I also think she should be forgiven for everything involving Azealia Banks, because those moments were not actually about Black Lives Matter or any serious conversation, it was about how Iggy and Azealia absolutely despise each other. Photos courtesy of Elle Canada.

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Charlotte Rampling: The #OscarsSoWhite debacle is ‘racist to whites’

Charlotte Rampling got a “surprise” Oscar nomination for her film 45 Years. I still haven’t seen it, although the reviews for Charlotte in particular are wonderful. Rampling was snubbed for nominations at many awards shows (including the BAFTAs), but the Academy showed her some love… at the same time they were actively snubbing artists of color. So when Charlotte was doing a French radio interview this week, she was asked about the growing controversy of #OscarsSoWhite. And Rampling showed off why she’s so popular with the over-60, overwhelmingly white Academy voters. Oscar nominee Charlotte Rampling has claimed the current campaign to boycott the 2016 Academy Awards over claims of a diversity deficit is racist to white people. Asked for her take on the current furore over all-white lists of nominees on French Radio network Europe 1 on Friday morning, the British actor did not mince her words. “It is racist to whites,” she said. “One can never really know, but perhaps the black actors did not deserve to make the final list,” added Rampling. Asked if the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences should introduce quotas, a proposal which no current advocate of increased diversity has mooted, she responded: “Why classify people? These days everyone is more or less accepted … People will always say: ‘Him, he’s less handsome’; ‘Him, he’s too black’; ‘He is too white’ … someone will always be saying ‘You are too’ [this or that] … But do we have to take from this that there should be lots of minorities everywhere?” When the interviewer explains that black members of the film industry feel like a minority, Rampling replies: “No comment.” [From The Guardian] We can all shake our heads and roll our eyes, but HAND TO GOD, this is honestly how many Academy voters feel. And I’d just like to point out how sad/hilarious/insensitive it is for an old white Englishwoman to claim that white people are the victims of racism. It would be like Winston Churchill claiming Indians were racist against him. When a group that has historically been the oppressor of other races suddenly claims to be the victim of racism? It’s almost magical. An angel just got his wings. Photos courtesy of WENN.