blackness – Jason Toney

February 3, 2025 / 0 Comments

Los Angeles Soul

On the second day of Black History Month, Doechii said this as she accepted the GRAMMY award for Rap Album of the Year:

“Anything is possible. Don’t allow anybody to project any stereotypes on you that tell you that you can’t be here, that you’re too dark, or that you’re not smart enough, or that you’re too dramatic, or you’re too loud. You are exactly who you need to be right where you are, and I am a testimony.”

I imagine the black women who make up more than half of the 2024-25 UCLA Bruins Women’s Basketball Team understand this already. Earlier in the day at Pauley Pavillion, the theme was Black Excellence, and it was on display on the court and in the stands. Lauren Betts, the tallest player on the floor, had the most assists, while the smallest, Londynn Jones, had the biggest impact. They both happen to be young black women in incredibly different packages. UCLA fought through a sluggish first half and Minnesota’s pack-the-paint defense to continue their undefeated streak and reign as the number-one team in the country. Meanwhile, Black students were the focus of the in-arena entertainment. Ari Waller hosted as Melanin & Medicine, the National Society of Black Engineers, the Nigerian Students Association, Afro-Latinx Connection, the Bruinettes, and the members of the Divine Nine made their presence known.

UCLA women’s basketball home games don’t usually feel particularly black-coded. They don’t have the South LA patina that USC Trojans’ games bring. What UCLA brings to the table is public school charm, enthusiasm, and earnestness. A Bruins athletic event is a student-run affair with current students most in mind. With that comes the centering of their beliefs, hopes, dreams, and the values the school is trying to deliver to them during their time on campus. That includes making room, space, and time for all those who attend and their incredibly varied backgrounds.

So on this Sunday, a little bit of that Black Los Angeles Soul was in Westwood, and when Lift Every Voice and Sing played before a performance of The Star Spangled Banner, it hit different. American history is filled with violent and despicable acts of regression, and we are in one of those periods now. This time, however, is particularly callous and brazen. Federal agencies are prevented from celebrating or acknowledging identity-based holidays or events, like Black History Month. At the same time, the Trump Administration attempts to roll back years of progress for all Americans.

They not like us.

And, as Alicia Keys would state even later in the awards ceremony at Crypto.com Arena, “DEI isn’t a threat; it’s a gift.”

May 13, 2018 / 0 Comments

This is America

“America, I just checked my followers list, and you motherfuckers owe me.”

— Young Thug

I intended to write this last Sunday just 12 hours after Childish Gambino’s This is America entered the public consciousness as song and video. I’d watched the visuals several times by that point. I’d seen the SNL performance. I’d listened to the music alone on Spotify. I’d read the many Twitter reactions and overreactions.

But I didn’t have the words. A week later, I’m not sure I have them now either but if you feel the urge to write, there’s no reason to put it off.

This week, I’m grateful for art and artists that defy definition. This is America is dense and complex and complicated. It’s bold and obtuse. My brain hasn’t entirely been able to wrap around it and hold it with any certainty. Donald Glover has chosen not to explain it’s intentions or meaning. I appreciate that.

It is somewhat tricky, I imagine, to create art in 2018 that can survive the hot take unblemished. On David Letterman’s Netflix show, Tina Fey discusses the impact of the social media reaction to her SNL Weekend Update bit from last August. She’s not even on Twitter, and the hot takes bruised her bit—a segment that I still think is pretty good—and her perception of it.

This is America, though, remains a thing to be unpacked and considered and reconsidered. Even as the remixes and memes began yesterday, I found it undiminished. What I most appreciate about Glover’s recent works—with this song, with Atlanta, hell, even his acceptance speeches at awards ceremonies—is that he isn’t overly precious with Black American popular culture. For him, it is a thing that exists and to be treated the same as any other aspect of the American experience. He respects it on it’s face. He does not feel the need to explain or defend it. He recognizes that it is a thing to be played with, challenged, deconstructed and reconstructed.

Blackness can handle it. The people it represents can handle it. In fact, we’re better for it when we neither apologize nor overly celebrate what we make and who we are. He centers blackness. Full stop.

We use terms like unapologetically black or, in the past, unforgivable blackness. For my money, what feels different about Glover’s current output (and Beyonce’s Coachella performance and, perhaps, Janelle Monae’s Dirty Computer) is that they remove those signifiers. There are no demands of their presentations of blackness other than to be.

This is America, man.

This is us.

We are America.

And I’m grateful.

January 30, 2015 / 2 Comments

Unforgivable Blackness 2015 Edition: Ava DuVernay and Marshawn Lynch

“I don’t know if these industry mofos overlook us cause they might be afraid. They don’t know if we get the spot like that, you might not get your spotlight back for a couple decades.” – Black Milk, Losing Out (Let’s Talk)

Rembert Browne’s entertaining “Rembert Explains” podcast’s latest episode featured Mychal Denzel Smith discussing the thru-line between director Ava DuVernay’s approach to her work and the criticism of that work and the NFL’s Marshawn Lynch who has become famous not only for his spectacular play on the field but for his refusal to follow the rules of the league which he deems absurd.

This refusal to play “the game” is what rankles people. On a recent @Midnight, Chris Hardwick ranted because he was so annoyed with Lynch’s unwillingness to eat shit. We all have things we don’t want to do at our jobs, he harangued. Suck it up and take it. We all have to do that.

Except, maybe you don’t.

DuVernay sees no value in exerting energy towards gaining acceptance into the Hollywood establishment. In fact, she thinks it’s futile. In this episode of KCRW’s The Business (the other podcast I listened to today), DuVernay essentially breaks down her whole mission statement. Why knock on doors that the person on the other side has no interest or incentive in opening for you? Build your own house. Open your own door. I was struck as I have been every time she’s spoken about Selma over the last few months with how certain, confident, and driven she is. Ava takes no shorts.

It reminded me of the now decade old Ken Burns documentary about boxer Jack Johnson: Unforgivable Blackness. This idea of being unwilling to modulate who you are to succeed in the great American experiment and still succeed anyway because you are just that damn good? Yes.

Let’s keep doing this. And to hell with just being unforgivable. Don’t apologize.

Those made uncomfortable by it are undeserving of an apology, anyway.

Their discomfort is the world’s progress.

#beastmode
#changetheworld

Let’s go.