Miley vijftig jaar na Martin

Je kunt er niet om heen: vandaag precies vijftig jaar geleden was de March on Washington for jobs and freedom en hield Martin Luther King Jr. zijn beroemde en iedere keer weer indrukwekkende speech.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.

Als je als blanke man in Zuid-Limburg woont, denk je: we zijn toch wel een eind gekomen die afgelopen vijftig jaar. Maar als blanke in Meerssen weet je natuurlijk niet hoe het is om gekleurd te zijn in Amerika. Gisteren las ik gefascineerd enkele commentaren op het optreden van Miley Cyrus tijdens de MTV Video Music Awards.
Mocht je het optreden niet gezien hebben, artistiek gezien heb je niet zo veel gemist:

Het commentaar in de media ging vooral over de obsceniteit en platheid van het optreden. Zie bijvoorbeeld hier, hier en hier. Tja...
Toen las ik, ik weet niet een meer hoe ik er kwam, dit stuk: Solidarity is For Miley Cyrus: The Racial Implications of her VMA Performance:

Okay.... but can we talk about the problematic and racist nature of her performance? Her literal use of people as props? Her association of her newfound sexuality with the traditional codifiers of black female culture, thereby perpetuating the Jezebel stereotype that black women are lewd, lascivious and uncontrollably sexualized? Can we talk about the straight up minstrelsy of that performance? Can we talk about how not a single black person won an award last night even though the people who did win awards have been mining black music and culture for years?
No? Ok... I'll just sit at the back of the bus then. #solidarityisforwhitewomen

See the problem isn't that they talked about slut shaming. That deserves attention. The problem is that they completely sidestepped the other glaring teddy bear in the room, and that is the commodification of black female sexuality in Miley's performance. But it's not a thing that white women deal with, so it didn't warrant inclusion or discussion by the white-led mainstream feminist media.
So I'll include it here. What Miley did last night was easily one of the most racist displays I've ever seen. From her insistence on twerking, to her use of all black women as literal props (they were teddy bears) to her smacking of her dancer's ass and the simulation of rimming, it is very clear to me, that Miley thinks that black women's bodies are to be enjoyed, devalued and put on display for entertainment purposes.

En dan volgt een heel uitgebreid, hier en daar weliswaar wat warrig, betoog over het gezag ("agency") dat zwarte vrouwen hadden over hun eigen lichaam, minstrelsy (wat wij beter kennen als blackface), "black female sexuality", twerking en wat niet al.

Zoals gezegd, als blanke, bijna veertigjarige Nederlandse man kan ik hier inhoudelijk nauwelijks iets over zeggen. De enige constatering die mogelijk is, is dat de droom van Martin nog altijd niet uitgekomen is...