Public Clownery Files: Tyrese (Pt.1)
Colonization has really done a number on the concept of identity. The categories that systemic racism has created are at times rigid and, at times, very confused. For example, the idea of whiteness, as practiced in the United States, has been in flux since its inception. There was a time when people of Italian, Irish, or Spanish descent were not considered white. Still, now people from those very different cultures have been brought into the fold of whiteness, of citizenship, away from “barbarity.” What about those of us who can never be white? The erasure of whiteness, because it is all-encompassing, affects us that are not white in strange ways.
Tyrese Gibson (or just Tyrese to those that know) shared a post on February 1st, 2024 (the first day of Black History Month) about how he wished that he was Latino because of his belief that:
“[T]he Latin community is grounded in family, loyal, entrepreneurs, businessman, and women literally represent the dream, the grind the hustle doing whatever it takes to stick together against all odds.
“If us [as] black culture was more grounded in these integral magical nuances of us we would be dominant….”
While I could drag Tyrese personally for sharing these views, I am going to extrapolate that ignorance from what our culture teaches us about how we, as Black people, view ourselves. For one, Black Latinos very much exist in the world; however, many people, even some 45-year-old entertainers who have definitely worked with Black Latinos, are ignorant of that fact. We can be multiple things, and I am not saying that Tyrese is speaking for all Black people; he certainly isn’t speaking for me, but I think in general, because of how whiteness flattens everything, we are often encouraged to choose one thing and stick to it. As our readings from this week touched upon identity and who can claim “real” representation of of A group, I would encourage us to think broader. It is a gift that those of us who will likely never be white can make choices as to who we want to be and how we want to represent ourselves. It is a shame that, at times, we need to flatten ourselves to gain resources to continue to create, but in our creative processes and the dialogue around them, we should not feel compelled to be one thing; we can be whatever we want, which is why I think Black expression is often adored and copied globally.
Black people dream, care for our own, and love our families. There is no need to be “dominant,” and nothing magical about creating community. It is a shame that Tyrese cannot be proud of his existence as a Black man because we have had to struggle throughout generations to exist.
