As A Formal Black Girl, I Forgive You Willow.

In a last ditch attempt to incorporate some optimism into my blog, I will say that I’ve had a change of heart towards Willow Smith. I will move her off of the “people to hate” list and use Carrot Top as a stand in for the time being. I watched the music video of her ‘whipping her hair back and forth’ and was strangely moved. This could be for a number of reasons. Reason #1 probably being that I thought I was black until the age of 8. I hope the ridiculousness of this statement can be eased by the fact that I get tanner than most white people in the summer and have very curly hair. Also, I listened to 3LW a lot throughout my childhood. Similar to the crushing sadness a child feels upon uncovering the rouse that is Santa Clause, I was absolutely devastated to learn I was nothing more than a white girl. My mother broke the news to me rather insensitively. I clearly remember attempting to braid cornrows in my downstairs bathroom when out of no where my mother appeared in the mirror and exclaimed, “This has gone far enough. You are not black.” I'm sure she thought it was just a phase. Slowly I learned to take on my racial identity as the “middle class white girl” and traded out Janet Jackson for Shania Twain and cornrows for pigtails. So, as a formal black girl (mentally speaking) I am learning to like Willow Smith.