Sigh. Aside from the distraction of Miley Cyrus’ hot assistant in the above photo, this post will (inadequately) attempt to broach a topic that I’ve been dancing around for months. Miley, who has been announced as one of the performers at the MTV VMAs, has found herself in the midst of a Twitter kertuffle. Mind you, Miley is also using her Twitter account to promote her status as the most- nominated female artist of the VMAs. Don’t ask me how that happened with one lousy single.
At any rate, Miley has pointed her stans (and detractors) towards her new collaboration with French Montana, the “Ain’t Worried ‘Bout Nothin'” remix. I won’t embed the video here because it contains NSFW language, but you can watch/listen to it over on YouTube. In the aftermath, Miley must have been receiving even more backlash because she decided to talk back to those who are accusing her of “trying to be black”:
i know what color my skin is. you can stop with the friendly reminders bitch.
— Miley Ray Cyrus (@MileyCyrus) August 13, 2013
This is, of course, an argument that’s been brewing ever since Miley stopped singing “Jolene” in her backyard and, instead, decided to cut her hair, start twerking, and snap in a few grills. Her new persona does seem contrived at best and in June, a UPenn professor named Ernest Owens wrote a fairly scathing HuffPo column entitled, “Miley Cyrus, Stop Disrespecting What ‘Feels Black’.” Ouch.
Of course, that column was really more of a rant. Owens criticized Miley for many things, including her alleged statement to “We Can’t Stop” songwriters (Timothy and Theron Thomas): “I want urban, I just want something that just feels Black.” In the aftermath, Miley hasn’t won any arguments by insisting that she’s not “a ratchet white girl” but instead is “living everyone’s dream.” I feel rather uncomfortable with Owens’ (pardon the pun) black-and-white take on the topic. Of course, I say this as not just a white girl but one who could rightfully be mistaken for a vampire, but I don’t think that Miley shouldn’t be allowed to act like a poseur if that’s what she wants to do. There should be no blanket statement that whites can’t grow by exploring relations with black culture. Sure, Miley is a sketchy example of this phenomenon because I feel like she’s just doing it for record sales, but Vibe magazine is on her side. Here’s an excerpted version of their brand new response on the topic:
Somewhere in America, someone is mad about the fact that Miley Cyrus is still twerking.
Miley Cyrus is free. She’s a legal adult, and she’s in control of her own destiny. Of course, it’s still doubtful that she can really engage you in a conversation about who had the best verse on “Reservoir Dogs,” but she’s starting somewhere with this whole phase she’s going through, and as a fan of hip-hop, I commend her for it. Miley Cyrus could have so easily fallen in line with what was always wanted and expected of her. Miley Cyrus could have went on to play concerts where people feel comfortable saying things like, “I’ll fight every n***** in here.” Instead, the first call of duty of Miley’s adult life was to get in the studio with Juicy J, and people who claim to love hip-hop have a problem with that?
Miley’s obsession with the culture is progressive.
The pioneers of this music fought for the right for Miley Cyrus to shake her ass to Mike Will Made It beats and no one is even taking that into consideration. The establishment thought rap music was a fad and now, 30-something years later, Hannah Montana is completely obsessed with it. That sh-t is poetic and beautiful.
I understand that the racial implications behind everything Miley’s doing are heavy, but let’s really think about the claims being leveraged here and consider that maybe we shouldn’t rob Miley Cyrus of her ability to be into this culture authentically. I think we should welcome her with open arms, and if anything, just hope that her quasi-fiancé Liam Hemsworth keeps a copy of It Was Written in the whip or something.
Yes, Miley Cyrus a f–king white girl who is incomprehensibly privileged, to the point that she can experiment with and buy her way into behaviors that she’ll never have to suffer for, even if people of color doing the same thing do. In some ways, Miley Cyrus is like Patty Hearst deciding that she wants to run around robbing banks with a bunch of gangsters only to be conveniently saved at the end of it all, mainly because she’s rich and white. But Miley Cyrus wasn’t kidnapped by hip-hop; she’s the perpetrator in this instance. And Miley Cyrus isn’t robbing banks; she’s making music. So I think we can all stand to be a little less uptight about it all.
I just feel like, Miley could have remained comfortably distant from blacks for her entire career, but instead she’s diving headfirst into trying to understand the culture, and I don’t want to reject her for that. She can’t help her privilege. If Miley Cyrus thinks that a musical sound and style of dancing invented by blacks are amazing, why should that be kept from her?
It’s not like she’s being ignorant about who originated her latest hobbies. I mean, Miley is literally shaking her ass while surrounded by thick black women in the “We Can’t Stop” video. She could have casted a room of lookalikes, completely whitewashed twerking, and made it a safe activity white girls could do across America while remaining gleefully oblivious to the dance’s inherent blackness. But Miley isn’t stealing twerking the way Elvis stole rock and roll. She’s paying her dues one move at a time, and to me, that’s brave and that’s powerful and more people in the community should realize this and stop trying to push her away. We don’t have to grant Miley immunity, but we can let her live and stop trying to enact social justice where none is needed.
Rap’s best artists have made it so that hip-hop as a genre and movement can’t be swept under the rug and ignored, by anyone, in the farthest reaches of our world. Miley Cyrus came in contact with this music at some point and she was obviously intrigued by it. Is it her fault that some rapper made a great song that she heard and liked? I think anybody trying to attack Miley is looking at everything the wrong way. At heart, the core of this whole new image that she’s putting out there through is just a genuine, honest appreciation for how good black music is.
Yes, it’s ignorant to deny that Miley’s skin color, background, and position in the world present some conflict in how that appreciation is perceived, but at the end of the day, it’s not that deep. She’s a 20-year-old girl who f—s with rap. She probably wasn’t even supposed to know about hip-hop, but since this culture is a pretty big thing, the pervasiveness and influence of it trickled down to Miley Cyrus eventually, and we’re seeing the result of that manifest itself today. Let’s be real, it’s pretty amazing to watch. I’m with Jay Z. Keep twerking.
[From Vice]
I agree with much of this — except that Miley seems to have changed overnight. Remember how (just a few years ago) she claimed “I’ve never heard a Jay-Z song“? So yes, I’m saying that Miley’s appreciation for urban and/or rap music seems contrived, but I also feel like it’s dangerous to set the precedent of attacking a little white girl who wants to record music with that influence. Also, is Miley’s behavior truly offensive to blacks, or does she merely look like she’s trying to be someone that she is clearly not? Help me out here.
On a lighter note, did you notice how the Vibe article slyly referred to “her quasi-fiancé Liam Hemsworth“? Now that’s some funny sh-t.
Photos courtesy of Instagram and WENN
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