Black Black

You know when something’s so offensive it doesn’t even register? Or, to paraphrase Dave Chappelle, something’s so racist that all you can say is ‘that was racist!’ That’s what happened to me when I read the ‘black black’ paragraph in US Esquire’s Jay-Z profile. Before I even get into it, let’s take a look at the quote.

“Jay-Z is black black. He is old-school double-dark-chocolate-chunk black. He is black the way Labatt is blue. He is not white black, Barack black, like our president. Or the kind of black that doesn’t curse and deplores the n-word, the genteel black, like Oprah. He is, arguably, the first black-black guy to cross over into Oprah-land and Bill Clintonworld without making the Oprah-sized no-look-back forward flip that means you’re selling not necessarily your soul but perhaps something fleshier, a little more external.”

Let’s start with the quote ‘Old-school double-dark-chocolate-chunk black’. It’s a phrase so offensive I can’t believe it made it into print. Did no one read it and think that rating blackness on a chocolate based Richter scale could be viewed in a negative light?

Without breaking down the quote word for word, The main gist of it is that not there are levels of blackness and cultural traits that can be considered white or black. Barack Obama doesn’t fit into these, so he’s ‘white black’ – an offensive phrase whether it’s referring to his mixed race heritage or character traits. Oprah doesn’t make the cut either, as she’s one of the ‘genteel’ blacks. Never mind all she’s achieved, she doesn’t swear or call people nigger, so therefore isn’t black enough in the Taddeo’s book.

It’s rare that people call things racist nowadays, mostly because it’s become a slur on par with pedophilia, but the above quote is a racist one. I’m not saying Lisa Taddeo is a racist – I’m sure she has black friends, maybe even black black friends and a colored TV – but what she wrote is undoubtedly racist.