More often than past times are young black women, much like myself, embracing eccentricity. In a world where style is so personal, the ‘weird’ black girl has often been a trope that people embraced because it’s so close to reality. A lot of us are considered out of the norm and are often afraid of embracing it for whatever reason it may be. One common reason may be fearing not being accepted. Rejection is crippling and feels like the end of the world when all you want to be is yourself.
Acceptance starts with you. Because you should choose yourself before killing yourself for the validation of people who won’t look your way past the cool outfits and surface level interests. People often conflate what is deemed as ugly to be morally wrong, Which is a whole topic in itself—but as a girl who is BLACK BLAAACKITY black, after living years as the weird, quiet girl, you realize:
Nobody really wants to be weird.
Or the odd one out. At first it seems cool, but slap being black on top of it and suddenly it’s not the wave anymore. If you were on Instagram during a certain time period, during maybe 2017-19 you'd remember your Bhad Bhabies and dooozens of white people biting off of black culture and then loudly screaming that "NO ONE WANTS TO BE BLACK ANYWAY!" on Instagram-live rants.
No big deal if you don't really remember it, you'll see it happening a lot today, so long as you have a pair of eyes.
What does it have to do with anything? Well, these are just some thoughts I've had while listening to Charcoal Baby by Blood Orange.
To me, the song is about not limiting yourself because of things you can't change. A black swan in a sea of white swans is, very much the feeling of a black person in alternative circles or just trying to exist at all. It's okay to feel left out but know that, sometimes people just won't accept you.
Just go where you feel wanted and needed.
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