“A word can be reclaimed, or reconstituted...”

September 28, 2016 3:26 PM

On Carefree Black Boys: Understanding the Appeal of the 'Carefree' Aesthetic to Black Male Musicians From Young Thug to Chance the Rapper [MTV] “Chance has found a slogan to represent what is irrepressible in him: #BlackBoyJoy. Following his appearance at the 2016 VMAs, he started sharing photos of himself at the event, preening, dancing, and posing, with the hashtag. He was a natural spokesman. Others followed suit, posting photos of boys and men frolicking and grinning. The #BlackBoyJoy hashtag preceded Chance’s use of it, and its origins are in the broader, voguish idea of “carefree blackness.” Like the loose digital community that bore it, this carefreeness has an ambient quality, a collection of aesthetics and identities that many laud as a generalized form of activism.”
posted by Fizz (4 comments total)

Thank you for sharing this! I've been thinking a lot about the idea of carefree in relation to the how mainstream culture views it and how people actually live, and it has brought me back to the 70s and how a lot of the fashion and attitude moved from the "groovyness"of the times and the contrast with the Reagan 80s. Sometimes it seems that people were too carefree for the conservative movement, disco was actually bringing people together in a joyful way and that seemed to be too much. I'm glad that the idea of carefree is coming back, however, I wonder if it's a luxury for some and a burden for others to try to be carefree.
posted by reedcourtneyj at 5:15 PM on September 28, 2016 [5 favorites]

I like that we're living in a world where various people of colour, minorities, disenfranchised groups are taking back spaces that were once taken away from them and/or forging new ones to express themselves.

I love that we're using the power of the Internet to do this: Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Tumblr, etc. It does suck that such projects are necessary and it speaks to the fact that there is still much more room for improvement and empowerment, but still very inspiring.
posted by Fizz at 6:20 PM on September 28, 2016 [5 favorites]

There's amazing stuff happening on Black Twitter. I mean, I'm just an Asian American woman peeking in on all this, but #blackboyjoy and #blackgirlmagic make me so damn full of wonder and delight. I'm still tweeting about what I ate for breakfast and folks are transforming collective subjectivities.
posted by spamandkimchi at 6:25 PM on September 28, 2016 [7 favorites]

I like this. I love seeing men smile in public and resent the idea that it's ever unprofessional or inappropriate.
posted by michaelh at 8:09 AM on September 29, 2016