PAGE 15 THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2022
LIFE OLD GOLD & BLACK
Adam Coil, coilat21@wfu.edu Josie Scratchard, scraja20@wfu.edu
Jack Harlow uses his position for others The Louisville rapper uplifts Black rappers in his fame and fortune
for Best Melodic Rap Performance with Lil Nas X and Album of the Year as featured artist and songwriter. Harlow has also won two Billboard Music Awards for fan-voted Top Collaboration and Top Rap Song. Beyond just producing
great music, Harlow is a stand-out for being a successful white rapper/R&B singer in a predominantly-Black industry. Way back in 2017, Nicki Minaj made the comment, “It’s a great time to be a white rapper in America”, and she wasn’t wrong. While Harlow is immensely talented, a stream of white rappers followed the trajectory of Eminem, Machine Gun Kelly and Post Malone, all of whom have surpassed certain Black artists that may be better at rapping but fade in this industry. No doubt, it’s hard to be in the spotlight as a white rapper as there are tons of judgments, criticisms and comparisons thrown around, but that doesn’t really matter when the spotlight is where the money gets made. However, Harlow has been using the spotlight to highlight Black women and Black artists in general. He collaborated with Lil Nas X — an openly-gay, Black rapper — and on all his albums and in his music videos, he features women of color. While there is an argument to be made that it seems as though he’s sexualizing these women, it can easily
be counterargued that this is due to the nature of rap more than Harlow’s desire to fetishize and sexualize women of color. There has always been a fear that white people would one day take over the rap/hip-hop/R&B genre, but Harlow has always known his place. To put it simply: when talking about rapping and the influence that the greats had on him, he talks about how he started rapping as a kid and was influenced by some of the most famous Black rappers. Even further, Harlow has made Black Lives Matter posts and — during a freestyle rap — took time to address an incident of police brutality in Louisville, Kentucky, his hometown. If you are looking for a firm stance on how to feel about Harlow, I am not sure I could fully give you one. But if he were here, I’m sure he’d say: “Why do y'all sleep on me? I need reasons. Uh, I got plaques in the mail, peak season.” So maybe let’s see if he keeps making people go crazy and producing absolute killer songs.
from Bombay for England’s eligible bachelors. Edwina actress Charithra Chandran told “Today” about the importance of dark-skinned women being the season’s most coveted debutantes. “No one let me forget that I was dark-skinned growing up,” she said. “Whenever we’d go around India, they’d always say…‘She’s pretty for being darkskinned.’” Beyond subverting colorist norms, South Asian culture is seamlessly inte-
grated into the plot. The sisters affectionately call each other “Bon” and “Didi”, which mean “sister” and “elder sister” in Bengali and Hindi and are signs of respect between siblings. Kate’s first on-screen words are a Hindi exclamation, Baap Re. Additionally, many bilingual fans applaud the portrayal of accent-switching, a common phenomenon where nonnative speakers of a language hide their accents when talking to native speakers. Other scenes include the Sharmas oiling their hair — a popular practice
among Desi women — and hosting a traditional pre-wedding Haldi ceremony. They sip Masala Chai instead of English Breakfast, and their wrists sparkle with gold bangles. Should these details have been left out for the sake of historical authenticity? I think not, for more reasons than the interest that they add for the average viewer. Woman after woman has shared heartfelt reactions to finally seeing themselves celebrated on-screen instead of simply being exotic or undesirable. “Not once was their beauty seen as surprising, their culture seen as odd, their accents overemphasized,” Tik Tok user @fruit.lopes said. “To see them receive such deep, passionate love and attraction was more than beautiful. It was reassuring that we deserve and can receive the same.” Non-white women and girls deserve to see non-white characters in sweeping gowns waltzing to violin covers of their cultural music. They deserve to see the people who resemble them shine. People of color existed in Regency England. They must have their trials recounted and stories told, but not every narrative needs to discuss oppression. There is value in creating a fictional world in which they are treated as they should have been all along.
AMEYA BELLAMKONDA Contributing Writer
Jack Harlow's "First Class" wasn't just the song we wanted but the song we needed, and it dropped Friday, April 8. As we’re just coming out of a global pandemic, everyone from the girls to the gays to the theys is gonna be spending their entire hot girl summer blasting Harlow’s newest release. We needed a song to inspire the girlboss in all of us — and Harlow came through. Harlow, known as the man who sniffed a Victoria's Secret thong that was thrown at him during a performance, is an ideal man that people around the world unanimously love. This is his second release of 2022, coming after his single “Nail Tech” — another certified banger. This song is inspired in part by Fergie’s 2007 song, “Glamorous”, where Fergie sings “G-L-A-M-O-RO-U-S, yeah G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S”. The similarities can be seen in Harlow’s chorus “I been a (G), throw up the (L), sex in the (A.M.), uh-huh (O-R-O-US, yeah).” Harlow, 23, has won two Grammys
MELINA TRAIFOROS Staff Writer
Dresses, balls and longing looks all create the intoxicating atmosphere of a regency drama. Netflix’s “Bridgerton” brings all three to our screens, following the romantic pursuits of a viscount’s eight children in upper-class English society. The second season of "Bridgerton" has captivated fans with another whirlwind love story. Along with its success, a wave of critics has returned pointing out the show’s historical inaccuracies. Period pieces about the English regency notoriously lack diversity because their featured social circles historically included only white people. Unless they appear as servants, characters of color are glaringly absent. “Bridgerton” subverts this norm by practicing seemingly color-blind casting. Many significant characters like Queen Charlotte, Lady Danbury — and even the main character Daphne’s love interest — are portrayed by people of color. According to writers, this alternate reality without racism is born of King George’s love for Queen Charlotte — he integrated society, so they could wed. Her character is inspired by the royal family’s reallife descendent who historians speculate had African ancestry. The show most recently paired the family’s eldest sibling with Kate Sharma, who, along with her sister Edwina, travels
Photo courtesy of Flickr
Jack Harlow performs during Osheaga music festival in 2018.
Photo courtesy of IMDb
'Bridgerton' allows minorities to gain a place in old English soci- Contact Melina Traiforos at ety, representing those who have not been as visible as others.
