I AM DROWNING. ANONYMOUS, PHD UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS LONDON
I am drowning in a sea of whiteness I switch on my TV There are several white models staring back at me With flowers in their hair The ad represents purity and innocence I should buy that perfume Perhaps then I can become part of that fantasy After, there is a white male model with his top off An array of girl’s faint when they see his naked flesh And I think of how beauty is being packaged Nothing has changed since I was a kid There is only one type of beauty that is Valued and sought after throughout the world Or at least that is what they would have you believe On the show the host is paid lots of money To talk to or cook for his friends Oh, it’s a nice job if you can get it I turn over looking for images of myself in something The drug dealer dies and the man is on deathrow He is begging for his life. Well that was depressing Representation hasn’t changed much in all these years I flick from channel to channel The black dancers in the background are providing a lovely brown silky canvas 112 // PEEKABOO WE SEE YOU: WHITENESS
To Iggy Azalea as she gyrates like a white dancehall queen Bursting into American rap she is from Australia She is No 1 in the charts Wouldn’t it be great if I were able to see the origins of where she took those dance moves from. On X factor this guy sings Marvin Gaye He is straining like his throat is gonna snap He sounds out of tune to me He gets a standing ovation A plus sized woman with an afro sings with such Conviction that it makes the hair on your neck stand up She gets voted off in the first round by the British public In between programmes there is a product advertised That gets rid of frizz like it’s a bad thing My hair is sometimes referred to as frizzy Am I a bad thing or is it just that I have no sense of humour On my TV there are bears with afro dreadlocks that are rapping This seems like racial stereotyping of the worst kind Yet again I fail to see the joke Question time is on again And the politician is avoiding questions With his public school etiquette They act like thugs in the House of Lords sometimes
