Just yesterday, we were praising “Atlanta” actor LaKeith Stanfield for the message of correction he directed toward Black men who slander Black women. To put it simply, he said, <a href="http://madamenoire.com/784964/lakeith-stanfield-black-women/">“That’s B&tch N&gga Sh*t.” </a>God bless him.
Lord knows we need more Black men celebrating us publicly like this. So I was delighted to discover “Queen Sugar” actor Kofi Siriboe is on that same wave length.
Yesterday, he tweeted in celebration of his mother, sister and other Black women.
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<p dir="ltr" lang="en">my beautiful mother is every reason i need to cherish, love, and protect my sisters. nobody will ride for you like a black woman. period.</p>
— Kofi Siriboe (@kofisiriboe) <a href="https://twitter.com/kofisiriboe/status/829043835930034180">February 7, 2017</a></blockquote>
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What should have been taken as just a celebration of his own kind turned into a point of contention for one of Kofi's followers.
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<p dir="ltr" lang="en"><a href="https://twitter.com/kofisiriboe">@kofisiriboe</a> ! Really !! All good mums do those things no matter creed or colour!</p>
— Claire Palmer (@ClaireP04694087) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClaireP04694087/status/829064020569255936">February 7, 2017</a></blockquote>
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And while it could have been easy for him to ignore this tweet, Kofi dignified this woman's gripe with a response.
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<p dir="ltr" lang="en">love & respect to all the good mums. i'm honoring my mom, my sisters and their bold, black skin. they deserve my specificity. <a href="https://t.co/Xp5Sd9BtgX">https://t.co/Xp5Sd9BtgX</a></p>
— Kofi Siriboe (@kofisiriboe) <a href="https://twitter.com/kofisiriboe/status/829132969944182785">February 8, 2017</a></blockquote>
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Hallelujah and amen!
I'm not finna write a whole essay about this because what's understood doesn't need to be explained, but one of the greatest problems of Whiteness is its need to be centered in every narrative. And that's just not always necessary or appropriate. This was not an "All Moms Matter" type of tweet. Most people don't celebrate a great achievement in their personal lives by thanking all the mothers of the world, they thank the one who had the strongest impact on their lives. What, in God's name, is wrong with that? The fact that his tweet produced feelings of insecurity represents a lack of maturity on her part. It speaks to the false notion that everything pro-Black is anti-everyone else. And that's a lie from the pit of hell, as the church folks say. Furthermore, this woman shouldn't be looking to a celebrity to validate her in this type of way. Let your own children validate you. Or express this same type of love to the women who have shaped your life.
White privilege keeps White people from having to acknowledge how their central position in messaging, imaging, entertainment and every other form of communication, for several centuries, has alienated others who share a different phenotype.
How dare Kofi be raised, molded and nurtured by the hands of Black women and not thank them specifically? With attacks on Black women coming from literally every side, we're glad he did and we certainly hope there are more like him on the way.
<i>Veronica Wells is the culture editor at MadameNoire.com. She is also the author of </i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Bettah-Days-Veronica-R-Wells/dp/1535549866"><i>“Bettah Days.”</i></a><i> You can follow her on </i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/veronicarwells"><i>Facebook</i></a><i> and Twitter</i><a href="https://twitter.com/VDubShrug"><i> @VDubShrug.</i></a>
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