Black Girls In Fashion: Why Bite The Hand That Fed Y’all?
By Mari Mbella
Photo by Alyssa Valle
"Wow, she's beautiful," I say while watching the repeating video of a Black girl confident with herself and her aesthetic. A smile overcomes my face as I scan through the comments agreeing with me. I was liking these creative displays of affirmations acknowledging the beauty seen through the eyes of many different beholders, when suddenly, I came across one that made my smile fade immediately.
"Here someone goes," I mutter, now my mood soured from an ignorant internet troll belittling this human who once appeared on both of our screens.
"Stick to your hood culture," the comment says, bringing my mood to that of disappointment. This is nothing new, which baffles me. It's so normalized to disrespect Black women who are confident in an aesthetic outside of the harmful stereotypes placed on us.
Fashion has long been a space of curated beauty; a form of self-expression; a way to admire the beauty that stares back at you in you reflection. Black girls are often celebrated in concept but dismissed in reality.
This piece explores the beauty, resilience and complexity of Black girls navigating fashion's double standards, where admiration and exclusion often coexist. Black women have been used to signal progress without being fully embraced. Despite our undeniable influence on global beauty and style, we are still fighting for space, respect and fair treatment.
This is about more than fashion. It is about the way Black girls are looked at but not seen. Desired, but not protected. Within fashion's glossy exterior lies a reality built on contradiction. The world wants the aesthetic of Blackness, but not the burden that comes with it.
From simple esthetics like baggy or oversized clothing, to alternative wear like goth, punk or grunge, fashion has traveled across countries using our influence to challenge their own "toxic standards.
I am not directly saying we are the blueprint, but I am implying that we influence the trends. Yet, wen we join these fashion scenes we curated or inspired, we get ridiculed by people who are unaware of their origins. Origins that needed Black girls to give them life.
The faces of these scenes are never the curators, while the Black creators behind the masterpieces are left out. All races deserve recognition and respect when expressing influence.
The ignorant, harmful narratives placed on Black women follow us, even in the spaces meant to set us free.
Why bite the hand that fed y'all?