Ravyn Lenae will not be afraid to handle the questions surrounding her identification and social media attempting to degree her “Blackness.” In reality, she embraces it and encourages different creatives to do the identical.
“I’d wanna inform them that when there are quite a lot of questions or confusion round who you might be, that’s normally factor. And that implies that you’re disrupting one thing,” Lenae informed Folks journal, sharing her recommendation to different artists. “That’s one thing I’ve to remind myself as a result of generally it could get a little bit discouraging,”.
This comes days after the “Love Me Not” singer took to social media to handle social media customers attempting to check her aesthetic to that of a Black woman who’s the “solely Black woman within the white pal group.”
“Why do y’all do that to me?” she stated in an Instagram submit on the time. “There’s been a number of moments like this the place I really feel like my Blackness, my identification, has been questioned or picked aside, and I actually wish to perceive the place it’s coming from.”
Noting how Black communities will not be monolithic and may embody varied appears, she shared, “This reveals me that you’ve got a really restricted view on what Black ladies or Black ladies will be, and that’s actually unlucky, as a result of I feel we will be no matter we wish to be. And this kind of projection is just perpetuating a extremely unhappy and small mindset. So don’t do that to me. Don’t undertaking on different Black ladies.”
The singer, who shared that she attracts inspiration from the likes of Black ladies like Chaka Khan, Minnie Riperton, and Diana Ross, reminded artists of one of many main caveats that comes with being a “disruptor.”
“Simply do not forget that generally the trail you stroll is a little bit lonely, or it’s a little bit uneasy, however there’s one thing on the opposite facet of it,” she concluded.
