Quinta Brunson is better than me

Sep 14, 2022

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#WednesdayWisdom

"Anyone who has ever, ever had a dream and thought your dream...couldn't come true. I am here to tell you that this is what believing looks like. This is what striving looks like. And don't you ever, ever give up on you." ~ Sheryl Lee Ralph

Morning Musings

A lot has happened since I last wrote you ... Beyoncé dropped an album. Serena "evolved away from tennis." The queen died and Black Twitter lived.

Black women also won the Emmys earlier this week. I'm not really an awards show girl, but I like to follow along so I don't get massive FOMO on the aforementioned Black Twitter. And, as Issa Rae said on the red carpet, I'm rooting for everybody Black. "Nothing has changed. It'll never change."

So you can imagine why I wanted to throw my slipper at Jimmy Kimmel as he played possum while my girl Quinta Brunson accepted her Emmy for Outstanding Writing For A Comedy Series for Abbott Elementary. She literally had to step over him and even after she bent down to say, "Jimmy get up, I won," he continued on with the bit from a previous joke that wasn't even funny in the first place.

Are you kidding me?! How dare he lay there in the way during her moment to shine? I was livid. And, as it turns out, so were quite a few other people on my Twitter timeline yesterday morning.

Author Minda Harts wrote, "On an extremely special night for actress Quinta Brunson (at her job and amongst her peers), Jimmy thought this 'joke' was appropriate. Malcolm X said it best, 'The most disrespected person in America is the black woman.'"

Writer Aley Arion tweeted, "wyt people have a history of stealing the spotlight & disrupting moments of Black entertainers when it's time for them to collect accolades & it's sick. you don't get moments back, so for Jimmy Kimmel to make Quinta's moment about him is wrong & there needs to be restitution."

And TV writer James Alexander noted, "Good morning. Jimmy Kimmel deciding to be the main character and literally making Quinta step over him to get her Emmy & then *staying* in her space during her speech (for a bit that wasn’t even funny) is a worse look than what Will Smith did, but won’t get discussed as so."

I agree. I'm sick and tired of these so-called jokes at the expense of Black women. Afterward, it was shared that "Quinta didn't mind." And she might not have, but that doesn't excuse Kimmel's behavior. Black women don't get the privilege of being angry, especially in public.

After all, our patron saint Michelle Obama once advised us "when they go low, we go high." But sometimes you just gotta stoop to someone's level to let them know you're not the one, the two or the three (or maybe that's just the petty Scorpio in me talking).

I'm tired of Black women having to hold it together. I'm tired of always having to take the higher road. I'm tired of us having to bite our tongues and handle everything with grace at all times. Let somebody else be the bigger person for a change. We've done enough.

Love,
L'Oreal

ICYMI

I was featured in an xoNecole story about self-mothering. Since I've become a mother myself I've been reflecting on this a lot. Would love to hear your thoughts!

I've also written a crap ton of stories over at the day job. You can find all my Fortune stories here, but below are a few of my faves so far:

Links I Love

So much great journalism came out while I was gone. Below are some articles I especially enjoyed:

1. The Addicting Uplift of Beyoncé’s Renaissance (VOGUE)

2. P-Valley Is the Show of the Summer. Why Aren’t You Watching It? (GQ)

3. The New Little Mermaid: How Halle Bailey Found Her Voice and Defied Haters by Creating Her Own Ariel (Variety)

4. The Rise of Knotless Braids (New York Times)

5. How Braids Help Pregnant Black Moms Prepare for Birth and Postpartum (What to Expect)

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My Latest Obsession

The hold this album has had on me. Unhand me, Beyoncé! Or at least drop the visuals. It's been 6 weeks, sis, and we are salivating!!

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