LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 26: DaniLeigh attends the 2020 Grammy after party hosted by Universal Music Group on January 26, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Sarah Morris/Getty Images)
Dominican-American singer DaniLeigh faces backlash on social media after previewing her upcoming song “Yellow Bone,” an AAVE (African-American Vernacular English) term that refers to a light-skinned Black person with yellow skin undertones. The song’s questionable lyrics sparked an online conversation on colorism, the fetishtization of lighter skin, and the normalization of non-Black Latinas exploiting Black culture.
In the initial Instagram clip, which was posted on January 21 and has since been deleted from DaniLeigh’s account, the singer dances along to the song, repeatedly saying, “Yellow Bone is what he wants.” As the clip circulated online, people called out DaniLeigh for perpetuating anti-Black discourse at a time when people are denouncing America’s deeply-rooted history in perpetuating whiteness and protecting white supremacy. “Yall still makin songs that enforce colorism and fetishization of light-skinned ppl in 2021,” asked one Twitter user. There is also speculation that this song is a diss track for the ex-girlfriend of DaniLeigh’s rapper boyfriend DaBaby, who is the mother of his daughter and a dark-skinned Black woman, which further angered people as it feeds into the myriad of attacks towards Black women, who remain unprotected and constantly attacked.
It didn’t take long for DaniLeigh to respond to the backlash as she wrote in a now-deleted comment: “Why can’t I make a song for my light skin baddies? Why ya’ll think I’m hating on other colors when there are millions of songs speaking on all types…why ya’ll so sensitive and take it personal…gahhh damn.” The controversy continued to unfold when she took to Twitter to address her ethnic background in light of the heat she was getting. “I’m Dominican… I’m Spanish. I’m black I’m white… leave me alone,” she wrote, insinuating that being Dominican makes her Black.
Let’s be clear: Dominican is an ethnicity, not a race, and while its population is inextricably linked to the African diaspora, it does not automatically make you Black. The Dominican Republic’s complex history with racial identity, where most native Dominicans identify as “Indio” or Spanish instead of Black — even when they are Black — on the census, often creates blurred lines on who truly is of African descent. These blurred lines allow non-Black Latinx people like DaniLeigh to pick and choose their Blackness at the expense of actual Black Latinx people. When that is not enough, they will attempt to show off their African ancestry results or tokenize a distant Black relative to justify their anti-Black and colorist behavior, such as saying the “N” word without facing backlash or exploiting terms like “Yellow Bone,” that are exclusive to the Black community.
These same blurred lines also appear in conversations surrounding race in the U.S., where non-Black people use the one-drop-rule, which developed in the 19th century as a way to make sure white people knew who was property and ensure that any child of a female slave would be slave, too — no matter the shade of their skin. Now, non-Black people use this rule to pretend to be Black under the assumption that if they have the smallest percentage of African ancestry, then they are fully Black. They’ll make the case that they deal with the same oppression as their Black counterparts to take advantage of the limited privileges afforded to Black people while simultaneously using their proximity to whiteness when it conveniences them.
“These blurred lines allow non-Black Latinx people like DaniLeigh to pick and choose their Blackness at the expense of actual Black Latinx people.”
At the base, white Latinas like DaniLeigh benefit from their ability to pass as solely white or racially ambiguous for personal gain. They’ll also use the same one-drop-rule to justify their racist actions, as we’ve seen with recent cases such as Miya Ponsetto, also known as “Soho Karen.” This concept is extremely harmful and problematic due to its racist roots. During the early 1900s, Arkansas passed Act 320 (House Bill 79), which criminalized interracial marriages and defined a person as Black if they had even one drop of “any Negro blood whatever.” While this law is now obsolete, its racist rhetoric has made its way into the modern-day culture, where many people claim to be Black without facing the same level of oppression as Black people.
But DaniLeigh’s “light skin anthem” doesn’t just further perpetuate the misconceptions that exist within Latinidad; it’s also extremely problematic in that it feeds into the erasure of dark-skinned women. Historically, light-skinned women have always been favored in society and mainstream media, facing fewer microaggressions at work, earning higher salaries, being deemed as more attractive, or getting the opportunities to be “the first.” We’ve seen it in Hollywood, where light-skinned actresses are often cast in roles meant for a darker-skinned women. Colorism is nothing new. This reality all traces back to Spain’s caste system in the 16th century, where characteristics like height and hair, mouth, nose [shapes] would play a role in how you’d be racially classified — with a tighter focus on the color of your skin.
“Yellow bone is what he wants” sends a harmful message to young Black women that they need lighter skin to be desirable, which not only encourages this mindset to exist further, but it can also provoke some women into using lightening filters or even take dangerous measures such as skin bleaching.
Ultimately, a light-skinned anthem has never or will never be needed, especially from a non-Black Latina, who has seemingly benefitted from being racially ambiguous. Not only is posing as Black forgery, not flattery, it’s also harmful when it’s done to allegedly attack Black women who are, as Megan Thee Stallion recently best put it: “still constantly disrespected and disregarded in so many areas of life.”
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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S. on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2020. U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said there are still major differences to be bridged in the negotiations over a fiscal stimulus package with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Photographer: Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Schumer announced the news on the Senate floor Friday morning, telling lawmakers that he was in discussions with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on how long the trial will last and when it will begin. “But make no mistake, a trial will be held in the United States Senate, and there will be a vote whether to convict the president,” Schumer told the Senate.
Then, something special happened: It was Schumer’s next line in his address to US senators that caused a much-needed laugh for some, if not a moment of (humble) embarrassment for the Senate Majority Leader. “When that trial ends, senators will have to decide whether they believe Donald John Trump incited the erection — insurrection — against the United States.” It was an unfortunate, yet hilarious, gaffe in the very serious matter of convicting a former president on charges of inciting the violent siege of the US Capitol. But it was the gaffe we all needed after a very serious week.
I regret to inform you that Chuck Schumer just said ‘erection’ instead of ‘insurrection’ on the Senate floor pic.twitter.com/U5xRRnkaQg
In seriousness, Schumer is currently in talks with McConnell to solidify a start date for the trial after receiving a proposal from the Senate Minority Leader requesting to start the trial on February 13. But Schumer reportedly rejected McConnell’s last-minute request and is attempting to push forward with the trial. Whether or not both parties ultimately agree on whether to push the start date back, sources told CNN the articles will be read and senators and the presiding officer will be sworn in Tuesday afternoon.
The House voted to impeach the former president on January 13, just one week before President Joe Biden was inaugurated on the 20th. While Trump is no longer a sitting president, the Senate now has an opportunity to make sure he will never again be legally allowed to become president, after encouraging his supporters to overthrow the 2020 election results by force.
While Schumer was noticeably embarrassed by his “erection” comment, it was also a moment of levity that many people needed on this first Friday in Joe Biden’s America. And for that, we thank him.
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WILMINGTON, DELAWARE – AUGUST 20: Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden delivers his acceptance speech on the fourth night of the Democratic National Convention from the Chase Center on August 20, 2020 in Wilmington, Delaware. The convention, which was once expected to draw 50,000 people to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is now taking place virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Only two days in, President Joe Biden is making sweeping changes in an attempt to undo four years of damage from the Trump administration. After exacting a slew of executive orders since he took office on Wednesday — including protections for the LGBTQ+ community, relief for student loan borrowers, and more — Biden is expected to sign two more today that aim to specifically help the working class.
One of the orders will expand food assistance and deliver stimulus checks to Americans in the lowest income brackets. The other will raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 for the federal workforce, a fight that organizers have been pushing for tirelessly for years. With the new executive orders, Biden is also directing the Department of Labor to establish that unemployed people can refuse to take jobs they worry will jeopardize their health and still qualify for unemployment benefits, which has previously not been the case.
The latest executive orders will also boost food aid to people in low-income communities, as well as prioritize getting the approved $1,400 stimulus checks to people who don’t usually file taxes and aren’t easily reached by the government. As one of the executive orders demands, the Department of Agriculture will consider increasing Pandemic-EBT benefits by 15%, giving any family with three children more than $100 in additional support every two months.
Additionally, the government will begin to provide funds to replace the lack of free or reduced-price meals that families in low-income communities have lost because of school closures. The order will direct the department to potentially allow states to increase food stamp benefits for approximately 12 million people who did not receive emergency benefits earlier in the pandemic. The agency will also revisit the plan to redetermine how much is provided in food stamp benefits to more accurately reflect how much it currently costs to afford a basic healthy diet in America.
Millions of people in America have continued to suffer during the coronavirus pandemic — financially, physically, and emotionally. In addition, the economy lost jobs in December for the first time since April 2020, making these changes imminent to tackling both COVID-19 and restructuring a suffering working class that is still recovering from Trump’s presidency.
“The American people can’t afford to wait. And so many are hanging by a thread. They need help, and we are committed to doing everything we can to provide that help as quickly as possible,” said Brian Deese, the National Economic Council director, on a press call Friday. He noted that at least 30 million people in America are currently experiencing some level of food insecurity, and worse. “More than 10 million Americans are out of work, 14 million Americans are behind on their rent and nearly 30 million adults and as many as 12 million children are experiencing food insecurity.”
While the executive orders are being signed fairly early on in Biden’s term, the effects won’t take place immediately. For example, the minimum wage increase won’t happen just yet. Instead, Biden has planned to direct the federal government “to start the work that would allow him to issue” an order “within the first 100 days” so that federal contractors will also work up to issuing $15 per hour, as per a White House press briefing.
Advocates and organizers have continued to demand that more comprehensive relief be provided after more than ten months of the pandemic with little to no government aid. And one thing is clear, already: Biden is trying to make good on his campaign promises to overturn many of President Donald Trump’s discriminatory policies.
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TOPSHOT – US President Donald Trump sits with his arms crossed during a roundtable discussion on the Safe Reopening of Americas Schools during the coronavirus pandemic, in the East Room of the White House on July 7, 2020, in Washington, DC. (Photo by JIM WATSON / AFP) (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
On Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that she will deliver articles of impeachment against Donald Trump to the Senate this coming Monday, which sets a timeline for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to agree on rules for the trial. Per Pelosi’s delivery, the impeachment trial could begin as early as Tuesday, unless McConnell and Schumer reach another agreement. McConnell is reportedly pushing to delay the proceedings until early February to give the former president time to prepare his defense.
“We are respectful of the Senate’s constitutional power over the trial and always attentive to the fairness of the process, noting that the former president will have had the same amount of time to prepare for trial as our Managers,” Pelosi said in a statement.
But because Trump is no longer in office, this impeachment will be different than the last one. When the House of Representatives brought forth articles of impeachment against Trump in 2019 for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, the main question was whether he should be removed from office. Now, the key difference will be that the second impeachment trial, which charges the former president with inciting an insurrection, will seek to block Trump from ever running for federal office again.
Further, during Trump’s first impeachment proceeding, a Republican majority in the Senate made it harder to convict the president at the time. During a normal impeachment, the House of Representatives can vote to impeach with a simple majority and then will send the matter to the Senate for trial. But a conviction in the Senate can be an uphill battle because two-thirds of the Senate must vote in favor of a conviction. For these reasons, the Senate acquitted Trump on both charges during his first impeachment, meaning he was impeached in the House but was not removed from office.
At this juncture, there is a Constitutional debate over whether the Senate can even hold such a trial for an ex-president. Some experts say that the now-Democratic majority Senate’s decision to hold a trial is a move into somewhat murky territory. Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of Trump’s most loyal allies in Congress, suggested that Trump should use that in his favor and argue that a trial is unconstitutional because Trump is no longer in office. Nevertheless, the courts have no role in determining how lawmakers will wield their constitutional powers.
Moving into the next two weeks, Pelosi said, “Our Managers are ready to begin to make their case to 100 Senate jurors through the trial process.” The House impeachment managers will be Jamie Raskin, Diana DeGette, David Cicilline, Joaquin Castro, Eric Swalwell, Ted Lieu, Stacey Plaskett, Madeleine Dean and Joe Neguse. Each of the impeachment managers and jurors were victims of the January 6 attack, making this trial even more unconventional.
“This was the most serious presidential crime in the history of the United States of America. The most dangerous crime by a president ever committed against the United States,” Raskin told CNN’s Jake Tapper on State of the Union. He later pointed out, “I don’t think anybody would seriously argue that we should establish a precedent where every president on the way out the door has two weeks or three weeks or four weeks to try to incite an armed insurrection against the union or organize a coup against the union, and if it succeeds, he becomes a dictator, and if it fails, he’s not subject to impeachment or conviction because we just want to let bygones be bygones.”
For now, Democrats and Republicans will have to come up with a timeline to prepare for and start the trial, with Republicans pushing for a delay that Democrats are unlikely to agree to. Convicting Trump of inciting an insurrection will still be an uphill battle for the Senate, which will need a supermajority in favor of conviction, because the Senate is evenly split between both parties. But Pelosi maintains, “We are ready.”
