Rupert argues that while \u201cauthenticity is supposed to [be freeing], for some\u2026it stands in the way of freedom.\u201d Drawing on her background as a presidential campaign manager and adviser and her lived experience as a Black woman, Rupert reveals how authenticity actually operates as a barrier to both equality and inclusion. While running former San Antonio Mayor Juli\u00e1n Castro\u2019s 2020 presidential campaign, she observed firsthand the way \u201cunconscious biases and double standards\u201d affected candidates of color like Castro and others. What she saw tallied with her own experiences and the way she often had to \u201ccontort\u201d herself into social acceptability by performing a version of blackness approved by the dominant (white) culture. This involved such tactics as the \u201ccode-switching\u201d or speech pattern adjustments such as those made by presidential candidate Kamala Harris, depending on whether she was speaking to white or Black audiences. In the world of popular music and culture, the author sees similar biases that work against people of color. While Taylor Swift is allowed to appear as the imperfect, vulnerable\u2014and therefore authentic\u2014\u201cgirl next door,\u201d Beyonc\u00e9 must be the flawless Queen Bey, because \u201c[f]or people of color, the appeal has to be indisputable to be recognized at all.\u201d To begin leveling an unequal cultural playing field, Rupert suggests that authenticity needs to be rethought. Rather than continuing to treat it as an entrapping \u201cideology,\u201d it must be seen as \u201cmethodology\u201d that allows people of color to survive a white supremacist society.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rupert argues that while \u201cauthenticity is supposed to [be freeing], for some\u2026it stands in the way of freedom.\u201d Drawing on her background as a presidential campaign manager and adviser and her lived experience as a Black woman, Rupert reveals how authenticity actually operates as a barrier to both equality and inclusion. While running former San […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5569"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}