Why are black parents sitting in their daughters to prom looking like and street walkers? Why, as someone who over the years has helped young women from both single parent households and dual parents households get ready for prom, I believe this video is dangerous and divisive. It uses stereotypical verbiage to impact a certain group within the black community.
This isn’t the first time this young lady has failed to connect. If this is truly reaching you, I would ask, who have you dressed for prom? And may I see your prom picture? If not, may I see your child’s prom picture? What was that conversation like?
I chose to dress like Vanessa Williams from Dance With Me for Prom, like a ballroom dancer. Ballroom dancers are applauded. They’re beautiful. And I knew for that night it was theatrics. I come from a two parent household. I knew when prom was over that dress was going in the closet. And I kept it and I reused it, upcycled it for years. Those are the types of lessons that I am.
I implore, I communicate when I help dress young ladies for prom. I at no point call them . Nor did I lean into stereotypical talking points that can then be used for like the motivation of palm colored, you know, those people. When I was going to prom, young ladies were dressing like little Kim from the MTV Movie Awards with a purple jumpsuit. Some were dressing like J. Lo, and she had the Versati dress. And at no point did a parent or someone in the community, because we had a community send off, ever compare those children to . When I work in the community, we are taught to use words that uplift and connect. The words disgusting, filthy, disrespectful and are whereas we are never supposed to use if we truly wanna connect with someone, have a meaningful impact in their lives. I can say that someone is scantily clad. Someone is dressing provocatively without being so rude as to say that they are dressing like when I have not seen one video on your page that gives this anecdotal experience. This anecdote experience of either you sending your child to prom or a single mother sending their child to prom. Tag me in that video, that post where you’ve seen a single parent stand there waving, going, you know, I’m a single parent, my baby daddy, or I’m a single father and my baby mom didn’t show up for prom. Please let me know. You made a video being degrading and divisive. I’d like to see the video where you point out examples of absolute excellence this prom season because we cannot deny the young ladies arrived in excellence this prom season. The horse drawn carriage, the young lady who dressed like Belle from beauty and the Beast, and all of her friends dressed like different Disney princesses. Beautiful, the young men escorting them, embracing the entire like character because it was a theatrical night. It is a night for theatrics. And the mere thought that you cannot make that mental leap and you work in the community is kind of scary because you don’t need the basic intellect to understand that children see this or 16,17 year old young ladies, young men see this as a night of cr tricks, of truth theater. It is not indicative of who they are or the type of household that they live in. And if their parents choose to lean into these theatrics, then that is their, your choice. But your verbiage gives. If you dress like a , then what happens to you? You know, that’s your fault. And it’s sad because I don’t think you understand your words, your verbiage can be used to twist people into believing that when we all know it doesn’t matter how you dress. If someone is going to SAU, they’re going to SAU. They already have that mentality. Their mind is broken.
And you claim to be a resource for those who are in need of assistance in healing and finding their path and their journey, using a word like disgusting is a brick in the wall of communication. another brick in the wall. And you do this on social media where you get thousands of views and maybe in your community. And I just wonder if you understand the impact that these videos are having on young ladies that are looking out and seeking out your resources and then they find out who they’re speaking to. Like, do you ever wonder that you’re turning away more young ladies than you’re actually helping?