In case you didn’t know, Pharrell received some criticism for his “GIRL” cover. If you want to read more, I wrote about it here.
He spoke with Global Grind and I was asked to give my opinion about what he had to say:
“My life is filled with black women,” Pharrell told GlobalGrind. “Black women running my company; I’m married to a black woman, and my mom, who is a black woman, is a huge force in my business.”
“There should be no misconceptions or anyone misconstruing anything when it comes to me and women. You should know me better than that. I’m all about diversity.”
“All one has to do is look at the ‘Happy’ video. We don’t discriminate. Like, never be confused as to my love for a black woman. I have love for all kinds of women.”
My feelings are the same as expressed in the tweets below that I put in the post linked above.
I think we gotta be careful of being so starved for attention that we’ll take it (or demand it) anywhere we can. — Veronica Miller ☀ (@veronicamarche) February 26, 2014
THIS. RIGHT. HERE.
To that end, I’m fine with the fact that Pharrell didn’t cast a black woman as “Accessory #4). We deserve more powerful images than that. — Veronica Miller ☀ (@veronicamarche) February 26, 2014
The album cover IS problematic. But it can’t be used as absolute evidence for the idea that Pharrell isn’t here for black women.
— Veronica Miller ☀ (@veronicamarche) February 26, 2014
If I had to choose between being “The woman whose work Pharrell championed” or “The woman who Pharrell put on his cover in a robe”…well…
— Veronica Miller ☀ (@veronicamarche) February 26, 2014
We JUST dragged Perez Hilton yesterday for implying black women are accessories for gay men. But today…?????? O_O
— Veronica Miller ☀ (@veronicamarche) February 26, 2014
I understand where people are coming from, but I honestly think that we can fight for black women to be represented in much more significant places than on album covers. I applaud the work Pharrell has done for and with black women in more important and impactful areas other than album covers.
