2022 Has Been A Lot
Between the bitter cold, the rage of Omicron, school closures, and the mayhem of covid testing it was an endless cacophony of bad news. Adding insult to injury has been the high-profile deaths of many notable celebrities and iconic cultural figures. Particularly difficult to process were the death of legends Betty White and Andre Leon Talley.
Andre Leon Talley, a big Black man with a larger-than-life persona and presence, was an icon in the whitewashed world of high fashion. For decades, he was an omnipresent force to be reckoned with in the celebrity-driven world of high fashion. His name became synonymous with luxury, prestige, glamour, style, Vogue, and the infamous Anna Wintour.
Andre had a keen sense of style and an encyclopedic knowledge of French culture, language, history, and fashion. He quite literally walked, lived, and breathed high fashion. He was a cultural icon in his own right, yet it always seemed as if his legacy was overshadowed by white designers and editors. The man, the legend was essentially an enigma. Most people knew little about his upbringing in Furman, South Carolina, his HBCU and ivy league education at Brown University, his grandmother who raised him, or his respect for the Black church.
Unapologetically Black
Talley, a product of the Jim Crow south, is a story of so many of the Black greats. He was a person of humble beginnings which the world and culture never expected to make it. However, by sheer will, force, genius, grit, and hard work, he didn’t only make it. He rose up through the ranks of poverty to create a seat at the most high-profile tables in the world. Quite literally, he was the only Black person in a room full of rich, entitled and oftentimes racist white people. He rightfully took up space in places that continue to be as segregated as the Jim Crow south and north.
Talley’s story is one of endurance, perseverance, and the quiet revolution. One of being unapologetically Black in a world that is pathologically obsessed with Black genius, Black creativity, and the Black body. Talley demanded attention and intentionally took up space in places that questioned his very existence. He had to work twice as hard for half of the recognition.
Seeking White Validation
Talley spent so much of his career seeking the validation of white people that he forgot to build his own legacy positioned away from vogue. From reports that came out back in 2021, he was evicted from his White Plains home he maintained since 2004. He also was embattled in a rent-to-own dispute with the white designer George Malkemus. He went on the record sharing that in his golden years he never loved, felt love, and had few if any real friends.
“White validation won’t protect you from institutional or systemic racism so be Black, unapologetically”
This is a cautionary tale for so many of the Black professionals that have walked in Talley’s footsteps. Black people are enough. We have it. We are it. We do not need to exist in proximity to whiteness to validate our worth and our value. We do not need to assimilate. We don’t need to be the good negro. Because at the end of it all spending a lifetime seeking white approval won’t end the racism that all Black people endure from a system built to make us feel inferior and less than human.
No matter what we accomplish in white spaces our value will be questioned and white supremacy will tell us that we are never good enough. Spending a life seeking the approval of whiteness is an exercise in futility. Whiteness will never love us the way that we need to love ourselves. White validation won’t protect you from institutional or systemic racism so be Black, unapologetically.
About Calvin Eaton
(he/his/him) Calvin Eaton is a disabled community educator, content creator, and social entrepreneur, whose area of expertise includes antiracism, equity, justice, instructional design, and program development. In 2016 Mr. Eaton founded 540WMain, Inc. a virtual non-profit organization and antiracist education brand that promotes justice for all.
