Recognizing Payne's (2020) Cardi B-Beyonce Complex: Ratchet Respectability and Black Adolescent Girlhood

What do you believe is the relationship between Cardi B, Beyoncé, and Black Adolescent Girlhood?  Dr. Ashley Payne (@Dr_Ash_Bash), an Assistant Psychology Professor at Missouri State University, centers Hip Hop to provide an answer that captures the complexities of race, class, culture, and identity. Consider Payne's (2020) concept of the Cardi-B – Beyonce Complex. This theme informs the need for a transformative, ratchet educational space for Black girls where the multiplicity of the Black girlhood experience will be appreciated and not silenced.

 Dr. Payne (2020) writes that "the identity of Black girls is constantly subject to scrutiny in various spaces, particularly within Hip Hop and education. Previous scholarship has noted that, as Black girls are compelled to navigate the margins of respectability politics, the images and messages of Hip Hop culture have always created a complicated and complex space for Black girls' identity development" (p 2). Respectability politics is a set of beliefs that conform to prescribed mainstream standards of appearance and behavior will protect a person who is part of a marginalized or vulnerable group from prejudices and systemic injustices. Respectability politics for Black women references how we are expected to embody middle-class values, ideologies, behaviors, and dress (Payne, 2020; Tyrell, 1994).

So what does the term ratchet mean? Durden (2015) traces the foundations of the word in Hip Hop, dating back to 1999, giving credit to Anthony Mandigo (Durden, 2015). Today, the term ratchet has come to "describe women and girls who are presented as loud, outspoken, or expressive, particularly within Hip Hop culture and other related popular media sources.  Further, it serves as the blueprint for ratchet attitudes and behaviors" (Payne, 2020). These origins influence ratchet politics, which reflect "policies, structures or institutions that promote and result in inequality, oppression, marginalization, and denies human beings his or her full humanity as a citizen or resident of a nation-state" ((Brown & Young, 2015). As a concept, Ratchet politics identifies how the institution of respectability and notions of classiness continue to marginalize Black girls/women in various spaces (Payne, 2020). In educational spaces, researchers are beginning to explore how to embrace ratchetness. Payne (2020) explains that bell hooks (1990) and others note that Black girls are building/creating homeplaces or home spaces away from the oppositional gaze of others, spaces where they can be themselves, and make learning communities where all aspects of the Black girls are embraced. 

Robin Boylorn (2015) explained "ratchet respectability as a hybrid characterization of hegemonic, racist, sexist, and classist notions of Black womanhood,' and allows Black women to combine ratchet behaviors (generally linked to race) to the politics of respectability (typically linked to class). Cardi-B and Beyoncé present contrasting adolescent and young adulthood experiences and current choice of presentation to the public; still, both are embraced for their authentic selves and lived experiences. Cardi B's role in Hip Hop has been welcomed as an "anti-respectability icon by challenging the mainstream embodiment of womanhood with her fashion, cadence, and expression of her sexuality" (Matos, 2019; Payne 2020 p 35). Beyoncé "though a force on the stage and through her music, presents herself as a little more reserved outside of her music…she chooses her words carefully in her interviews, she is not loud" (Payne, 2020 p 14). This spectrum of experiences, personas, and identity choices elevates the value of the Cardi-B – Beyoncé Complex in a way to addresses the varied preferences of expression, art, influence, and impact generated by Black girls and women in the spaces we occupy.

Dr. Payne describes the need to create spaces for the celebration of Black Girlhood based on the foundation provided by Ruth Nicole Brown's after-school space, Saving Our Lives, Hearing Our Truths (SOLHOT), a place that combines the culture of Hip Hop with Black girlhood, and allows Black girls to just be within various spaces. For example, Dr. Payne founded Grit, Grind, Rhythm & Rhyme to connect the elements of Hip Hop (dance, graffiti, and rap) to education through English/Language Arts (E/LA). The environment evolved into a celebratory space for Black girls and mentors who worked within and through Hip Hop to challenge dominant ideologies and representations surrounding Blackness, girlhood/womanness, education, community, and region.

The Bridges Lane Center prioritizes celebration as an area of focus for those we serve. While I first considered celebrating our accomplishments, I had not defined a celebration to include the success of just being. Hip Hop and sport are bound to the culture of the oppressed and marginalized in a way that is present across generations, specific to regions, and uniquely apparent in young Black women student-athletes' experiences. Hip Hop relaxes the spirit in our training spaces while stimulating the mind through lyrical content that is complicated and layered. The beat helps to teach lessons on rhythm and the art of executing movements that will eventually lead to the performances I originally intended to recognize.  In other words, we empower the use of music to create an environment that produces motivation, relaxation, and freedom. Do you participate in a space where Black girls in educational spaces can just be? Tag them and let us know the many ways we embrace this effort.

 References

Brown, N. E., & Young, L. (2015). Ratchet politics: Moving beyond Black women’s bodies to indict institutions and structures. Broadening the Contours in the Study of Black Politics: Political Development and Black Women.

Boylorn, R. M. Love, Hip Hop, and Ratchet Respectability (Something Like A Review), Crunk Feminist Collective, The Crunk Feminist Collection (blog), September 10, 2015. Retrieved from http://www.crunkfeministcollective.com/2015/09/10/love-hip-hop-and-ratchet-respectability-something-like-a-review/.

Durden, J. (2015,  Feb 19). Ratchet Rap Still Leaves Its Mark. Shreveport Times. Retrieved from https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/entertainment/music/2015/02/19/ratchet-rap-still-leaves-mark/23666001/.

hooks, b. (1990). Yearning: Race, Gender and Cultural Politics. Boston, MA: South End Press.

Matos, A R. (2019). Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Cardi B Jump through Hoops: Disrupting Respectability Politics When You are from the Bronk and Wear Hoos. Harvard Journal of Hispanic Policy, 32, 89-93.

Payne, A. N. (2020). The Cardi B–Beyoncé Complex: Ratchet Respectability and Black Adolescent Girlhood. Journal of Hip Hop Studies, 7(1), 5. DOI https://doi.org/10.34718/pxew-7785

Tyrell, I. (1994). Righteous Discontent-The Womens-Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880-1920-Higginbotham, EB.