brown sugar

just a quick note on my halloween experience:

I went dressed as brown sugar. I was inspired while driving home, when the old Stones' tune came on the radio. my roommates and I had been trying to come up with famous pairs for D and I to dress up as....Annie Hall and Woody Allen, J Lo and Ben Affleck, Shrek and Fiona....none seemed to compare to Mick Jagger and Brown Sugar.

Of course, I was aware of how "problematic" this idea was...in a previous era I would have been more cautious. I looked up the lyrics to the song anyway, and there really is no question....

What was Mick trying to tell us? Was he trying to deconstruct the black female body by recapitulating stereotypes? Or was he just a racist british bastard? I mean this is a man who perhaps inspired the androgynous punk rockstar...obliterating gender lines...can we give him more credit?

So I dragged Dave to a trampy girls clothing store and made him try on several tight denim jeans with sequins on the ass. The lovely store workers, all of whom were black, got a kick out of this skinny white boy trying to show some booty. And they thought that it was "cute" that I was going as brown sugar...even though they had no clue who Mick Jagger was. Different strokes.

My own brown sugar experiences run long and deep...I was about 20 years old, buying the condiment in a grocery store and while standing in line, the guy behind me says, with a leery grin, "so you like brown sugar, huh?" "Yeah?" I said, not at all confrontational, like I wanted to be in my head, but timid... as usual. Scared of flirtation, of his eyes fleshing out and sexualizing my colored body. Afraid of being wanted, of being desireable. It had made me want to purge.

I went as brown sugar this halloween. I wore lots of glitter. I donned velour pants and I wrote the word sugar in glitter glue on the ass. I wasn't afraid of flirtation, because I had Mick by my side. Problematic? Yes I think so. I was however, afraid to bend over, lest I show some crack. Damn those low riders.

Now here is my question to you: Is brown sugar a condiment? I leave you to ponder that and wonder what flava was the guy at the grocery store... and if it really matters.