The daughter of an Afro-descendant mother and an American father, Jennifer Parker was born in San Luis, Argentina. “It was not easy growing up as a black girl and teenager”says the young 23-year-old singer-songwriter and Afro-activist, who used to straighten her hair and avoid the sun.
The first act of racism he experienced was when he was 11 years old. “It was summer and we were at a friend’s pool. When he was leaving, his brother said that he was going to throw bleach (bleach) into the water because a black man had jumped in,” he says.
“For a long time I felt like the only black person in Argentina, and I think that is part of the invisibility of black people in the history of our country,” she says, adding that it was always difficult for her to see models or black people in the media. , for instance.
Today, through his music with @luandafro and his social networksJennifer intends to denounce the invisible racism towards the Afro-Argentine community. He used to have an account with 20 thousand followers, but it was closed. Today, on Instagram it’s @jenniferpaarker_.
Among the daily practices or “micro-racisms” that we have naturalized, Jennifer mentions the black face (the parodic personification of blacks by whites) or “cultural appropriation”.
What is cultural appropriation? “It is the use of important elements for a culture, such as braids in Afro culture, as a costume, as a joke or just because they are fashionable,” he explains. In addition, he adds that it is considered appropriation when this use is “by a hegemonic culture towards an oppressed one that has been violated for using those same elements.”
According to Jennifer, the most frequent question that black people receive is: “Where are you from?” “They ask us many questions about our origin, where we come from, even where your family is from,” she says.
In addition, it highlights that we often reproduce racist behavior through language in which blackness always appears as a pejorative: “quilombo”, “black day”, “work in black”, “denigrate” and “black hand”are some of the terms that the activist names.
From manuals for schools and universities, to laws against discrimination based on skin color. These are some of the practices that Jennifer proposes to end racism, although there is still a long way to go. “The important thing is to raise your voice against racism, to say ‘this is not right’”he concludes.