Pharrell Responds To “G I R L” Cover Backlash, “What Are You Talking About?”

The Black Twitter Feminists (as I like to call them) and their leaders did not take kindly to the cover of Pharrell’s upcoming “G I R L” album (out March 3)  once they finally got a glimpse of it. The cover, which features Pharrell and 3 beautiful women caught much backlash after a certain group felt there was no representation of black women to be found. Pharrell was then attacked on Twitter by this group and finally, after an appearance on Power 105’s The Breakfast Club, was forced to speak out. 

“What really disappointed me is they jumped the gun, because the one I’m standing closest to is black. She’s a black girl from Wisconsin that I used to date over 10 years ago. Maybe 12 years ago. That just must suck man for people to look at something and to assume they know what’s going on. If they just bothered to listen to my album, they would know that my album was an ode to women, period. And the one thing that’s I’m trying to kill…well I can’t kill anything…but the one thing I was trying to aid in changing the crazy statuesque standard of you gotta be white, waif, and thin for you to be beautiful.”

He continues to say, “Man, it must suck to be that black woman that’s on my cover right now because she’s black. When they find out that she is black, then what? Then we’re arguing amongst ourselves within color. Then the argument’s going to be she’s not brown enough. Then my question to you is, are y’all asking me do I have an Indian person on the cover? Why aren’t you asking about a Pakistani person? A Middle Eastern person on the cover. I just…man. What are we talking about?”

Pharrell wanted to make it clear that he has absolutely nothing against black women. “My mom is a black woman who is a huge part of my business. My business is run by another black woman and I’m married to a black woman. What are you talking about?”

After the interview made it’s way online, The Black Twitter Feminists were still unhappy, saying that the one black girl on the cover was basically not black enough. Mind you, some of these same women are lighter than the girl on the cover. 

Here’s my thing. We know Pharrell and his body of work spanning damn near 20 years and he has always had diversity in his music, his videos and his production. Pharrell has never catered to solely an urban crowd therefore me, as a dark skinned black woman, did not take offense to the supposed lack of a black female on the cover. I knew immediately if it were the case, it wasn’t done with malicious intent. The album is called “G I R L” and features 3 beautiful women, period. To find out that one of the girls is indeed black and then say she isn’t black enough is hurtful and stupid. Black is black and comes in many shades. She identifies with her blackness, she is black. Doesn’t matter if her skin color isn’t of coal, she isn’t wearing an afro and her lips and nose aren’t big, doesn’t make her any less BLACK. Could you imagine someone telling you that you’re not black enough to represent black women?  Especially people with skin lighter than your own? Not only that, let’s never forget that Pharrell features black women of darker skin tones all the time. His lead in the “Frontin” video was a dark female. His “Feds Watching” video with 2 Chainz featured an array of dark skinned women and one of the leads in “Blurred Lines” was a beautiful brown skin as well. 

Thank you Black Twitter Feminists, but some things are not that serious. Everything doesn’t need to be a Black Panther rally and we don’t need to FORCE the inclusion of dark skinned women on everyone. Let it be organic. See Lupita Nyong’o. Gorgeous buttery dark skin and she is out here KILLING IT! No need to force it. If we force it, people will only include us to avoid backlash, not to be genuine. Thanks for the attempt but as a dark skinned black woman, I don’t need you to fight the good fight for me — I can handle it. If anything, it is the Black Twitter Feminists that is continuing to fuel the light skin vs dark skin hate along with the ignorant men who only date based on a paper bag test. They’re just as accountable. 

I think it’s crazy to attack every time we aren’t included in things. Some things aren’t serious enough to attack over. A spot on an album cover being one of those things. The album is called G I R L and as long as beautiful girls were represented, I don’t see the problem. Black women have MUCH bigger issues in life. I commend Pharrell for not letting a few trolls bully him into an apology. We should congratulate him, as a black man, for topping the Billboard 100 as well as being Grammy & Oscar nominated with a positive song that doesnt have any references to killing or drugs. We should commend him on creating an album to uplift women rather than referring to us as “bitches” and “hoes”.

But that would be too much.