As the graduation season comes to end, I’ve always loved to see how graduates chose to decorate their caps in celebration of securing the bag. This picture is the one I love the most for so many reasons! If you aren’t familiar with why this cap is attention grabbing, allow me to fill you in.
The image of the woman on the phone is Jennifer Schulte. She recently went viral for a video of Schulte calling 911 on a black family for having a BBQ. She stated that they were “breaking a law for using the wrong charcoal.” Yes, you read that correctly. She has since been named “The Greatest Meme of All Time” and currently being used for graduation caps. I’m sure you have seen her circling around the internet making meme features in Wakanda, next to a kneeling Colin Kaepernick, in the Soul Train line, and with the Good Times cast just to name a few. Surprisingly, she was not named Breakfast Club’s “Donkey of The Day” by Charlamagne tha God as many were hoping she would.
The graduate decided to do what a lot of people of melanin have chose to do since what seems to be the beginning of time, which is find healing in laughter. People of color have always turned negative into positive. Turning something that was meant to demean, weaken, and tear them down has ALWAYS been deemed unsuccessful to Black Excellence. It refuses to allow any boundary, any obstacle, any ridiculous direct run in with racism be the reason goals are not reached and dreams are not obtained. “Doing it for the culture” has become more than a slogan. It is a voice that has a never ending echo that simply shouts “We won’t be stopped”. This caps says “Go ahead and call the police for #livingwhileblack and I’ll STILL be over here securing the bag and living my best life!”
Living your best life is up to you. No matter what is put before you to stop you from reaching YOUR definition of living your best life, remain resilient in the pursuit. Shout out to this 2018 graduate laughing all the way across the stage! Now that’s what I call black girl magic!
