Black people call them hats. Seasoned black women call them crowns. White people call them chapeaux. Whatever your pick, on Tuesday, first lady Melania Trump donned what looked like a cross between an Easter Sunday hat made famous by mint-candy-carrying black women who can barely shuffle but will praise-dance you under the pew and a Beyoncé “Formation”-styled hat.
According to CNN, Melania Trump was sporting a “crisp white $2,195 Michael Kors Collection belted asymmetric crepe blazer and skirt suit. Stealing the show, however was [her] wide-brimmed white hat, designed by Hervé Pierre, according to a White House official. Pierre has acted as personal stylist for the first lady in the past; he designed her inaugural gown.”
I’m going to need CNN and other news outlets to bow down to the only royalty the United States acknowledges in the absence of our presidents, Barack and Michelle Obama, and recognize that this “stealing the show” hat has been worn several times over the years by black women in any black church in America. Hell, I’m sure my mother has this exact hat passed down to her from her mother and it’s sitting inside a hatbox under her bed, where all black women keep their good hats. But we see you, CNN and Melania and whiteness.
Thankfully, Twitter users didn’t let the moment go unnoticed.