In a piece for the latest edition of New York Magazine, Toure delves into the world of Martha's Vineyard, the assumed summer spot for the first family. The Vineyard is an odd collision of liberal political think and self-imposed segregation and is at the tricky intersection of what Black success means in America.
An excerpt:
When they get to their Vineyard vacation homes, they want to escape that casual, institutional, and intra-black racism and be around people who help them feel less anomalous. Trey Ellis, who wrote the script for The Inkwell, the notoriously bad film about the black Vineyard experience (Ellis himself called it terrible), says, “The black part of the Vineyard is like, I would imagine, being gay and going to the Castro. It’s this mecca where you can be yourself and be with people who have so much in common with you. No one has to feign some street cred when they’re playing tennis.” It’s a source of communion and of pride. “When you see a beautiful black family with their kids, it makes you feel really good about being black,” says Chrisette Hudlin, wife of Reggie and a lifelong Vineyarder who travels there every summer from L.A. “As a person who’s high-achieving and striving for the best for their family, you’re looking at these other black people who have the same goals, and it makes you feel good as a black person. You don’t feel out of place.” Several Only Ones say there’s nowhere in America that makes them more proud of black people.
Read the rest of the article here.
What say you? Is the Vineyard and achievement to aspire to or merely a stuffy bougie enclave to be cringed at?