Keke Palmer’s boyfriend, Darius Jackson, has sparked multiple conversations on how the world, and especially men, need to stop policing Black women’s bodies after he recently criticized her outfit at an Usher concert. Well, now everyone can rest easy because finally Stephen A. Smith has given his opinion on the situation.
On Tuesday, during his podcast, the ESPN personality went off on Jackson for making his comments about her clothing public. He urged everyone to “mind your damn business,“ and stay out of other people’s bedrooms. He followed that up by saying that as her man, Darius had every right to disapprove of her sexy outfit, stating that Keke was “literally showing her ass.” OK, but it’s her ass. If she wants to let the world know how good it looks, that’s her prerogative.
As he addressed the response to Jackson’s tweet from women, Smith asked, “Can’t we say anything?” The answer is no, Stephen A. The Nope star was clearly excited to be headed out to the Usher show. What she decides to wear as she leaves the house is her business and no one else’s. The NBA Countdown analyst then brought up a tweet from Philadelphia Inquirer/Daily News journalist Jenice Armstrong, where she wrote, “Real men don’t try and control what the women in their life wear.” He did what he routinely does on First Take and took things to the most ridiculous place possible, claiming that the two types of people who have a problem with Jackson’s comments are “Somebody who don’t have a man, or somebody who don’t want one.” Wow, just when I think this situation can’t get more insulting, Stephen A. chimes in to prove me wrong.
I know this is hard for him to believe, but every idea, thought and decision women make isn’t ruled by the desires of men. Women are upset about Darius’ posts because we are constantly battling to keep the independence and agency we’ve fought so hard for. In the case of Black women, there’s always someone telling us how to dress and act, so it would be nice if we didn’t get that crap at home.
It’s true we don’t know what the boundaries of their relationship are, so maybe he does often comment on her clothes, but this wasn’t him just criticizing her, this was him publicly shaming her. For her part, Keke seems to be taking the controversy in stride. She recently posted a video of herself confidently strutting and posing as a song from her new album, Big Boss, played. The caption, “Don’t think idk what this body do. So good that you wanna hide me from the truth,” matched the lyrics.
I really hope we can all move on from this specific situation, but I hope the takeaway from this debate is that grown women are the only ones who get to make decisions about what’s comfortable and acceptable for their bodies. As Stephen A. is so fond of saying, “The rest of y’all can kick rocks.”