The Problem With The Word “Sophistiratchet”

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Remember being the Black kid who happened to like a song created by a White person and scrambling to explain your love for that song as the exception and not the rule? Because God forbid you like something White and the entirety of your Blackness be questioned. That’s kind of how I feel when Black women call themselves sophistiratchet.

There is this desire to be known as classy and generally acceptable in society, to distance yourself from the “thots,” “hoes” and “low-class” women of the world. But you can’t deny that you enjoy some of the fruits of that life, of that culture. So what do you do to let the world know that you’ve graduated from college and read books but also, on occasion, wear bodycon dresses and do a struggle twerk to songs containing misogynistic lyrics? Call yourself a sophistiratchet.

But really, when you think about it the term isn’t exactly helping anyone. While it may seem like a unification of upper, middle and lower classes, it’s still a way to “other” ourselves from those that society–including people in our own communities–deems unacceptable.