This morning I learned about �the New Jane Crow.� She�s a bad bitch. Unladylike, uncouth, and unwanted. Bad black women, not like the one�s Imani Perry talks about, but nevertheless the bad. Maybe Wale �Bad.� And she�s out chea destroying herself and black men.

New Jane Crow?
Naw, this is minstrel performer
Rollin Howard as the 'wench' circa 1855
At least, this is the position Samori Swygert assumes. While the rest of his article warrants attention, I�m (not) here specifically for his conceptualization of a New Jane Crow. It's a huge departure from the premise of Jane Crow Pauli Murray presents in her work (many thanks to Treva Lindsey for pointing this work out to me). I didn't even know ole girl existed, and I�m from the south where New Jane�s cousin/brother/husband originated. Swygert articulates the New Jane Crow as �assuming the machismo, bravado, and brute character of men. . .this bad behavior fuels female incarceration, because many are participating in acts considered criminal.  Thus we are also fostering a generation of THE NEW JANE CROW!�(original author�s emphasis). A few references are entangled in this social-cultural knot Swygert asserts as truth.

First, the critique of women embodying the supposed masculine qualities of machismo and bravado points to a discomfort in gender performance that decenters men as the standard of power in black communities. Like Jim Crow, who was initially a minstrel show character, the suggestion that New Jane Crow too is an exaggerated performance of black masculinity is probably a bit deeper than Swygert intended. Nonetheless, it is useful in trying to deconstruct his discomfort with black women invoking ideas of womanhood apart from his ideals. This dimension of Jane Crow, black women (em)powering their identities outside of black masculinity, is considered appalling. I�m thinking particularly of hip hop, where bravado and machismo are pillars of hip hop masculinity.  These qualities are celebrated and critical to authenticating gender realities in hip hop as a performative and cultural space.

Yet the over exaggeration of these behaviors by black men results in similar incarceration, which Swygert conveniently overlooks in his discussion. His positioning of New Jane Crow�s lack of proper respectability undoubtedly hopes to invoke Michelle Alexander�s theorization of the Prison Industrial Complex as the New Jim Crow in her book The New Jim Crow but misses the mark in bridging how black women�s �bad� behavior is criminal. The crime committed is not of the kind Alexander addresses but black women�s failure to live up to Swygert�s expectations of suitable black womanhood. That act in itself is criminal. Still, the lax invoking of criminality as a policing agent between respectable and disrespectable black men and women haphazardly demonstrates a larger concern of not only gender performance but the consumption of those lopsided representations as gospel. What Swygert does not recognize is the profitability of both men and women�s disrespectable behaviors. For example, the flattening of �ratchet� behavior denotes a likewise flattened understanding of black humanity and realities, especially the realities of black women.

But let�s think about the ahistorical reference of  New Jane Crow and what she means for black women. First, is New Jane a southern girl? Gots to be. The Jim Crow South was a traumatic and devastating policing of black bodies in search of an allusive independence mandated by white supremacy. The Jim Crow character signified the performance and parodying of submissive black identities and thus regarded as acceptable to these supremacist practices. In this sense, I can see Jane Crow as a southern black woman, as Swygert uses her to police the identities of black women that are deemed unruly in the construct of ideal black womanhood he fetishizes. This policing still remains highly prevalent in the south, where much of this unruliness is centered. But an understanding of the racial anxieties and trauma that Jim Crow suggests is sorely lacking in Swygert�s portrayal of Jane.

Aside from the loosely shrouding the desire for black women�s submissiveness as �grace and humility,� Swygert spits some dangerous faux-losophy about respectability politics in the black community. I wish I had a .gif of Quinton from the Best Man with caption �oh she�s my queen and shit.� Dr. Swygert, please don�t confuse royalty and desirability with submission. This ain�t Coming to America. Queens ain�t submissive. She runs the board how she sees fit. If that�s with a bit of ratchet, so be it. No utility bill required.