Teyana, Why Weren't Folks Wearing Face Masks To Your Listening Party?

Source: Rick Kern / Getty

I think it’s safe to say that A LOT of us can say with our entire chests that we really do want Teyana Taylor to SUCCEED! Sis is such a light, a genuine Black woman and her happiness makes us happy. To see her pregnant with her second daughter, happily in love with her fine husband, a dope new MAC collab on its way and a new album dropping tomorrow, our Harlem rose is blossoming in 2020.

She deserves all the flowers!

This is why it hurts to even write this post because as we celebrate her third LP, The Album, a now-deleted video hit social media showed Taylor having a seemingly fun listening party last night, but her little fête took place in the midst of a deadly pandemic (despite what y’all’s President keeps telling you), in a very tight space with children (including Taylor’s daughter Junie and Cardi B’s daughter Kulture) and no social distancing happening whatsoever.

Most importantly, barely any of the audience (mostly made of Black folks, who also happen to make up a disproportionate number of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S., including New York City), was wearing a face mask. That also includes Teyana who is pregnant and is at an increased risk for contracting the virus.

And yes, everyone looked adorable in their yellow and Junie stole the show and we love that for her, but…

https://twitter.com/bardisetlibra/status/1273565610966953984?s=20

WE ARE STILL IN PHASE ONE OF A DEADLY CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC CRISIS:

Listen, I totally understand that after months of being in lockdown, the country has begun to reopen trying its best to go back to business, but we cannot let this nation’s need to jumpstart the economy bamboozle us into thinking that the threat of this virus is over. Actually, we’re far from that—it’s only beginning.

Just the other day, I saw a story about a white woman who went to the bar with 15 friends in Florida, and all of them tested positive for COVID-19 afterward. Hanging at the bar was the one thread that linked them all together. How is Teyana’s party any different than that bar?

Maybe, I don’t have all the details. Maybe everyone was given a rapid test at the door, temperature checked, etc, before everyone was let into the party. But, even in that, why wasn’t there a face mask and a social distance requirement added in?

I just dunno know y’all.

I partially blame the media because they have such a hard time walking and chewing gum at the same time. Obviously, these Black Lives Matter protests; the tragic deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Black trans women; and addressing racism in America still matters, and deserve to be covered. But media has completely dropped the ball on covering coronavirus in the recent weeks, which has helped create a false and dangerous sense of safety, a sense that Black folks just cannot afford to have.

But granted, this also about personal responsibility and this party is just, well disappointing, quite scary and irresponsible. I love you Teyana, and completely understand quarantine fatigue, and the desire to want to celebrate such an amazing accomplishment, but is a party like this one worth putting yourself, your unborn child, your daughter, and others at risk?

Maybe, I’m just old y’all, but my answer to that question is, “absolutely not.”

Like an IG Live, playing the songs, calling in folks such as Missy Elliot who collabed on it and explaining the significance of each track would have been just as dope…and could have engaged thousands more, safely. Thankfully, I wasn’t the only one perplexed and concerned about it all.

Here’s what Black Twitter had to say:

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