Whitey Ford
02-21-2020, 03:03 PM
'One in four cowboys were black'. The Yee Haw Agenda's founder on the politics of cowboy style
https://i.imgur.com/muP5j5f.jpg
I think the ubiquity of the white American cowboy myth reflects a lot of deep-rooted ideas about heteronormativity and whiteness in the US. It also speaks to the historical erasure of the black cowboy – most people don’t know that one in four cowboys were actually black.
I called the movement, and my Instagram account, which began in March 2019, “the Yee Haw Agenda” as a play on “the gay agenda”. A lot of straight people have issues with gay people or gay content being so popular and feeling as if it’s being forced on to children, which I’ve always thought was ridiculous. This has never made sense to me because the LGBTQI community has contributed so much to culture in general, stuff that they haven’t been credited for. It’s similar to the way black cowboys have not been historically credited. There are people who actually hate the term Yee Haw Agenda, but it’s funny to me because it was never meant to be as serious as it has become.
Recently, I saw an Out magazine headline that read The Gay Yeehaw Agenda Hit The Grammys Red Carpet, accompanied by a photo of Lil Nas X, Billy Porter and Orville Peck [all of whom wore cowboy hats to the awards ceremony]. It made me smile. The only real agenda at this point is to continue to spread the word about Yee Haw so maybe the world won’t be as shook the next time a black cowboy makes their presence known.
https://archive.is/Urx54#selection-1671.0-1679.628
https://i.imgur.com/muP5j5f.jpg
I think the ubiquity of the white American cowboy myth reflects a lot of deep-rooted ideas about heteronormativity and whiteness in the US. It also speaks to the historical erasure of the black cowboy – most people don’t know that one in four cowboys were actually black.
I called the movement, and my Instagram account, which began in March 2019, “the Yee Haw Agenda” as a play on “the gay agenda”. A lot of straight people have issues with gay people or gay content being so popular and feeling as if it’s being forced on to children, which I’ve always thought was ridiculous. This has never made sense to me because the LGBTQI community has contributed so much to culture in general, stuff that they haven’t been credited for. It’s similar to the way black cowboys have not been historically credited. There are people who actually hate the term Yee Haw Agenda, but it’s funny to me because it was never meant to be as serious as it has become.
Recently, I saw an Out magazine headline that read The Gay Yeehaw Agenda Hit The Grammys Red Carpet, accompanied by a photo of Lil Nas X, Billy Porter and Orville Peck [all of whom wore cowboy hats to the awards ceremony]. It made me smile. The only real agenda at this point is to continue to spread the word about Yee Haw so maybe the world won’t be as shook the next time a black cowboy makes their presence known.
https://archive.is/Urx54#selection-1671.0-1679.628