Why It Matters That This Female NAACP Chapter President Was Photographed Enjoying a Strip Club

Meet Dr. Cheyenne Bryant, an author, speaker and life coach with a master’s degree in psychology.

Bryant is also president of the San Pedro/Wilmington chapter of the NAACP and has been instrumental in reviving the branch. Most recently she presented ABT Principal Dancer and San Pedro native Misty Copeland with a lifetime membership and donated $1500 to San Pedro Ballet School’s DancEd Steps Up program, which offers free ballet classes to children.

Bryant’s book, Mental Detox, is described as a guide to help readers “learn to stand in your own power, and know your own authentic voice, no matter how long it has been suppressed.”

Bryant is heavy into fitness and often shares inspirational videos and photos on her Instagram account.

And she has been open about a past experience modeling in a male-targeted magazine.

By all accounts she is a beautiful and intelligent woman, with multiple successful hustles.

She recently visited the high-profile Ace of Diamonds gentlemen’s club in Los Angeles, where she was photographed tipping Maliah Michel, a well-known dancer and ex-girlfriend of superstar rapper Drake.

Ace of Diamonds posted the image to their Instagram account, as did Michel, and Bryant was tagged in the comment section. The photo was soon removed from both accounts. However, within a day, YouTube videos surfaced ‘outing’ Bryant, as though her appearance at a strip club is problematic.

For a long time black women have been divided up by who is ‘respectable’ and who is ‘ratchet’. This is a false division that distracts from the reality that all black women are worthy of respect. Going to a strip club doesn’t detract from a woman’s ability to lead with intelligence and conviction.

Strip clubs have long been venues where black men go to socialize and conduct business. RHOA cast member Phaedra Parks discussed this in a 2014 appearance on the Bethenny talk show;

“Well anyone who knows me I represent some of the hottest adult entertainers in Atlanta and have been for almost twenty years now so I have no problems with it. I actually frequent them myself to visit my clients as well. Atlanta is really a strip club city. It’s not considered sleazy in Atlanta to go to a strip club because it’s probably 50/50 men and women there at all times as patrons, not as dancers.”

Check out the video below.

The picture of Bryant at the strip club begs the question; what are the limits we place on black women’s behavior, and why?

Ladies, what are your thoughts?