What are your thoughts on this guys? You know I definitely have some 😂
A look at 'blackfishing' and the debate surrounding it twitter.com/i/events/10703…
A look at 'blackfishing' and the debate surrounding it twitter.com/i/events/10703…
All I have to say about this is... This isn’t new. I grew up in a mostly white town. I was told my brown skin was dirty, called a monkey & other racist slurs, told my hair was a Brillo pad or “health & safety hazard” at one school... and I remember when it became cool to be black
When music by black artists started to be more mainstream.... suddenly I saw white girls attempting to wear “blackness”. The result being characteristics that resembled mine. Tanned skin and their once straight hair tightly permed, dyed dark brown and brushed out into a ‘fro.
I remember going to certain parties or, when I was 18, nightclubs that played hip hop, bashment (dancehall) etc and seeing this a lot. And it made me feel weird. The characteristics I had been teased for, or told to “control” were being worn like a costume.
Black people and black culture has been appropriated since always... and this is just another example of that.
In addition to this... the performance of “racial ambiguity” or “light skinnedness” is difficult for me as mixed person. These women have not had to live through the sometimes complicated reality and experience of being mixed heritage. That’s a whole other conversation though...
I mention this to note the difference of experience as a result of my mixed heritage. I am aware of the privilege that it brings also.
Like I said, this isn’t new... and what also isn’t new is how the community being appropriated have to sit back and watch someone else profit from something they created whilst also being judged, shamed and ostracised for doing the very same thing...
Before those with the counter argument say “but black people straighten there hair and some even lighten their skin”... I don’t even have the energy to go into why that isn’t an argument in defence of this behaviour. The reasons for that this alluded to in the above tweets.
*their *is alluded to
