Blackfishing

I have been aware of the current debate on the issue of blackfishing for a while and think it’s an interesting topic that not many people are aware of. Along the same vein as blackface and cultural appropriation, though viewed currently as a lesser evil, blackfishing has become a popular term to identify someone who is White using various means to make themselves appear physically more Black or racially ambiguous. This is usually done through tanning, hairstyles, makeup, or surgery and has become a noticeable trend in many female Instagram and YouTube creators over recent years. The argument in favour of this trend is that these women are not performing Blackness in order to mock or demean Black people but rather that their actions are out of appreciation. However, this trend functions in much of the same harmful ways as cultural appropriation as the physical features that Black women that were once ridiculed and discriminated for are now trends that White women can choose to put on. This use of Black culture and appearance completely negates the history of discrimination and harrassment that Black women have received for looking this way. For example, the appropriation of Black hair has been noted because many Black women are made to feel that their natural hair is unprofessional and excessive tanning or makeup to make someone appear darker skinned equally so. This is particularly harmful because blackfishing is hardly ever accompanied with social activism and the women who do this rarely use their platforms to address the injustices that Black people face because of the physical traits that they are exploiting. The Kardashians are often accused of this as well as other famous women such as Ariana Grande, Rita Ora, and recently Addison Rae. This is representative of the tendency that White people have to view Blackness, and specifically Black women, as a commodity within the practice of racial feitishism. This eroticisation of the ‘otherness’ of Black women is a large contributor to this trend which seeks to exploit the “aesthetic” of Blackness through reductive and ignorant practices.