Whitewashing/ Blackfishing: black identities and cultural appropriation.

[The Dryad]

Cultural appropriation, whitewashing, and stereotyping is still prevalent in a supposedly post-racist society, most likely due to ignorance and media portrayals. In America, the stereotype specifically for black people is "ghetto", uneducated, poor, dark, unkept short hair and "inappropriate" clothing and listening to extremely loud rap/hip-hop, but when white people discover something about black culture they take it, and it becomes "trendy" without offering where it comes from, nor without bothering with the historical context or situational context.

 

 

*Listed are some examples:

 

 

 

Art Hoe: definition: aesthetic (urban dictionary)

 

First coined by tumblr user sensitiveblackperson, art hoe is a term specifically for POC or allies who are interested in any kind of art. The term has catalyzed a subculture of white girlsand boys interested in kånken backpacks, art socks, and journaling.

 

 

Intersectionality: definition (movement)

 

the theory that the overlap of various social identities, as race, gender, sexuality, and class, contributes to the specific type of systemic oppression and discrimination experienced by an individual (often used attributively): Her paper uses a queer intersectionality approach.

 

note: Theory created by Kimberly Crenshaw to originally describe her experience as a black feminist; respectful terminology to keep the origins of issue include using more descriptive terms ei: pro- intersectionality veganism (where intersectionality isn't used by itself, therefore devaluing the original space that the terminology was created)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Literally, the most shocking thing is white people pretending to be black (blackfishing) I mean....I know that melanin magic is beautiful but we also get shot for no reason, like....

 

Seriously though, real black people can't choose what skin color and hair texture we want, we face discrimination because of what white people deem "ghetto" and later take as trends, when it's a part of our ancestral culture, and a literal necessity (our hair- it's not a political statement, and it's literally not bothering you, so stop bothering us).

 

Better yet, I'd just be happy if white people stopped calling the cops on black people just for existing. Stop it.

 

They're probably going to try and steal 'Black Girl Magic' next (or even worse try and create 'White Girl Magic',😆.

 

black girl magic

The art of pure, unadulterated dopeness that every black woman exudes, which beholds not only her internal and external beauty but demonstrates the glory of God the creator.

 

Which is sort of a nod and reclaimation of the Magical Negro Trope

 

magical negro

A movie cliché in which a black man with apparently supernatural powers mysteriously appears, helps the white man in trouble get through his problems for no reward, and then cheerfully leaves the story altogether.

Legend of Bagger Vance. 
The Green Mile. 
The Matrix. 
Bruce Almighty.

 

 

Even Legends aren't safe...

 

Calafia or Califia is a warrior queen who ruled over a kingdom of black women living on the Island of California. The story of Queen Calafia was written by Spanish writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo who first introduced her in his popular novel entitled Las sergas de Esplandián, written around 1500. 

 

(....Googles picture of Califia plant milk....up pops a white woman)

 

 

 

 

(now if only we can figure out why so many black comic book characters have lightening powers...)

 

 

***Why is this even important? This is important because when people, specifically people who don't know black people outside of stereotypes actually see a PoC that they don't know how to label, they ask for a narrative, some context to refer to, but when we tell you we specifically have certain labels to cope with exactly what you're asking us to explain- that validates our existence, we face backlash for having these very specific labels to us in the first place. And people who don't even know the meaning of those labels, but think they're cool and trendy, appropriate them outside of context and definitely without showing respect to origins.

 

*A personal example as an "unconventional black girl":

In so many ways I personally don't fit into the stereotypes that black people in general find themselves placed into, and while other people are trying to find....points of reference to categorize me as, I'm also trying to find where I belong in a world that tells me my interests and beliefs "aren't black" and that I "don't look black enough" or "don't sound black enough" to experience certain things, so I personally use labels to navigate my way through this white dominated world and find other people like me. The origins"Art hoe" and "intersectionality" are important because they were created by someone similar to me, but because of the erasure of the origins, I thought they were general issues/aesthetics that white people themselves coined, and something that I could use but not anything rooted in what I was experiencing/feeling. But scrolling throughout Tumblr and Instagram or YouTube will not generally show where "Art hoe" came from,nor the PoC it was originally coined to represent but rather and excessive usage by white people (which the usage is fine of course, but not the erasure of origins). The first time I saw the word "intersectionality" I'm fairly certain it was talking about white lesbian politics, which while I empathized with the writer, I didn't know the origins of the terminology would have related directly to my feelings as a black feminist as per Kimberlé Crenshaw. As far as "blackfishing" goes, I was offended because "Emma Hallberg" is white and was darkening her skin, but she looked like me! From her skin color, to the fake curl pattern of her hair and roundness of our faces, she could have been my long lost sister, but I don't have the ability or the luxury to take off my skin color to change the way the world views me...or technically I could, but it would be fake. Which was exactly what she was doing even if she denies it. Black people are more than a golden tan skin tone and curly fine hair and full lips and wearing clothes than show off curves- we're not a trend in itself, and I'm fairly certain she doesn't experience life as I do as a black girl even though she's cosplaying as someone who looks eeriely similar to me. But I wouldn't be caught dead wearing that much makeup or those types of clothes because of the stereotype placed on them "as being ghetto"  (and they're not my style tbh), and reality is that for real black people we have to try to get away from what that girl is portraying in order to be taken seriously and not to be sexualized and animalized. I hope this clears up my position more.

 

[MoraDollie]

I totally get what you're getting at, but the reality is, with enough skills with spfx makeup, anyone can be any skin color and pull it off convinsingly.

I got my undergraduate degree in studio art. For this degree, I had to take an art criticism class. We talked extensively about "cultural appreciation vs cultural appropriation" as well as the idea of "Race bending" (turning a white person "black", turning a person from India into a white person, etc.). It's an inherently very complex issue. We also have to take into consideration DNA testing because how much "minority percentage" (such as a person who "looks white" getting a certain percentage from their ethnicity results from say Africa, India, or Central America) is "needed" to "qualify" as a minority. There's numerous individuals with a LOT of African or central american people in their family tree and heritage, but a stranger could easily mistake them as "white". 

 

Cultures mix and blend all throughout history. It's impossible to know a person's race by looks alone, unless you're talking extremes on either spectrum (very dark skin vs very pale). DNA testing shows just about EVERYONE is a good mix of everything (or close to everything). 

[The Dryad]

Stealing/ Whitewashing the art hoe aesthetic: http://culture.affinitymagazine.us/how-tumblr-whitewashed-the-art-hoe-movement/amp/

[LenaLuthor]

I appreciate it black people wouldn't whine when white people enjoy some things black people do or traits of black people. Seriously, you're complaining that people like things about you? So, if a white person dislikes things about blacks, whites are racist. When whites like some things about blacks, whites are racists. We can't win for losing.

 

Whites do not call the police on people just because they're black. Blacks are sometimes shot for no reason, but only sometimes.

 

It would be nice if blacks quit blaming all their problems on whites and considering us their oppressors because we are not.

 

Cultural appropriation? How about you quit speaking English?

 

Changing skin color through bleaching or tanning is stupid unless the tan comes from the sun because vitamin d and because you're outside.

[MoraDollie]

5 minutes ago, MorganPendragon said:

Whites do not call the police on people just because they're black. Blacks are sometimes shot for no reason, but only sometimes.

Uh, clearly you've been under a rock in recent times because there's NUMEROUS examples of white people calling cops on black people JUST FOR LIVING/going about their daily lives (in recent memory: a time when a black girl tried to sell lemonade in NYC; when a group of black people were trying to enjoy a picnic/BBQ in the park; another time when I believe it was a descendent of Bob Marley who got the cops called on her just because she was trying to move suitcases into her car from the airBNB she was staying at {and the white person's defense was "they were robbing the place"})

[The Dryad]

2 minutes ago, MorganPendragon said:

I appreciate it black people wouldn't whine when white people enjoy some things black people do or traits of black people. Seriously, you're complaining that people like things about you? So, if a white person dislikes things about blacks, whites are racist. When whites like some things about blacks, whites are racists. We can't win for losing.

 

Whites do not call the police on people just because they're black. Blacks are sometimes shot for no reason, but only sometimes.

 

It would be nice if blacks quit blaming all their problems on whites and considering us their oppressors because we are not.

 

Cultural appropriation? How about you quit speaking English?

I speak English because I'm a Pan African, whose ancestors were stolen by yours, but I didn't mention that our entire cultures and identities were originally stolen by whites to begin with, but I won't get into that.

 

Sure, you like some things about us and you taken them without giving credit when it becomes popular and "trendy"

 

 

Oh...and these black people were probably just committing crimes according to you...

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna918476

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/us/hilary-brooke-apartment-patty-st-louis.html

[LenaLuthor]

1 minute ago, Kumoku said:

Uh, clearly you've been under a rock in recent times because there's NUMEROUS examples of white people calling cops on black people JUST FOR LIVING/going about their daily lives (in recent memory: a time when a black girl tried to sell lemonade in NYC; when a group of black people were trying to enjoy a picnic/BBQ in the park; another time when I believe it was a descendent of Bob Marley who got the cops called on her just because she was trying to move suitcases into her car from the airBNB she was staying at {and the white person's defense was "they were robbing the place"})

You don't think things like those could or do happen to people of others colors?

[LenaLuthor]

3 minutes ago, The Dryad said:

I speak English because I'm a Pan African, whose ancestors were stolen by yours, but I didn't mention that our entire cultures and identities were originally stolen by whites to begin with, but I won't get into that.

 

 

 

Actually, your ancestors sold your kind into slavery. Newsflash, slavery still exists in Africa!

 

[Alawyn-Aebt]

5 minutes ago, MorganPendragon said:

Actually, your ancestors sold your kind into slavery. Newsflash, slavery still exists in Africa!

Nearly every society throughout history has at one point or another has had slavery, and having slavery means one must at some time or another deal in the slave trade.

There is also a major difference between Chattel Slavery and other forms of slavery. Again there was a difference between societies that relied on slavery as a economic lifeline (USA South antebellum, etc.) and societies that slavery existed in but did not form the economic backbone (Historical Mali, Middle-Ages Europe [ignoring the near-slavery conditions of some peasants.], etc.)

 

And yes, Slavery still exists in Africa but it still exists everywhere on earth, luckily to a lesser degree than historically-speaking though.

[LenaLuthor]

Just now, Aebt said:

Nearly every society throughout history has at one point or another has had slavery, and having slavery means one must at some time or another deal in the slave trade.

There is also a major difference between Chattel Slavery and other forms of slavery. Again there was a difference between societies that relied on slavery as a economic lifeline (USA South antebellum, etc.) and societies that slavery existed in but did not form the economic backbone (Historical Mali, Middle-Ages Europe [ignoring the near-slavery conditions of some peasants.], etc.)

 

And yes, Slavery still exists in Africa but it still exists everywhere on earth, luckily to a lesser degree than historically-speaking though.

And guess what, majority white countries outlawed slavery.

[Alawyn-Aebt]

2 minutes ago, MorganPendragon said:

And guess what, majority white countries outlawed slavery.

Slavery is outlawed in every country on earth.

[The Dryad]

3 minutes ago, MorganPendragon said:

And guess what, majority white countries outlawed slavery.

Yet they didn't give reparations...I wonder why.

[LenaLuthor]

1 minute ago, Aebt said:

Slavery is outlawed in every country on earth.

Fine then, majority white countries don't practice it.

 

And you shouldn't hold people to account for things they did not do. No white person alive today has ever owned a slave.

[LenaLuthor]

2 minutes ago, The Dryad said:

Yet they didn't give reparations...I wonder why.

Because they're not owed.

If they are, black people owe reparations to white abolitionists who died fighting it the U.S. Civil War. Blacks also owe whites who did things like pass the 13th amendment reparations too. Also, blacks owe reparations for selling their own kind into slavery. They also owe it for continuing the practice in Africa.

[The Dryad]

17 minutes ago, MorganPendragon said:

Actually, your ancestors sold your kind into slavery. Newsflash, slavery still exists in Africa!

Slavery still exists in Africa but is mostly practiced by racist Arabs, or culturally accurate slavery practices of Africans, by crime or war.

 

Besides, you're forgetting who created racism to begin with.

[LenaLuthor]

1 minute ago, The Dryad said:

Slavery still exists in Africa but is mostly practiced by racist Arabs, or culturally accurate slavery practices of Africans, by crime or war.

 

Besides, you're forgetting who created racism to begin with.

Racism was created by everyone. All races hate all other races and are hated by all other races.

[The Dryad]

4 minutes ago, MorganPendragon said:

Fine then, majority white countries don't practice it.

 

And you shouldn't hold people to account for things they did not do. No white person alive today has ever owned a slave.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/10/12/white-restaurant-manager-enslaved-black-man-for-years-federal-prosecutors-say/

 

 

Riiigght.

[LenaLuthor]

1 minute ago, The Dryad said:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/10/12/white-restaurant-manager-enslaved-black-man-for-years-federal-prosecutors-say/ 

 

 

Riiigght.

I was legally paid to work $3.22 an hour working in a cold building with lots of mess. Was I enslaved?

[Alawyn-Aebt]

Just now, MorganPendragon said:

And you shouldn't hold people to account for things they did not do. No white person alive today has ever owned a slave.

No, one should not hold those present accountable for the actions of those long ago, but there are still problems caused by those actions so they must be discussed and rectified. I for one as a white American want the horrors of slavery and racial-ethnic tensions continued to be discussed because even though I have never owned another human being I want to atone for all the horrors committed by people who either look like me or in some cases my actual ancestors. 

And some people (regardless of race or ethnicity) have and continue to own slaves, just a very small minority of the population in any present-day society.

1 minute ago, MorganPendragon said:

black people owe reparations to white abolitionists who died fighting it the U.S. Civil War.

Black Americans fought too, and most Union soldiers were not abolitionists.

2 minutes ago, MorganPendragon said:

Racism was created by everyone. All races hate all other races and are hated by all other races.

Not really. Certain ethnicities that create the social-construct of races (including the one I live in in the USA) can slant towards ethno-centricism and racism, but not all do. To say that all races hate all other races is odd, does that mean you hate anyone you see as racially different than yourself? I doubt you do, as I doubt many people do on this earth anymore, but sadly there still are those.

 

 

 

[The Dryad]

9 minutes ago, MorganPendragon said:

Racism was created by everyone. All races hate all other races and are hated by all other races.

Native Americans were enslaved,had their native land stolen, and called "savages" by who and...why?

 

Aboriginals we're enslaved and called "savages" and had their native land stolen by who ....and why?

 

Africans were stolen and called "savages" by who....and why?

 

Indians were enslaved and called "savages" by who? And why?

 

I guess I don't need to talk about all the other colonies that apparently white people didn't make and definitely didn't discriminate against native peoples because they definitely didn't create racism or anything...

 

 

I'm not talking about caste systems, or classism I'm talking about good to honest racism. Different from discrimination because it seems to be a phenomenon created by past colonial attitudes.

[LenaLuthor]

3 minutes ago, Aebt said:

Not really. Certain ethnicities that create the social-construct of races (including the one I live in in the USA) can slant towards ethno-centricism and racism, but not all do. To say that all races hate all other races is odd, does that mean you hate anyone you see as racially different than yourself? I doubt you do, as I doubt many people do on this earth anymore, but sadly there still are those.

 

 

 

No. I mean hate is a part of the human condition and it's not tied to only one type of human.

[Alawyn-Aebt]

10 minutes ago, MorganPendragon said:

Fine then, majority white countries don't practice it.

No country practices widespread slavery, it is illegal under the United Nations and is about the worse insult you can hurl at a country even more damaging than genocide. I really don't understand your argument of majority white countries don't practice it, because no country practices it on a wide scale. And those that have it on a small scale (which is about every nation because slavery still exists) are in flagrant violation of international law and common kindness.

[NickyTannock]

Should this be moved to the Hot Box forum?

[LenaLuthor]

1 minute ago, The Dryad said:

Native Americans were enslaved,had their native land stolen, and called "savages" by who and...why?

 

Aboriginals we're enslaved and called "savages" and had their native land stolen by who ....and why?

 

Africans were stolen and called "savages" by who....and why?

 

Indians were enslaved and called "savages" by who? And why?

 

I guess I don't need to talk about all the other colonies that apparently white people didn't make and definitely didn't discriminate against native peoples because they definitely didn't create racism or anything...

 

 

I'm not talking about caste systems, it classism I'm talking about good to honest racism.

Native American's also owned slaves. And you're trying the shit with someone who has Cherokee ancestry.

Again, Africans were sold by their own kind in a lot of cases. Africans also owned other Africans as slaves.

 

Arabs enslaved whites during the Barbary slave trade and they had a fondness for raping white slaves.

 

The word slave itself is rooted in the word Slav as in slavic people.

 

This is what slavic people look like:

 

 

[Alawyn-Aebt]

Just now, MorganPendragon said:

No. I mean hate is a part of the human condition and it's not tied to only one type of human.

I disagree with you here, I do not think people are naturally predisposed to hate other humans. Be distrustful of other humans? Maybe, certainly in evolutionary history that would be advantageous, but there is a major difference between being wary of a stranger and systematically hating others based off of perceived differences.

[The Dryad]

8 minutes ago, MorganPendragon said:

I was legally paid to work $3.22 an hour working in a cold building with lots of mess. Was I enslaved?

No one made you work there right? Plus I'm sure no one was shouting racial slurs at you and beating you until "unrecognizable", right? Right.

[LenaLuthor]

6 minutes ago, Aebt said:

I disagree with you here, I do not think people are naturally predisposed to hate other humans. Be distrustful of other humans? Maybe, certainly in evolutionary history that would be advantageous, but there is a major difference between being wary of a stranger and systematically hating others based off of perceived differences.

Then, you haven't paid attention historically.

 

In 2002, Niger had 42,000 confirmed slaves with a potential slave population of over 800k.

[The Dryad]

7 minutes ago, MorganPendragon said:

Native American's also owned slaves. And you're trying the shit with someone who has Cherokee ancestry.

Again, Africans were sold by their own kind in a lot of cases. Africans also owned other Africans as slaves.

 

Arabs enslaved whites during the Barbary slave trade and they had a fondness for raping white slaves.

 

The word slave itself is rooted in the word Slav as in slavic people.

 

This is what slavic people look like:

 

 

I'm literally a Cherokee Freedmen descendant, so I know that Cherokee owned slaves , for a fact.

 

Yes, slavery was a fairly common practice, but....where did all of this racism come from all of the sudden?

 

After all Africans had been traveling to Japan, China, and Europe forever, as well as sailing and writing...yet "history" doesn't say that... unless you look for it, I wonder why?

 

 

Slavery was not originally a system based on race. So I don't understand your point in pointing out all the other forms of slavery throughout history.

[Alawyn-Aebt]

Just now, MorganPendragon said:

Then, you haven't paid attention historically.

I am really trying to figure out what you mean. Humans don't naturally hate others just out of sheer hatred. There is always an outside, external factor, usually economic, be is real or perceived that accounts for the growth of hatred.

[LenaLuthor]

1 minute ago, The Dryad said:

Slavery was not originally a system based on race. So I don't understand your point in pointing out all the other forms of slavery throughout history.

Then, quit making it about how whites are evil.