The Great Blaxploitation: Blackness Is Not a Costume To Use for Personal Gain
By Maryam Muhammad for Nappy Head Club
“We are present, but you have to look for us elsewhere, perhaps in the language you use, in the way you dance, in the food you eat, in the computers you use, in the art you make, or the music that is the soundtrack to your life.” — Emma Dabiri, “Twisted”
Though the significance of Black culture has been downplayed and undervalued throughout the last several centuries, Black culture has been and still remains one of the most dominant forces in global society. From language to art and fashion, Black creativity is if not, the most mocked culture, yet most taken from. While Black bodies are considered a crime, mocking their every move has earned many individuals favor and popularity among the masses — our skin often receives the most respect when worn by those who can take it off.
In finding various ways to exploit Black culture and bodies for personal gain and fame, the idea of minstrelsy was created in the early 19th century as a form of entertainment. To make people laugh, white people put on Blackface and re-enacted stereotypical Black behavior with the aim of showing the inferiority of Black people as a whole and to prove the superiority of the white race. When many people today imagine minstrelsy and minstrel shows, we often imagine the blatantly racist appearances of characters in these shows and nothing more. We picture vile images such as Al Jolson and Emile Subers with shoe polish all over their faces, excluding their lips. And, although the days of obvious caricatures are now over for the most part, non-Black people are now taking from authentic and real aspects of Black culture, only just to mock them, exaggerate them, and make them look abnormal or inferior.
However, the performances can often be more subversive than what meets the eye — they are often expressive to the very point of a psychological level. Mutliple stereotypes and racist archetypes, such as the mammy, the Uncle Tom, the Black brute, the Sambo, or the jezebel are acted out in order to try and prove the haunting and pervasive nature of Blackness that white America often sees in our culture. Still, while these ideas exist in their purest form when presented through films such as The Birth of a Nation, they don’t always appear in the most obvious of ways.
As the years went by and various social movements gained prominence, the idea of minstrelsy inevitably became unpopular and known as the racist act that it had been from the very start. Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean that it completely disappeared from the face of the earth. In fact, quite the opposite happened. Instead of re-enacting overtly anti-Black imagery that received praise over a century ago, performers had to find a way to move in a more covert fashion so that they could still attain popularity as well as be with the times. In addition to this, with Blackness now receiving certain levels of praise, creators have learned to switch their ostensibly racist behavior to racist behavior of a more politically correct approach.
To see this in action, we need not look any further than today’s popular culture. A multitude of entertainers and celebrities have made millions by marketing, using, and abusing various parts of Blackness, in spite of the fact that they themselves are not Black. Non-Black entities have created entire careers and made their entire fortune by utilizing our culture for personal aesthetic.
Recently, Asian rapper and actress Awkwafina has been called out on various social media platforms after an old interview that she did with Vice in 2017 resurfaced. In the interview, Awkwafina points out how much she despises the idea of having to do stereotypical Asian accents, even going as far as to say that she has walked out of auditions when the casting director asked for her to do an accent.
She says to Vice, “I’m OK with having an Asian aspect if it’s done in a genuine way. I’m not OK with someone writing the Asian experience for an Asian character. Like that’s annoying and I make it very clear, I don’t ever go out for auditions where I feel like I’m making a minstrel out of our people.” Many people have read this interview and have since called her out for hypocrisy, stating that if she sees the degradation in stereotypical Asian accents, then she should see the issue in doing a Blaccent. One of the ways in which she rose to fame was by partaking in the hackneyed “hood” persona, taking on the identity and mannerisms of a Black person who grew up in the “slums” or the “ghetto.” Furthermore, the residential neighborhood that Awkwafina was raised in, known as Forest Hills, has very few Black people. In 2010, Black people made up for roughly 2.5% of the entire area, compared to 58.3% of the area being white and 24.2% being Asian.
So, we must ask the obvious question: Where did this “Blaccent” come from?
While many people might answer with television, movies, or the internet, sometimes the answer isn’t that evident, as the transition into Blackness feels more abrupt and forced for some than others. Miley Cyrus is a perfect example of what it looks like when Blackness is used to “spice” things up and keep audiences from growing bored. Around 2013, Cyrus released her Bangerz album, which mainly consisted of R&B and Hip-Hop tracks. While people were surprised when her sound as an artist shifted, they were even more shocked to see how she had modified her overall image. Throwing away the small-town, girl-next-door persona she once had, Cyrus chose to embrace Black culture as a means of rebellion. Along with engaging in mediocre twerking regularly, Cyrus now sported short hair, large hoop earrings, gold chains, and grills.
While a good amount of people saw through this facade and recognized that this phase in Cyrus’s career was simply an attempt at hopping on trends, many people in the Hip-Hop community embraced her in a way almost never seen before. Though many Black women in the genre itself have been ridiculed and shamed for being “too sexual” or “too rowdy,” Cyrus was let into this space with open arms and received little to no criticism as a result of it. While Nicki Minaj was called a “bad influence,” Miley Cyrus was commended for being brave and a “feminist icon.” However, none of it made her content enough to stay. Once she got tired of Hip-Hop culture as a whole, Miley Cyrus was able to retreat to her safe space of white privilege, with no strings attached. She was allowed to simply drop everything in spite of the masses of profit that she made because she felt that it no longer served her.
This is not an isolated event, but a common phenomenon among non-Black individuals who wish to exploit Black customs for clout or popularity. When they know that they can ride trends to reach relevancy or keep the momentum of their careers, many people have a short-lived relationship with Black culture only to drop it later. Acts such as Iggy Azalea, Post Malone, Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, and Awkwafina of course, have all utilized various aspects of Blackness and then have treated it as an afterthought once they get their desired level of fame.
Blackness, while being the richest culture to ever exist, is rarely appreciated when practiced by actual Black people, and that’s a huge problem. Non-Black individuals need to understand that while appreciation of our culture is a beautiful gesture, appropriation is not. People who are unaware of why they like when non-Black creators or entertainers should learn to take a page out of history and find out why they find who we are to be so comical. Just because blatant Blackface has gone out of style doesn’t mean it can’t be found in other aspects of popular culture today. If people want to find the value in traditions and ways of life, they need not look any further than members of the actual Black community.
About the Author:
Maryam Azeeza Muhammad is a poet, womanist, and journalism student from Bridgeport, CT currently attending Temple University in Philadelphia, PA.
