What Is Blackfishing?
There’s been a lot of talk about “blackfishing” online recently.
Just like most new words that suddenly make it into our lexicon, you go from seeing it once online and wondering what it is to suddenly seeing it everywhere. Although the term “blackfishing” has been around for a few years now it received a lot of attention a few weeks ago due to Jesy Nelson and the controversial video for her first solo single.
What Happened With Jesy Nelson?
Former Little Mix singer Jesy Nelson was accused of “blackfishing” in her latest music video, Boyz, which samples P Diddy’s song Bad Boy for Life and features the rapper Nicki Minaj.
In the video, Nelson, who is from Romford in east London and identifies as white British, is seen wearing grills on her teeth, has her hair in braids and “her skin is darkened in a way that makes her appear nonwhite”. People didn’t react well to the song or video but things got worse when Jesy’s former Little Mix bandmate, Leigh-Ann got involved.
When a TikTok star called NoHun asked his followers on Instagram whether he should do a cover version of Boyz, Leigh-Ann Pinnock, 30, who has Barbadian and Jamaican ancestry, messaged him saying “no”, and that he should instead “do a video about her (Jessy) being a black fish”.
Jesy denied the accusation, but she had reportedly been warned about blackfishing prior to the music video and refused to listen.
Jesy is also not the only celebrity to be called out about blackfishing, the Kar-Jenner’s have been repeatedly named checked online over blackfishing and cultural appropriation.
What is blackfishing?
The term blackfishing first hit public consciousness in 2018, thanks to a viral Twitter thread by Toronto-based freelance writer Wanna Thompson. “The thread exposed something that I’ve known all along – white women want access to Blackness but don’t want the suffering that comes along with it,” she wrote for Paper magazine that same year.
Thompson added that Instagram had become “a breeding ground” for white women wanting to capitalise off “impersonating racially ambiguous/Black women for monetary and social gain”.
Thompson defines blackfishing as “when White public figures, influencers and the like do everything in their power to appear Black”. Speaking to CNN, she added that this could entail tanning their skin excessively “in an attempt to achieve ambiguity” or wearing “hairstyles and clothing trends that have been pioneered by Black women”.
The term derives from the concept of “catfishing”, where a stranger creates a fictional online persona to lure someone into a relationship.
There’s A Difference Between Tanning And Blackfishing
Many of us wear tan, there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s better than sitting out in the sun and causing damage to your skin, but there is an issue when people overdo tan to purposely look like a completely different ethnicity. I’ve also seen people edit their pictures on social media to make them appear even darker.
There’s definitely a trend on social media and with some influencers who are clearly trying to blur the lines on their ethnicity. I’ve personally seen a UK based influencer repeatedly use the 👩🏽 emoji for herself when she is clearly a white woman who purposely over-tans. That influencer has brushed off the criticism just like Jesy.
It’s Important To Be Aware
When we see people dress and act a certain way it can lead us to believe that it’s “ok” to do the same. But the reality is that blurring the lines between your ethnicity to appeal to a “trend” on social media is deeply offensive to black people, just how using the n-word is deeply offensive.
Often when we see a style of hair or a trend on social media we don’t question where it comes from. Attempting to be racially ambiguous and passing it off on a trend is incredibly ignorant. And it’s incredibly frustrating that white influencers and celebrities cannot take the criticism onboard. They are in a position of power and influence and should lead by example.
We all make mistakes in life, it’s what makes us human. But considering we’re barely a year out from Black Lives Matter and influencers posting black squares in solidarity it really is something that people still can’t do a bit of personal work on themselves and listen to other communities when they’re wrong.