*Black Twitter users are calling out white social media influencers who are all about “blackfishing” for clout.
“Blackfishing” is the “act of white women pretending to be black through a combination of makeup and traditionally black hairstyles and fashion,” nbcnews.com writes.
“On social media, they’re curating a performance of themselves that’s reliant on appropriating parts of black culture,” said Alisha Gaines, associate professor of English at Florida State University and author of “Black for a Day: Fantasies of Race and Empathy.”
Writer Wanna Thompson was first to ignite the “blackfishing” conversation online, after she called out “all of the white girls cosplaying as black women on Instagram.”
“Let’s air them out because this is ALARMING,” Thompson said.
Many are quick to note that the Kardashians are the pioneers of “Blackfishing.”
OTHER NEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: LA Activists to Protest Little Ceasar’s Pizza After Employee Calls Black Customer the N-word
“How popular the Kardashians are speaks volumes and can’t be overlooked,” Ericka Hart, a Black Instagram influencer said. “They have been able to capitalize off black bodies, and people will want to emulate that.”
Like the Kardashians, the women featured in Thompson’s Twitter thread also profit from brand endorsements and collaborations, Gaines said.
“They put themselves out there and have all of these followers thinking they’re someone that they’re not,” she explaied. “It’s so deeply rooted in white privilege because they can take up a space that an actual black woman could have had.”
Hart added, “They use black aesthetic like it’s a costume. “If you’re not black, you shouldn’t be doing that.” She also told NBC News that this trend is hardly anything but new as “there’s always been an inclination to take from black bodies.”
NBC News requested interviews with seven influencers accused of blackfishing, and only Emma Hallberg responded. She has repeatedly been slammed for filling her Instagram page with pictures of her “racial impersonation and cultural appropriation.” Hallberg has disputed accusations of blackfishing.
“I do not get sponsorships, work opportunities and collaborations because of the color of my skin,” one of the posts reads. “I get it because of the way I style my clothes and create my makeup looks.”
But Gaines ain’t buying it. “It’s a really flimsy excuse to me,” she said.
“You gain a lot of followers from people who think you’re somebody who you’re not,” Hart said. “People look up to you in a myriad of ways you might not even realize, and you’ve just been lying to them.”
Scroll up and watch the clip above.
We Publish News 24/7. Don’t Miss A Story. Click HERE to SUBSCRIBE to Our Newsletter Now!
