*Asian American actress Awkwafina is catching heat from Black Twitter for using a “blaccent,” after making clear that she refuses to use Asian accents.
“I refuse to do accents,” Awkwafina said in an interview with Vice. “I’m not OK with someone writing the Asian experience for an Asian character. 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.”
The quote went viral on Twitter on Monday (Aug. 16), with several users noting that Awkwafina used a “blaccent” to become famous. Peep some of the reactions below.
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“I refuse to do accents. I’m not OK with someone writing the Asian experience for an Asian character. 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.” – Awkwafina pic.twitter.com/o9OtfBXd5n
— Xvengers (@MonicasFlight) August 14, 2021
Here’s more from Revolt:
Twitter user @itsamia wrote, “Awkwafina won’t do accents, but will drop rap songs in a ‘blaccent’ and won’t apologize for using it for fame. Got it. That’s an interesting word choice there. ‘Minstrel.’”
“I treat Awkwafina the same way I treat Miley Cyrus: I’m glad you’ve come into your own and did whatever soul searching you needed to do, but I remember your ‘Blaccent’ days and how quickly you discarded it when it wasn’t serving you,” tweeted @BrandonLBradfor.
“Awkwafina is so strange for saying this,” tweeted @cuntproperty. “In one instance, you don’t want Asian ppl to be stereotyped in film, which is great, but then you go on to make a mockery of what you depict as a blaccent, despite having a normal speaking voice? It just doesn’t add up.”
Twitter user @HoodSocialism tweeted, “Non-Black women like Awkwafina are not ‘code switching’ with their forced stereotypical Blaccents. Their forced stereotypical Blaccents is a form of minstrelsy. If they’re code-switching, why do those accents disappear when they’re around their family & friends??”
In a follow-up tweet, @HoodSocialism wrote, “Awkwafina grew up in Forest Hills & there’s not a lot of Black people in that area. So, how is that forced Blaccent a product of her environment when the people in her environment don’t even talk that way??”
Another Twitte user wrote, “Awkwafina (and Eddie Huang, etc) are perfect examples of how Asians are rewarded with social and financial success by white society for appropriating Black culture. At the same time whitewashing the Asian immigrant experience and hiding uncomfortable truths abt anti-Blackness.”
Where is the lie? Sound off in the comments.
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