What reproaches to whites who pose themselves as blacks?
A few weeks ago, social networks were boiling with the black community criticising white follows of black fishing. A trend of posing themselves off as black (thanks to make-up) initiated on Instagram. What made them win fans drooling at their beauty and their way of being black. So all this was only fake and antics. The black masks have fallen. The brothers and Sisters of the black community from all over the world needed no more to make them blush.
What has not been heard? They just want to enjoy the good side of being black without assuming the setback… and blah blah blah… The most fashionable expressions have cried out to “cultural appropriation”. It comes in handy! Let’s talk about it…
What exactly is it? Cultural appropriation is a phenomenon of an individual, an entity or a community to be inspired in part or in full by the customs of a people for profit or otherwise. That Dior plagiarized the traditional jacket of a Romanian village, that Stella Mc Cartney uses not only the loin cloth but also a traditional model of the Cameroonian dress (Kaba Ngondo) or that Hermes is inspired by the Bamileke handicrafts (Cameroonian Community) for his creations with the beard and under the nose of everyone, without the plagiarists taking advantage of it in any way, it is theft (du plagiat in good French). In these cases, there is a cultural appropriation that unfortunately does not benefit everyone.
However, let us try to relate and have a broader perspective of this trend. If they want to pretend to be black, it’s because they find an interest in being black. They refer to the eyes of the world a complex that even the Western media (French in this case) have vehemently condemned, emphasizing with emphasis, the concern to reverse the tendency of the dark complexion of white skin. And they’re right. The “Black is cool” is running and no one can stop it. Even if there is still an important work to be done on the people who are robbed and are convinced that the whiteness of the skin is the notorious symbol of beauty.
Yes, because it exists, the inverse phenomenon to black fishing. In Ivory Coast the phenomenon is called “Tchatcholi”. In Cameroon, it is ironically called “Djansan”. Regardless of the metaphor used to turn away from reality, the fact is that there are blacks who want to become white. However, has there been a stir similar to that aroused by the black fishing on the part of the whites? Not that I know of. Why would the reverse shocking? Would we be witnessing a kind of racism? Maybe not. But I see some miasma of misplaced hypocrisy. The problem is elsewhere.
It is clear that these whites with black masks were not honest from the onset. They would have confessed to being fans of the black skin that they would not have taken so much in the mouth. But if we looked at the good side of the issue, we would realize that there is, behind this trend, the snippets of a new look on black skin. The question deserves to be dug.
Besides, aren’t we all cultural hybrids?
