To be shocked Ariana Grande is White

[IslandGyal]

I’ve just discovered the new trend of ‘blackfishing’ whereby white celebrities and models try and appear racially ambiguous.

I think it’s more common in the states. However one of the most common examples is Ariana Grande who seems to have almost changed races.

See the picture in this article: medium.com/@abbs664/ariana-grande-blackfishing-d42a8cb726ea

Is anyone else kinda shocked that Grande is a white Italian.

I always assumed she was Latin American or mixed race black. It’s also quite problematic that she appears to tone down her look when it suits by appearing lighter on vogue.

Aibu

she is the tiniest thing with delicate features , I don't know how you can mix that with being black

Please tell me you completely misphrased that and didn't just imply that black women cannot be "tiny with delicate features".
It's total nonsense. Where I'm from in southern Africa there are a lot of women who are incredibly short, slight and delicate of feature.

What specific black culture is in the videos?
The scantily clad clothing?
Gyrating and these usually over sexualised dancing?
The sets used?
The words of the song?
The use of the word Crib?

I have never ever thought Ariana Grande was black

I thought she probably had Latin American heritage, particularly as she is from Miami. But not black or mixed race. I don't think she has ever tried to pretend she is has she?

The difference is that because she has tiny and delicate features she can not be black...meaning no black has tiny and delicate features. Obviously wrong.

Haven't read the article but it is a fact that most Europeans have certain features, as do most Black people. But there are always exceptions which the flippant comment failed to acknowledge.

Have you seen her brother ? If we assume you got confused by the tan then I don't know how on earth his appearance didn't correct that. What a strange thing to concern yourself with .

@Stripesnomore

I don’t see why Ingrid saying fine featured is more offensive than Afromeg saying delicate. They are both referring to a previous poster.

Ok, fine-featured means something else to me ("nice") but if it's been used to mean delicate as well here in the context of what's being said, then cool.

Afromeg:

‘And what do you mean "fine featured"? Again, think how things come across’

I honestly have no idea why Ingrid saying fine featured is worse than you saying delicate. If anything fine is more neutral and descriptive.

Fine when describing a feature means thin or narrow, as in fine toothed comb, fine hair. It isn’t complimentary to say someone has fine hair.

Delicate on the other hand means something easily broken, which isn’t even true. Ariana Grande isn’t more breakable than someone with broader cheekbones.

Have just replied you. I get it - it's also used in place of delicate. It usually means something else to me. I'm good.

@MaxNormal

She's American born to American born parents All Americans apart from Native have genes that recently came from elsewhere. In her case, southern Italy.

I get you OP and I agree. Ariana hasn’t ever claimed she’s Latina but her name and her look (maybe her sound? Not sure) clearly emulate a particular ethnicity that she doesn’t deny (she’s not Italian either.

Is there any evidence she's changed her name or is she now being slated for the name she was given?

Your point being what, exactly? Americans now aren't American? Are you denying that black fishing is a thing? @OverTheRainbow88 put it better than I did: I dislike blackfishing, it’s trying to gain all the ‘goodness’ of a race or culture without having to put up with all the day to day racist shit that; that black person has had to entail.

Black fishing is a thing, white women plumping their lips and their butts, fake tanning to a ridiculous degree, braiding hair and claiming racial ambiguity. These are things that black women have been mocked and reviled for for centuries, but white women do it and it’s considered ok?!

If a woman does all of this and claims racial ambiguity then yes it is wrong.

The very vast majority of white women don't plump their lips to look like a black person. They don't tan to look like a black person. Therefore it isn't 'blackfishing'. Is that not what this thread is about, blackfishing?

I don't have a problem with women plumping their lips, their bodies, their choice. Same goes with tan or a fake backside. I'm stunned that you would have a problem with it and try and police peoples bodies in this way?

If the problem you have is people of other races pretending to be black then that should be more clear because all of the things that you mention by themselves do not indicate that a woman is pretending to black.

Apologies for wrong phrasing , I just meant she clearly looks white to me .

@IslandGyal

I also don’t get why people are being snarky to me. I never said she was a horrible person.

I never said she was racist or anything. I said it’s problematic to me that a white person is appearing (at least to many people) as a POC.

In what way is it problematic?

The black women over on LSA have been callling her out on her blackfishing/cultural appropriation for over a year.

I think the fact that she clearly tries to look like barely post pubescent whilst dresssing provacatively and singing about having sex is more worrying.

Anyway, I'm not a fan.

This is nuts. Why on earth are you “shocked” Ariana Grande is white. She changes her look from time to time, yes like Beyoncé and every other celebrity. But she has a spray tan, it’s not blackface.

Think it’s you who has the issue op.

Look at these images on the first page of a google search.

You don't think black women have constantly had their features pulled apart, particularly very dark skinned women, but along comes some woman with more 'delicate' features and dark - but not too dark! - skin, and it's fine because no one owns the rights to fake tan? Even though it's clear that a particular look is being aimed for?

AG is not the focus here. The fashion is what it is, but it doesn't mean that actual black and brown women don't have the right to be offended that their looks and cultures are being used to the benefit of white women when they have a long history of being vilified for the exact same thing.

The article does say that AG appeared on a Black Lives Matter and Black History Month playlist, on which most, if not all of the other artists were BAME artists, and AG didn’t point out to Spotify that, as a white artist, she shouldn’t be on there.

Also I used 'delicate' because it's what was mentioned in the post I was replying.

Anyway...

I think the fact that she clearly tries to look like barely post pubescent whilst dresssing provacatively and singing about having sex is more worrying

I agree. The "sexy yet innocent schoolgirl" shtick should really die a death.

@Aloethere

Black fishing is a thing, white women plumping their lips and their butts, fake tanning to a ridiculous degree, braiding hair and claiming racial ambiguity. These are things that black women have been mocked and reviled for for centuries, but white women do it and it’s considered ok?!

If a woman does all of this and claims racial ambiguity then yes it is wrong.

The very vast majority of white women don't plump their lips to look like a black person. They don't tan to look like a black person. Therefore it isn't 'blackfishing'. Is that not what this thread is about, blackfishing?

I don't have a problem with women plumping their lips, their bodies, their choice. Same goes with tan or a fake backside. I'm stunned that you would have a problem with it and try and police peoples bodies in this way?

If the problem you have is people of other races pretending to be black then that should be more clear because all of the things that you mention by themselves do not indicate that a woman is pretending to black.

Quite frankly @Aloethere I'm stunned you bolded my comment, agreed and repeated part of it in the next sentence but by the end of your post are asking me to be 'more clear'.

I'll C&P the relevant parts for you:

Black fishing is a thing, white women plumping their lips and their butts, fake tanning to a ridiculous degree, braiding hair and claiming racial ambiguity

Here's some links for you if you don't believe me.

Arianna Grande, Rita Ora and the like are cogs in a cynical money making machine. Of course it benefits them to appear racially ambiguous so they appeal to all markets, especially in the USA.

How do you know that the error wasn’t pointed out to Spotify?
What because she didn’t put it on SM?
That’s down to those who made the list who didn’t do their job correctly. Instead they made assumptions.

I am saying what the article said, @canigooutyet. I assume if this was factually incorrect AG would have complained, and got a retraction/correction.

So for those of us in mixed raced families with a melting pot of South asian/caribean/southern European/Celtic Scottish and Irish, where exactly do we fit in? Because genetics, evens amongst sibling groups mean we all look pretty different. So my blond haired slightly olive skinned DC has less right to her cultural heritage than her very obviously mixed race siblings because people consider that cultural appropriation? Not particularly uncommon, the 'was your dad the milkman' certainly inferred.

So my blond haired slightly olive skinned DC has less right to her cultural heritage than her very obviously mixed race siblings because people consider that cultural appropriation?

Who said that?