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

It's really not uncommon for kids with white blonde hair to go darker

I don’t really care so much about the aesthetic. What makes me question things is the success of Ariana, Bruno Mars, Adele, Iggy Azalea, Eminem etc is the absolute dominance they’ve had over the charts when compared to black artists. So people want to buy music which has traditionally been performed by black artists, but they prefer that music to come from white people.
Bruno Mars makes feel particularly uncomfortable when he sings about ‘put some perm on your attitude, girl you’ve gotta relax’ singing about black hair products and writing your songs about black women when you’re not black and singing all the way to the bank with your white girlfriend. Nah, it’s not going to age well.
Maybe these ideology is one that comes from America but it really isn’t about who’s half Puerto Rican or Sicilian or Middle Eastern, it’s about being black. Loving black culture but not black people is still a thing. An example of this is the brilliant black female singers who go out of X Factor in week 2 whilst a white woman singing Whitney wins. Why don’t the audience connect to the first singer as much?

She's white fgs! Have you watched her in Victorious?

But she chose to record very R&B type songs which probably make her seem not so white. But loads of current singers do that.

Your post is very odd.

No not shocked at all, she has always been white. Personally I'm more interested in her amazing voice.

Its the minority races, like the Orange Trumps, you have to watch out for, thankfully becoming an endangered species.
Not that anyone sane is pretending to be one.

I've just watched her latest Positions video and she just looks Italian/American to me.

People who get surgery for bigger butts and get lip filler and put on a shitload of fake tan may not consciously be trying to look black / racially ambiguous, but what's the inspiration for that look?

Arguably it's celebs like the Kardashian sisters, who have been called out for blackfishing and cultural appropriation repeatedly.

"People who get surgery for bigger butts and get lip filler and put on a shitload of fake tan may not consciously be trying to look black / racially ambiguous, but what's the inspiration for that look?"

At a time when the trans rights movement is gaining traction on the basis that if people feel their outer selves don't align with their inner selves they can change that, I don't even see what the issue is with people of different ethnicities blurring lines.

@RosesinGranGransgarden

I dont think it's fair to include Eminem in your list. Theres a slight novelty factor at play there, but he's also a damn good writer with a pretty compelling voice. He actually does (or did) more with his voice than a lot of rappers until that point. He also played around with stress patterns which allowed him to add more complexity in his rhyming. Also: hes fast. I think theres no denying that being white gave Eminem a bit of a USP (in the same way that Janis Joplin was white doing traditionally black style sounds), but it would be unfair to suggest that a huge part of their success wasnt down to talent. Ariana Grande and the rest though...I agree with you!

I said this earlier but will try and explain the issue with blackfishing again.

These people doing it have white privilege. They haven’t been historically discriminated against because of their skin colour. If they go for a promotion they are white, walking passed a police officer they are white, in a shop walking by a security guard they are white, their children won’t be sent home because their natural hair doesn’t suit the school uniform policy.

They are therefore, gaining all the ‘benefits’ of such race and culture without having lived through the day to day racist shit a black person has. They gain all the perceived benefits without the daily fight for equality.

@OverTheRainbow88

I get it. I just dont understand how it differs from trans, why one is socially acceptable and the other not.

OverTgeRainbow so when a white woman with naturally long blond hair and a voluptuous figure gets called a "Barbie Doll" and "dumb blonde" all her life, or "inbred" (all insults from people including black friends who seem to think its OK be ause its somehow "complimentary"), including at work, paid less than 2 male colleagues (one of whom is Asian) doing the same job with lower qualifications and passed over for promotion, she's benefitting from white priveleged us she? Even though she only has one British I aren't, which explains her looks (half Finnish)? Because thats what happens regularly to one of my friends.

That must be why so many famous black women in the public eye dye their hair blond or wear blond wigs then too. I don't think 8ve ever seen Beyonce with her natural hair colour, she seems to have been that attractive but completely unnatural shade of blonde for 2 decades, and to have built her career around that look. But she's not accused of anything, while other women who alter their appearance are literally micro-analysed for their racial heritage.

Don't really want to get into this argument either, but slavery affected northern European coastal areas very badly through the Barbary Pirates slave trade, so when they weren't being compulsorily thrown off their own land and deported, many rural White people were literally hiding in caves and running to the hills to avoid being kidnapped into slavery. And poor children in cities such as Liverpool and Aberdeen were rldeported and sold as slaves to the Americas, where the lucky ones worked off their indenture. There's just very poor record keeping. It's all absolutely disgusting, but white people were affected too.

Am I even allowed to point this out?

what difference does it matter what race / colour a person is ? we are all human under skin.

Never thought she was black.
That’s a tan ,fake or otherwise .
Not black fishing at all .
What a terrible article

@GreenlandTheMovie

OverTgeRainbow so when a white woman with naturally long blond hair and a voluptuous figure gets called a "Barbie Doll" and "dumb blonde" all her life, or "inbred" (all insults from people including black friends who seem to think its OK be ause its somehow "complimentary"), including at work, paid less than 2 male colleagues (one of whom is Asian) doing the same job with lower qualifications and passed over for promotion, she's benefitting from white priveleged us she? Even though she only has one British I aren't, which explains her looks (half Finnish)? Because thats what happens regularly to one of my friends.

That must be why so many famous black women in the public eye dye their hair blond or wear blond wigs then too. I don't think 8ve ever seen Beyonce with her natural hair colour, she seems to have been that attractive but completely unnatural shade of blonde for 2 decades, and to have built her career around that look. But she's not accused of anything, while other women who alter their appearance are literally micro-analysed for their racial heritage.

Don't really want to get into this argument either, but slavery affected northern European coastal areas very badly through the Barbary Pirates slave trade, so when they weren't being compulsorily thrown off their own land and deported, many rural White people were literally hiding in caves and running to the hills to avoid being kidnapped into slavery. And poor children in cities such as Liverpool and Aberdeen were rldeported and sold as slaves to the Americas, where the lucky ones worked off their indenture. There's just very poor record keeping. It's all absolutely disgusting, but white people were affected too.

Am I even allowed to point this out?

This is a spectacularly ignorant post, I don't even know where to start!

I always thought the x-fishing was when someone pretends to be someone else or something else on the internet and befriends someone doesn’t whatever reasons (money, emotional vampire, laughs...).

I dont think it's fair to include Eminem in your list.

I was thinking that. The first time I heard him paying at a friend's house I had no idea whether he was white or black. I didn't normally like that sort of music anyway but that one stuck. The same with 50 cent.

[quote GoldfishParade]@OverTheRainbow88

I get it. I just dont understand how it differs from trans, why one is socially acceptable and the other not.[/quote]
It shouldn't be socially acceptable for transwoman to take a woman's place on the podium, in award ceremonies, or on all-women shortlists. In fact, there's a pretty big outcry nowadays about it. Pop over to the FWR board and take a look.

Just because some men are taking women's places doesn't mean it's ok for white people to treat race like an item of clothing they put on and take off. That's benefiting from the plus sides whilst being able to escape systemic racism, which anyone who isn't white will likely experience at some point in Western society.

This is a spectacularly ignorant post, I don't even know where to start!

Why don't you make a start anyway rather than just responding like that?

So people want to buy music which has traditionally been performed by black artists, but they prefer that music to come from white people.

That's every white jazz musician for decades. 😁
That's Elvis.

White musicians do make black culture sounds mainstream because whites are a majority.
Traditionally, white musicians make it white too. (Exception made to Vanilla Ice)
It's not new.

I despise this attitude that each one must stay in the their little box.
Women must behave like women, or they're trans.
Men must behave like men or they're trans.
White people must behave like white people.
Black people must behave like black people.
You need to stick to your box and god forbid you can't fit in that box or people perceive you as belonging to another box.
Along with all the mixed race threads I've seen recently.

Are we really still discussing what fucking race (because that's what's implied) Ariana Grande is? Why?

How does it affect you at all?

OverTgeRainbow so when a white woman with naturally long blond hair and a voluptuous figure gets called a "Barbie Doll" and "dumb blonde" all her life, or "inbred" (all insults from people including black friends who seem to think its OK be ause its somehow
(complimentary"), including at work, paid less than 2 male colleagues (one of whom is Asian) doing the same job with lower qualifications and passed over for promotion, she's benefitting from white priveleged us she? Even though she only has one British I aren't, which explains her looks (half Finnish)? Because thats what happens regularly to one of my friends.

Yes, I experienced this a lot when younger (as someone who is tall and blonde). I have had a go at more than one person who has said they are having a "blonde moment" after having done something stupid as if the colour of your hair somehow defines your IQ. I know it made people take me less seriously when younger and one thing I have liked about growing older is that I am no longer Barbie and assumed to be stupid by people who have never spoken to me. It does make me sympathise more with people who don't like "blackfishing" though as I have experienced prejudice based on the way I look and I think people who make themselves look like Barbie increase the prejudice.

Sandy Shaw - wasn’t she banned on some radio stations in the US because they thought she was black? Joanne Shaw Taylor - listen to her the look at her - she is definitely now what I imagined (nationality, age or race).

It’s so hard to pick apart influences, tastes, styles if we are so rigid in who ‘is allowed’ to sound like/dress/style do what.

I’m half Italian, have hair with a mind of it’s own ( wavy one day, tight curls the next) and in the summer my skin gets as dark as Ariana’s is in the pic. I hope no one accuses me of black fishing when I’m just being me.

Only read the first few pages OP, but I have no idea why people are being so obtuse as a white, Ariana Grande fan I completely get what you mean and agree with you.

It’s odd and the likes of Kylie Jenner do it too which is crazy.

YANBU and if people can’t see what you mean then IMO, they’re being deliberately obtuse.