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

@IslandGyal

Also she has a song called 7 rings where she talks about buying her hair.

Whilst white woman buy hair extensions, buying hair is much more associated with black women (weave).

Not to mention the hip hop trap style of that song which comes from Southern hip hop an almost
Exclusively black genre.

She said in an interview that she had to wear hair extensions because she ruined her hair by having to dye it red for her role in Victorious and Sam and Cat. Tonnes of white girls wear hair extensions, hell I would if I could afford to maintain them! I also spent most of my youth very, very tanned as I wanted to look like a Californian beach babe, not a person of colour.

@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

The picture in that link has been heavily darkened , if you look at other photos from same event , she just looks like she has a tan

www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fcelebmafia.com%2Fariana-grande-2016-american-music-awards-los-angeles-638848%2F&psig=AOvVaw2JSYklv76EoRGzexqEFEGF&ust=1605279762170000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCIjZ_6Gj_ewCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAZ

Im half greek and tan that colour easily

She wouldn't be considered white by racists.

I assume all these posters had no issue with Rachel Dolezal. She was surely 'just expermienting with fake tan'?

OP, I think the problem your attitude (common among British people) that everybody has to be categorised as black or white.

There is actually a continuous spectrum of human skin colours between black and white. Many south Europeans are olive/light brown in skin tone.

She is perfectly within her rights to "tone down" her looks when she feels like. Its her body.

Are there any male celebrities who have poorly-researched, badly-written Medium articles about them?
Ariana isn't responsible for people jumping to assumptions, not knowing about her Disney career or ignoring the numerous posts and references she makes about/and to her family.
Does Medium pay per click? I'd be disappointed if someone was benefitting from the link on this thread.

[quote IslandGyal]I didn’t make up the term blackfishing. These women are white and presenting themselves as BAME. It’s not something I’m imagining.

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/women/blackfishing-what-it-influencers-instagram-makeup-racism-black-white-social-media-a8667961.html[/quote]
So what? It's a style, white people are allowed to tan and to wear whatever they want just like anyone else.

With all due respect. Whether some Sicilian you know is dark is not relevant

We know Ariana's real colouring it’s all over the internet. Justifying her current skin tone is laughable.

Unless she was living in the artic tundra before there is no reason to say that the previous shade is not her natural colour.

Her skin tone is olive in the old photos. She looks Italian in the old photos in the new ones she looks radically ambiguous.

My DD is mixed race, she goes from pale in winter to dark in summer. Maybe she's a chameleon.

“Also she has a song called 7 rings where she talks about buying her hair.”

Well yeah... she fucked her hair up dying it for victorious, which is why the high pony and ludicrous length extensions started.

Um... btw, she talks about being Italian a lot in interviews, mentions it on all her social media stuff fairly often - I mean, if someone is being pretty open about their hair being fake, their tan being fake and their ethnic origins, people assuming they’re a different race isn’t really on them is it?

There is actually a continuous spectrum of human skin colours between black and white. Many south Europeans are olive/light brown in skin tone.

Yes I think a lot of people confuse "white" with Anglo-Saxon. Many Europeans are much darker.

It’s also interesting that her ex fiancé noticed the extreme change of shades.

www.msn.com/en-au/entertainment/celebrity/pete-davidson-calls-out-ex-fiancée-ariana-grande-for-spray-painting-herself-brown-on-vogue-cover/ar-BB10rYac

I’ll say it again.

She looks Sicilian. Not mixed race. Not Black. She looks like her ethnic background. If you are ignorant about how Italian skin colour works, that’s reflective of you, not her.

The photo you linked to has been on a thread here before and has been heavily photo-shopped to make her look darker by people with an agenda against her, IIRC.

I agree i think she is blackfishing, it is more than a homage to other cultures and cynically exploitative.

@IslandGyal

I can kinda understand why White British people don’t understand the African American Vernacular English stuff.

The black community in the US does have different linguistic traits to white Americans it’s not just slang.

Are you from the US op? I genuinely couldn't hear any difference other than a slight maturity in her vocal tone?

Historically I think the Sicilian skin tone she has are as a result of moorish invasions pre-crusade era I think (although someone far cleverer than me will be more accurate) so I'm not sure how displaying her own historic and cultural ethnicity and heritage is blackfishing? I'm honestly not being Goady, I just can't see how that connection to her own regional 'look' can be considered cultural appropriation?

I thought she had a white Italian background. Like lady gaga.

I'm not sure why you're so angry about the fact that you jumped to assume someone else's race; then found out you were wrong. That's no-one else's fault. Maybe, in future, you should do some research before assuming people's racial identity.

@NameChange84

I’ll say it again.

She looks Sicilian. Not mixed race. Not Black. She looks like her ethnic background. If you are ignorant about how Italian skin colour works, that’s reflective of you, not her.

Actually she could pass for mixed- race. My cousin is ligher than her.

You just have to watch Italian tv from the south and you can see the skin tone and hair is much darker, more North African than Northern European.

Honestly I always assumed she was Italian American because of her name. I get what the article is saying though.

It's problematic that people are desperate to work out who is black and who isn't and get upset when they get it wrong. My DD gets this, "where are you from?" She never discusses her background if people ask this, she will if it is in context with something she is discussing so it isn't that she is denying her background she just hates the assumption that she is from somewhere else, her skin doesn't designate that.

She been mistaken for Spanish, Italian, Moroccan, Indian, Pakistani, Egyptian among others. She is a chameleon I think. Although she hates the "where are you from" she finds the speculation quite funny, particularly if she is abroad and people assume she is local and chat to her in their language.

OP, I think the problem your attitude (common among British people) that everybody has to be categorised as black or white. Except those of us castigated for not giving a flying fuck - being colourblind is also a sin, one taught in all state schools for a couple of decades, making some of us white people of a certain age very, very loath to see / not see skin colour. Cos have lived for about 4 decades thinking we are doing the rght thing, judging people by who they are rather than how they look, clothes they wear, accents they have etc etc.

You know, all of us who went to school in the Kumbaya years, who can sing all the words to this song. We aren't all racist. We may be a bit old fashioned in how we voice that... but we aren't inherently racist!

Ah blackfishing, the new cultural appropriation. Europeans have been tanning for years, take people as you find them and wind your neck in.

I thought she was mixed heritage.