White Influencers Appearing Black Is the Instagram Trend No One Asked For
For centuries, black women’s physical features have been seen as undesirable because of our inability to conform with “mainstream,” Eurocentric beauty standards. And yet, time and time again, when a famous white woman adopts those features endemic to women of color, it’s considered “cool,” “pretty,” or “trendy.” The debate is nothing new. Just look at the discussion around Kylie Jenner’s lips. She might have the option to get rid of them—or wear “boxer braids for fun—but for black women, these attributes are our genes and culture, not merely an accessory.
And, well, here we are again. The latest example to sweep the internet? White influencers and models appear to be passing as light-skin black or biracial women—also known as “blackfishing”—on Instagram.
The conversation first bubbled up on Twitter, after one user shared a conversation between her and another one of her followers about a Swedish Instagram influencer with over 200k followers. Despite the woman’s appearance—deep, tan, racially ambiguous skin; full lips; and wavy hair—a deeper dive through Emma Hallberg‘s feed showed that before all the spray tans, her skin was actually quite pale. That tweet caused an uproar and a full-on debate about what it means to “look black.”
One user commented, “Some of y’all gotta stop trynna make this look OK..racial fetishism objectifies POC. I bet this girl thinks she looks more “aesthetic” when she makes herself look like a light skinned black girl.”
Another user commented, “White woman if you don’t realize the formula for instant social media fame and notoriety is to copy black womens’ style, appropriate black women culture and pretend to be a mix/light skin black woman then you’re lost in the sauce.” [all sic.]
“I genuinely believed this girl was Afro-Latina,” Deja told The Cut. “She had been mimicking black features and getting famous for it. She has been darkening her skin several tones deeper than her natural shade, braiding her hair to make it look similar to mixed people’s curl pattern, and even been featured on Instagram accounts made for black hairstyles and spotlighting black women. The sad part is she really fooled everyone into believing she was a mixed girl.”
According to Buzzfeed, the influencer self-identifies as white—which she’s confirmed to others on social media (Glamour has reached out for comment and will update when we’ve heard back.)
For example, after an old Snapchat photo resurfaced of her explaining how she got her hair wavy, Hallberg shared that she sleeps with braids in her hair to achieve this wavy look. And after old images surfaced when her skin was noticeably lighter, she was approached by another Instagram user asking if she was white and why her skin used to look so much lighter. She responded, “Yes, I’m white and I never claimed to be anything else.” She also went on to explain that those “before” pictures were taken after summer, where she gets the same tan every year.
“It made me sad that some of my natural features are hurting and upsetting people. It also made me upset and scared that I can’t look the way I look naturally, without receiving false accusations, hate, and threats,” she told Buzzfeed.“I do not have any specific intentions other than [to] show my passion for makeup and fashion.”
Unfortunately, Hallberg isn’t the only white woman who has been recently called out for the same act. Another Twitter thread started to shed light on several white influencers appearing to co-opt black features. Most of them aren’t from the U.S., where appropriation often gets lost in historical context, but nonetheless, with easy access to the Internet and the global conversations that take place around blackface, it’s no excuse.
https://twitter.com/JamilahLemieux/status/1060184250727702528
As a woman of color, it’s disappointing to see that situations like these keep happening, and it’s equally as disheartening that black women are still being held to a different standard when it comes to our physical traits. White women work so hard to achieve the same looks we were born with—and they’re celebrated for them while we’re still shunned. I wish I had an answer to make all it stop. But until then, I’ll keep shouting into the void. Influencers, can you just not?
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