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Blackfishing

What is #BlackFishing? The latest internet trend that needs to stop ASAP

Have you ever been “catfished” into believing that someone comes from the same ethnic background as you do?

We can all agree that this a very insane notion, but #BlackFishing has become an internet trend we should all be afraid of.

https://twitter.com/riverscurse/status/1060840405057581056

From Kenneth and Mamie Clark’s “Doll Experiments,” it was proven that Black children and adolescents felt uncomfortable in their skin because of segregation.

Once Blackface surfaced in film, theatre, and TV it only added to the insecurities and made way for a new kind of self-doubt.

Now as we’ve arrived in the digital age, it’s obvious some “influencers” and self- proclaimed models find it okay to portray that it doesn’t hurt to go a shade darker!? Real talk though, blackness is neither a commodity nor a way to garner likes.

In recent news, IG “self-acclaimed” model Emma Hallberg was caught red-handed in the act of #BlackFishing (FAKE S/O to Rachel Dolezal).

Although the 19-year old told Buzzfeed that she identified as white, some of her 193k followers on IG admitted that they still felt duped, bamboozled, and blackfished (wanted to keep her 15 minutes of fame to a short paragraph as Emma has gained 10k followers since the race reveal).

Expert in #BlackFishing and writer Wanna Thompson told Buzzfeed in a statement that a new responsibility needs to be adopted when it comes to ethnic transparency. She said,

“It’s clear that a lot of black women are being overlooked for these white women, so that narrative needs to change… In regards to Emma, I feel like she has a responsibility, to be honest to her followers and be transparent about her look. Nobody is saying you can’t get a tan or modify your appearance but she was intentionally ignoring the comments from black women specifically who genuinely wanted an honest dialogue…

Thompson added,

“Her resistance to own up to her ‘blackfishing’ makes me wonder if she truly cares about black voices at all,””

Strong Black women already deal with the most and “to be a black woman today is to be in a constant fight to love yourself.” There is no need for the added stress of white women treating feminine blackness as some shade that you can just buy at the store.

It’s important that all influencers and models are transparent. Please, don’t hide behind a shade, tint, or filter.

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