In this op-ed, writer Natasha Mulenga reflects on former Little Mix member Jesy Nelson’s new music video, “Boyz.”
As I watched former Little Mix member Jesy Nelson’s new music video for her debut solo single “Boyz,” I tried to figure out what made me so uncomfortable. Was it the white guys in poorly done cornrows? Was it the concept — the mostly white neighborhood of “Perfectville” being disrupted by people dressed as if there was a B2K reunion with a white woman from Dagenham, Essex, leading the charge? Or was it that the same white woman who I had seen win X-Factor in 2011 as one-quarter of Little Mix, was now the same complexion as her featured artist Nicki Minaj? The last one was especially disconcerting — it’s not just a tan.
It’s all of the above: the jarring narrative, the appropriation, and Jesy’s attempt to appear Black. It’s an action called “blackfishing,” a term coined by journalist Wanna Thompson as a way to describe the use of artificial tans, makeup, and even medical procedures in order to look Black. “Black women are constantly bombarded with the promotion of European beauty standards in the media,” Thompson wrote for Paper back in 2018, “so when our likeness is then embraced on women who have the privilege to fit traditional standards yet freely co-opt Blackness to their liking, it reaffirms the belief that people desire Blackness, just not on Black women.” Black people — especially Black women — already have to contend with the colorism that places Black people with lighter skin and Eurocentric features (such as looser curl patterns and thinner noses) as the faces of our community in terms of media representation. But as Black artists continue to drive popular culture, we keep seeing white artists, models, and creatives create lackluster imitations of us while gaining huge rewards.
There is social capital in desirability, and white women pop stars know that being “racially ambiguous” is more desirable than actually being Black. Jesy isn’t the first performer to darken her skin and appropriate music created by Black artists. (Teen Vogue has reached out to Jesy’s team for comment.) Iggy Azalea, Ariana Grande, and Rita Ora have all been criticized for the same actions. They dip their toes into Hip-Hop and R&B, and suddenly their skin is more tanned, they’re wearing baggier streetwear, and “hood aesthetics” are all over the music video. They nearly always have the co-sign of a Black rapper or two. Blackness becomes a concept to them. Often, they decide later to “grow up” and return to their core audience, denouncing their Black music influences as part of a rebellious stage. They’re more authentic now, or more vulnerable, less “lewd,” as Miley Cyrus said in 2017 about her Bangerz era after releasing a folky pop album.
There is no problem in appreciating Hip-Hop. Hip-Hop culture is a global force, and it has influenced everything: the way people dress, the way people talk, the dances that become popular on TikTok. But appropriation vs. appreciation isn’t a new discourse — it’s one that has been happening for years, one that by now, artists globally should be aware of. In the case of Jesy’s music video, it’s more than just her personal aesthetic appropriation, it’s that she’s using her very big platform to perpetuate the worst stereotypes of a race of people that she doesn’t belong to.
I have no desire to see Jesy Nelson and her ragtag band of “hoodlums” disrupting an affluent suburban area. Not when Black people face real discrimination around housing. Not when Black homeownership rates have disproportionately declined in the U.S. over the past few decades, per NPR. Not when racist policies like redlining have long shaped the way home loans work in the U.S., perpetuating racial wealth inequality. When rapper and executive Master P moved his No Limit headquarters to an upscale neighborhood in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, buying houses for his artists, they were not welcomed. Instead, they were repeatedly harassed and followed by police; at one point, they saw a burning cross (a symbol of the KKK) in the neighborhood, according to accounts in BET Networks’ “No Limit Chronicles” series.
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October 12, 2021 at 07:21PM
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On Jesy Nelson, “Blackfishing,” and Discourse Deja Vu - Teen Vogue
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