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Awkwafina (Shang-Chi) is being accused of cultural appropriation by some, for previous use of a “blaccent” while she was rising to fame
- Thread starter Cheesebu
- Start date
- Entertainment
Sometimes I think celebrities should just own up to stuff like this, apologize, and commit to doing better. Rather than avoiding it. It ends up following them forever.
See Iggy Azalea.
See Iggy Azalea.
Like, the wildest thing for me about her is that her natural voice is VERY distinct. IMO - even in her rap songs, she never HAD to use the weird blackish accent because she already had a sound that was VERY unique. But alas, here we are.
For sure. But isn't this a waste of our time when real shit is happening? Are we asking that she either give in and perform Asian accents in film and tv, or time travel back to her teenage years to prevent herself from developing a troubling accent? What is the end goal? What do you want?
I mean it's not like anyone's out here with pitchforks. You can acknowledge the wrong someone's done in their past and hope they would own it without immediately cancelling them.
From what I've gathered, people just want an apology. Or at least for her to address that she was doing a blaccent at all. AFAIK she's ignored the criticism pretty much every time it's been brought up.
User Banned (2 Weeks): Whataboutism, dismissing concerns of racism
Yes this what we should be focusing on. Not the situation in Afghanistan, or COVID destroying parts of America… but this, which impacts so many people and is super pressing. Jesus Christ.
Mod Edit: Post Reverted
Mod Edit: Post Reverted
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Was more a comment of dejavu because I remember it being about the exact same interview.
Cool. Let's see if that happens. I hope she does apologize.
Oh my god, human beings are capable of thinking about multiple things at once!
To post this bullshit take in a VIDEO GAME FORUM of all places...
By the same token, why are you putting your energy into posting in this thread instead of those same topics you mentioned?
The last threads you were posting in were "Kanye West has announced a THIRD listening event for his *upcoming album Donda" and "What's your favorite nut?". Are you holding far more valuable and impactful conversations than other people?
Your comment shoulda been this. All the other shit you said is unnecessary.
Using a Blaccent to make shitty raps or make the joke of " hey I'm not black but I talk like this, haha funny" is the most tired shit.
I HATE having black conversations in white spaces
Let's see you post bullshit like this in random gaming topics.
soo...why are you in this thread when all of the other shit you mentioned is happening....
I wonder how many of the posters in this thread being dismissive are black women or even just black at all?
Typical Era. Never the place to talk about black issues.
Typical Era. Never the place to talk about black issues.
You are on a message board with a dedicated sonic thread with thousands of posts. If you looking to fix the world, you made a wrong turn somewhere
She's popular enough, and talented enough, that she could apologize for it and stop doing it and move on with her career. It's the hypocrisy of being adamant about not doing Asian accents while continuing to stick to "her brand" that bothers me the most. I love watching her because she's incredibly charismatic, but it would also be nice to be able to respect her.
People could care about more than one thing at a time. And it's not like the people tweeting about this started tweeting about COVID or Afghanistan would do anything to those problems
I don't understand posts like this.
At best, you're amplifying the topic while criticizing the amplification of the topic.
At worst, you're tut-tutting Black people for having the gall, the nerve, the audacity, for criticizing non-Black people mimicing our culture and dialects literally for a quick come-up. It's almost like people truly believe Black culture has no worth and exists merely to be pilfered. Hmm.
I guess we'll wait until nothing else is going on in the world.
(And again, I LIKE Awkwafina. But posts like these are silly.)
Yeah I came around to liking her, but I still think there is a discussion she should have about. But Post Malone? He can walk barefoot on legos for the rest of his life
User Banned (2 weeks): dismissing concerns surrounding cultural appropriation
Black culture has and is the cool thing everyone likes. From rap, graffiti, clothes to this way of speak... It's only normal that if it finds success with other cultures these cultures will appropriate it. That's a good thing as long as it's not done in mockery or with ill intent. I haven't watched the movie of that clip so I cannot say whether the character was mocking black people or not though.
News outlets are running this as a boycott now. I'm getting a lot of notifications about it, which is a little disappointing but not surprising.
It is not a good thing in a capitalist society built on anti-blackness, systemic racism, and White supremacy. It's not a coincidence that non-Black people benefit more from it than Black people.
That's really the crux of it and why that argument doesn't hold any merit. It's one thing if it was from her upbringing. But if she's literally putting on an accent for entertainment...
Sidenote: how is that show? I saw it on HBOMax and was thinking of checking it out
I don't think she has taken responsibility for it or apologized, though.
But see that's the thing, then it wouldn't really be a "blaccent" as the term is used.
Can't speak for every Black person (obviously), but I can usually tell the difference between a non-Black person who grew up around Black people and naturally absorbed the culture, versus a person that is simply mimicing Black culture (either because they like it, or because they see dollar signs). Awkwafina is very much the latter. And to me, that's what "blaccent" is. It's like, you're a fan. You're an obsessive fan of a culture. I feel like there's a word for that...
I loved it. Second season just started airing. It's partially why I'd love for her to apologize, because selfishly I'd like to enjoy her work guilt free.
Awkwafina is Asian American, not Black. If she's talking about her use of an Asian accent and not wanting to engage in minstrelsy there, she's talking about not wanting to sell out herself and her own culture. It doesn't say anything about he opinions on cultural appropriation and selling out other people's cultures.
I want to push back on this a bit since its often brought up. Since hip-hop is such a huge part of youth culture, particularly in NY, you're going to hear some hip-hop slang among the youth across socioeconomic lines unless you're in a really sheltered rich part like the Hamptons.
That said, she's talking like a 14 year old in 1993 listening to Biggie on a walkman as opposed to what like a 30 year old black woman speaking AAVE would sound like in 2020. Its hyper-exaggerated.
I grew up in the same area as her, even though I'm much older. She said nothing that would have seemed offensive to me and I'm Filipino as well, but I more so associate myself as a "southern Californian" (silly I know)
These are just mannerisms that you pick up and in turn replicate when you live in a certain area
Everyone here says "my bad" but should that been seen as cultural appropriation?
User Banned (2 weeks): dismissing concerns surrounding cultural appropriation
Her quote is specifically about using Asian accents to portray Asian characters. Whether or not her use of a blaccent is appropriate of unrelated to this quote in my opinion and people are intentionally reading her as just saying "I don't do accents" in order to dunk on her for it.
Which shows she is hypocritical because she is fine putting on another culture's accent, which is what the controversy is.
It's amazing you can't see how very related they actually are.
She's been rubbing me the wrong way because of this for a while. Feels like a caricature.
And this is coming from a Black American raised in Europe who doesn't really have an "accent". It's really easy to tell when someone is putting it on.
But she's not the first or the last, unfortunately. And people will continue to cock their heads and say they don't get it. Smh
And this is coming from a Black American raised in Europe who doesn't really have an "accent". It's really easy to tell when someone is putting it on.
But she's not the first or the last, unfortunately. And people will continue to cock their heads and say they don't get it. Smh