let's be real, her fan base was majority white and Asian and they ate that bullshit up. Anyone that says otherwise is full of shit.
Now her name is far more relevant and there's traction with the crap she knew she was doing for years.
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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
let's be real, her fan base was majority white and Asian and they ate that bullshit up. Anyone that says otherwise is full of shit.
Now her name is far more relevant and there's traction with the crap she knew she was doing for years.
Not sure what your point is, that they had even less time to read since they posted in response to someone else's post one minute after I posted and edited it quick enough that it doesn't even show it was edited?
it doesn't, it's apologists reaching to defend their people instead of just accepting this just simply isn't okay and moving on.
This part.
It just sounds worse.
She didn't want to make Asians look bad but she had no problem mocking Black people? That's the argument?
Black people have been talking about it for years but no one cares when we say things.
Why do people think that the caricaturing of Black people is a subject up for debate here? Or that somehow their opinion is the one needed to truly verify anti-Blackness? Opening this thread just to nitpick Black people's lived experiences and feelings is trash, and our opinions on this as non-Black people are completely uncalled for here.
Can we please try shutting the fuck up for once?
Can we please try shutting the fuck up for once?
I had enough time to read your post before they edited in their response.
Even if you believe her accent is legit, and that's a big IF, you can't over look the hypocrisy of her comparing doing an Asian accent to doing a minstrel show, while at the same time getting rich off her blaccent, and then that accent magically disappears when it comes time to talk to the press.
User Banned (2 weeks): Dismissive and antagonistic commentary.
Guys, I can vouch for this. As someone who was occasionally labeled a "chigga" growing up, I naturally picked up different ways of speaking, depending on who I'm talking to. If I'm chilling with my homies I'm gonna talk one way. When speaking with my teachers I'll shift my tone. There is no malice, there is no intent to "steal" culture, there wasn't even any social media to speak of to somehow benefit from it. It simply comes naturally, and I hesitate to say it can be turned "off", because for the longest time it was how I felt most comfortable speaking. Now that I'm living in Hong Kong, I don't have any chance to speak this way, other than the occasional video call with my cousin back in NY.
If I'm going to be banned for this, fine. Just make sure you folks at Era do an introspection on yourselves when it comes to your views of acceptance.
I'll make my stance clear: The backlash is NOT justified.
When you say "mocking black people" are you referring to the quotes in the OP or something else?
Why the fuck would she need to code switch on a show Desus and Mero? Two guys from the Bronx?
Stop misconstruing this as code switching
I mean Awkwafina in character is a minstrel show mocking black people.
She is not code switching. Y'all should look up what that actually is.
I know it's been brought up. I'm say specifically that the backlash is NOW gaining traction
It's funny how people see the bans and so they are now trying to ignore black people's concerns in a different way by playing Devil'sAdvocate. "Oh I'm not saying this to defend Awkwafina BUT…"
Okay, well what I will say to that is I agree that her exaggerated accent is cringe and problematic, because regardless of her proximity to Hip Hop culture, the way in which she has appropriated it in her career has literally been stripping it out of it's cultural context for a novelty caricature.
I think that her using the minstrel show comparison to Asian actors doing a stereotypical Asian accent is a poor point of reference, especially in light of her own career, but outside of the use of "yellow face" as a descriptor for the historical mocking of Asian culture, there isn't quite an analog for the minstrel shows (at least that I am aware of) for the perpetuation of those stereotypes that someone can point to that is easily understandable. So I at least get it when PoC (Asians or otherwise) make the inarticulate comparison of racist Western media representation to be analogous to minstrel shows.
While I've also been critical of Awkwafina's use of a "blaccent" as the backbone of her career as ignorant at best, I think calling it mocking shows malicious intent that I haven't seen from her. Maybe people have posted examples in this thread that do show malicious intent, and that is what I was asking about.
Fair enough. It's weird because she became relevant after Crazy Rich Asians, which was 3 years ago. That film was huge.
How do you discount the possibility that you're undermining how popular and influential Black American culture is?
Mixed race Rapper/author Akala in his book, Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire, talks about rapping in an American style, when he first started performing. His sister, Ms Dynamite, told him off because it wasn't him, and told him to sing in his own voice.
He goes into some depth about the nuances of influence and inspiration. Why for example can't white people be inspired by Jesse Owens to run 100m sprints?
I can attest to this as well.
Im hispanic and grew up in the public schools here in the city. Theres a definite switch of how I speak when Im at work/professional setting and when Im with my friends. My family/girlfriend is the same way.
Figured it was pretty common and never really saw it as a bad thing. Not gonna speak at a meeting the same way I order a bacon egg and cheese.
Completely separate to the laughable comparison, the attempts to paint what she's doing as code switching from some other posters are hilarious.
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I don't care about intent. I don't excuse racism. Ever.
The impact of those harmed is the only metric anybody should care about when defending those anybody thinks has good intentions. The only time she's even brought up her appropriation that we've seen is to hand wave it away.
It doesn't have to be malicious to be harmful. Black peoples needing to expend mental energy to explain why things hurt us is tiring.
I caught a ban for some stupid comments I said and had to think about my own allyship. Ultimately how I feel doesn't matter when I'm not the one impacted by what I said.
This is not code switching. Maybe the term is new to some of y'all, but it's a thing that is we'll documented. It's especially silly to bring it up in a thread surrounding black culture and AAVE as some sort of defense for a person that only does it when it's on screen to make money.
Can we have a threadmark about reading this thread before posting?
I'm not aware that this backlash was specific to a TV show(s). I was agreeing with Churrific's post and off some of what I read from the first page. I'll check the thread out for more context, but I still need to share my opinions on this. It's important for me to know that I'm not viewed as culturally misappropriating just because I happen to speak with the occasional accent. And this is what I thought was happening here with Awkwafina.
Ohh...so now you're saying I AM, and that I just didn't want to be VIEWED that way. Nice, real nice.
The feelings of the numerous Black posters in this thread and on this site were less important to you than an uninformed opinion that legit has nothing to do with what is being spoken of in the thread.
Just going to repost this. So people who don't bother to read the thread know how this isn't code switching.
12 pages & all these bans over Awkwafina is wild. 2 weeks of not posting here cause you either resent black people that much and/or wanted to go against what folks on twitter been saying that bad... it's crazy
Look, you don't have to care about certain subjects that aren't as relevant to your life but I don't understand why y'all think nobody else should care either, especially when it's a topic that does have relevancy to their lives
It's so much easier to just not post when you don't care about a topic than to run up in the thread to argue people who do care about the topic. That makes sense, right?
Do you think "healthy discussion" is found where half of the people are replying to say that you shouldn't care because they don't care?
Look, you don't have to care about certain subjects that aren't as relevant to your life but I don't understand why y'all think nobody else should care either, especially when it's a topic that does have relevancy to their lives
It's so much easier to just not post when you don't care about a topic than to run up in the thread to argue people who do care about the topic. That makes sense, right?
Do you think "healthy discussion" is found where half of the people are replying to say that you shouldn't care because they don't care?
I grew up in NYC too, but what she's doing isn't code switching. Me and her could have gone to the same school, we're damn near the same age. There's a difference between talking how you talk because that's the neighborhood you grew up in and what she's doing. What she's been doing isn't right. It's not code switching, it's an act. And as an act, it's not cool at all.
I'm still trying to parse this as an actual thing a person typed and I can't.
User Banned (2 Weeks): Tone Policing Minority Members
I'm not saying it's not harmful. I agree that her ignorant use of AAVE to further her own career can have harmful consequences.
I'm saying if we are having a conversation about what it is she did, I get that the consequences for some may be the equivalent to Awkwafina mocking black culture, but saying that she is "mocking black culture" implies a malicious intent and I just think that in discussing the appropriation of black culture and AAVE that has become a part of Western/American pop culture, it's more useful to point to the specific cynical commodification by someone like Awkwafina, who is part of adding to the problem that can have malicious consequences, even when the intent isn't maliciousness but ignorance.
Nah, I'm saying you came in here and couldn't be bothered to even read the thread because you were more worried about your own actions than whether there was any merit to what we've been saying.
The attempts to paint what she's doing as code switching are hilarious.
But... I didn't talk about code switching.
No, they're saying you don't actually give a shit about anything but yourself and your iwn feelings.
Whoch, clearly.
do those people you know turn their blaccents off and on depending on whether or not they are doing a comedic role, stand up routine or internet video? If not then I'm not sure how that is relevant to the issue being discussed in this thread.
Honestly I'm kind of shocked how many people are going to bat for her, and so hard lol.
Like this is one the most open and shut cases I have seen on this forum. What she is doing is super blatant.
And its not like she is hiding it, it's all out in the open, it's how she has always positioned her career and how she is still doing it today, with no signs of stopping or feeling guilty about it.
It just so happens she is also a giant hypocrite on top of it all.
Like this is one the most open and shut cases I have seen on this forum. What she is doing is super blatant.
And its not like she is hiding it, it's all out in the open, it's how she has always positioned her career and how she is still doing it today, with no signs of stopping or feeling guilty about it.
It just so happens she is also a giant hypocrite on top of it all.
You can read it yourself:
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It is actually apt to topics raised in this thread too.
This happens in literally every topic about black folks having an issue with literally anything anyone does short of the cops murdering someone on the word nigger actually being spoken.
And sometimes even then.
Which is kind of not just a problem with her but from any Hip Hop-adjacent non-black/brown person.
I think there reason it's become more of an issue is that her Hollywood career has taken her far from that realm, but if she was still just making music, the conversation would be different.
It's the same thing.
I'm a large black man in America and wasting time differentiating malicious racism and ignorant racism is silly. The impact is the same.
I don't have the privilege to worry about what's in somebody's heart when their actions impact me and mine's negatively whether they mean it or not.
Cutting my losses here. It's clear I didn't read through the thread rushed to share my own feelings which didn't belong in this thread. Maybe one day there will be a more appropriate thread for Asia Era, but this ain't it. I am sorry to all my fellow black era posters for my insensitivity. Please note I do stand with you.
The more I read this thread and think about it, I'm just going to say if you're from NYC and are going to do like
Me and first think back to your own experiences, keep in mind Awkwafina in character is a much more exaggerated expression of this accent than whatever it is you or I spoke growing up and in school with friends etc.
Having seen her back when she first started with Vines, there is a genuine ramp up in how exaggerated it got as she kept making videos and songs. Just keep in mind the problem here is her act with the accent and her complete lack of publicly acknowledging what she's doing.
Me and first think back to your own experiences, keep in mind Awkwafina in character is a much more exaggerated expression of this accent than whatever it is you or I spoke growing up and in school with friends etc.
Having seen her back when she first started with Vines, there is a genuine ramp up in how exaggerated it got as she kept making videos and songs. Just keep in mind the problem here is her act with the accent and her complete lack of publicly acknowledging what she's doing.