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Jesy Nelson and the Problem with Blackfishing

9 November 20217 November 2021By
Jesy Nelson and the Problem with Blackfishing

You would think that after the Black Lives Matter protests, the black squares and infographics that have circulated social media, that artists and entertainers would take preemptive measures to not offend anyone, especially if they desire their art to be successful. Clearly not.

Ex-Little Mix member Jesy Nelson released her debut music video “Boyz” featuring Nicki Minaj, in which she drew criticism for blackfishing, a term used to describe non-black people purposefully appearing black or racially ambiguous for profit, similar to catfishing. Nelson recently went solo at the end of 2020, after the pressures of being in a girl group and her love for R&B and hip-hop drew her apart from being a member of a group, to the solo career she had always dreamed of. As part of the first group to win The X Factor, having fourteen Top 10 singles and winning numerous awards including Best British Group at the BRIT awards – the first girl group to do so; Nelson’s debut single was highly anticipated by the group’s fans and “Nelsonaters”. The debut single may not have had much of an impact, but the video garnered some extreme responses.

In the video, she appears to be heavily tanned. In addition, she insinuates that “bad boys” are just black men wearing durags, as well as fetishizing them, consequently encouraging that stereotype.

Renowned as the girl who had been constantly bullied by the public and compared to her fellow bandmates to the point that she decided to leave and focus on herself. She released a documentary about it and won a couple of awards. So, what’s all this then? Why did she and Minaj target ex-bandmate Leigh-Anne Pinnock and offend people within the Black community?

We don’t know exactly what happened in the conversation before Nelson’s debut. Pinnock claimed that she warned Nelson that her video would offend people, Nelson claims that she “never got any of that” but had received texts from Pinnock before yada yada yada and her management team were responsible for deleting comments off her Instagram page. But that doesn’t matter. People of colour shouldn’t have to educate white people on racism especially when they’re not prepared to be “offended”. I mean, there’s an entire number one best-selling book about this topic (see: Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge). My issue lies with Nelson’s responses and Minaj essentially “giving her the pass”.

In an Instagram live with Nelson, the public were expecting an apology or at least an explanation of her actions. But she appeared with Minaj… and she had a lot to say.

Particularly calling Pinnock jealous, insecure and a clown whilst Nelson sat there and laughed periodically. Of course, a white woman letting the black woman do the dirty work and getting the very possible backlash, I was half expecting Nelson to use the defence “I didn’t say anything” or “they were her words not mine” or “positive vibes only aha,” but luckily the conversation on race has progressed a little. Instead, Nelson stated that she grew up in black culture, listening to black music and that’s what she’s known her entire life.  However, this is coming from the woman who has never spoken up about black issues during her career. She also didn’t publicly show support for Pinnock (if at all) on her documentary about racism and colourism that she has experienced nor noticed it even though they had been together for nine years.

Therefore, Jesy Nelson is blackfishing and it is harmful. Getting lip and bum injections, bigger hair, tanning the skin has reduced the black experience into a cosplay that non-black people can use as a trend. Historically, black women have been berated for having all of these things naturally. Non-black people have managed to cherry pick black culture without ever having to experience systematic or systemic racism or lack of opportunities etc.

You could say they’ve colonised it, except this time it’s socially acceptable. A socially acceptable blackface. Because of the lack of consequences, people are more willing to hire white people who look racially ambiguous than actually hire people of colour. Nelson isn’t the first and certainly won’t be the last to do this. However, her video did ignite a memory of Childish Gambino’s This is America music video showing black people as objects of entertainment but in reality, being victims of racism and violence.

If you still don’t believe that this is a big deal and that I’m just overreacting, let’s look at Rita Ora. A few months ago, the singer revealed that she’s Albanian, therefore, fully white. People went wild over this knowledge as we all assumed that she was part black. After all she wore corn rows, box braids and dreadlocks in the past. She knows that she profits off of looking racially ambiguous and even admitted it on radio that her look has “got her to where she is”. Couldn’t she achieve her aspirations as a singer that embraced her own culture than profit off somebody else’s?

Admittedly, I don’t actually know where to draw the lines between blackfishing, cultural appropriation and appreciation. I assume the former two to be a Venn diagram as I do understand the passion one can have for another culture; it can be seen as a compliment but claiming it as your own brings a lot of hostility from people who have historically bad experiences from outsiders doing the same thing forcibly. It’s best to stay educated and informed and refrain from disparaging people who feel offended.

Read more: ‘Little Mix, with the greatest respect, are not in the same league as Oasis’