Princess Alba practices blackfishing accusations as What is blackfishing, the practice that Princess Alba is accused of?
A few days ago, the popular Princess Alba shared a series of photos on social networks showing her new look in the video My fault. In the images the singer is seen with pink hair and very tanned skin, very much in the style of rapper Nicki Minaj.
The snapshots unleashed a series of comments and criticism from users on social networks, who accused her of "blackfish."
This is a term used in people who pretend to be "black" in social networks, changing the natural hue of their skin, the shape of their hair and enlarging their lips.
After the controversy, the singer decided to go out to defend herself. “I wanted to talk about the 'funa' to my skin color because I understand that maybe I can start to get sensibilities but I want to tell you that I have always been yellow / brown, I am mestizo like most of Chile and in summer my color is pronounced more by uv rays, ”he wrote on Twitter.
Princess Alba practices blackfishing accusations
"And when I say hurt sensitivities, I mean that discrimination against minorities, immigrants, ethnicities, sincerely regret it and I condemn it with all my soul, is still evident in Chile," he added.
Blackfishing is a concept that has become very popular in social networks, especially among Instagram influencers.
According to BBC, the term was born in a Twitter thread by Canadian writer Wanna Thompson, who talked about women who pretended to be colored.
In the conversation, the writer recounts the difficulties that black women continue to experience today, such as not being able to have their natural hair and have them straighten it to go to work.
According to their point of view, white people do not know “the struggle that black women are going through only to be accepted for who they are” and also said that those who practice blackfishing are being “unfair” and “are stealing (from those women)".
An emblematic case of blackfish is that of Swedish influencer Emma Hellberg, who has more than 300 thousand followers on Instagram, where she confuses users with the tone of her skin.
In 2018, two photos of her began to viralize, one where she looks quite tanned and another with a paler tone.
The 19-year-old defended herself several times stating that she had never said or tried to be black and that her skin simply takes on a darker shade due to the sun.
White girls if you want to pass as Black, how about using your platforms to address the injustices and discrimation actual Black people face. Don't just appropriate, Appreciate the people you are imitating #emmahallberg pic.twitter.com/gpmkvB0BZj
- Niccole Nero Gaines (@ 2CsNiccole) November 19, 2018
The defense of Princess Alba
Returning to the Chilean singer, criticism caused the Afrofeminist activist Mercedes Argudin to raise her voice.
“I saw the video of Princess Alba complete and more than once, and my opinion as a black woman, Afro-Chilean, Afro-Cuban, racialized and Afrofeminist is that there is no‘ blackfishing ’or‘ black face ’,” he wrote on Instagram.
“The artistic aesthetic of the video and of her as an artist is very clear according to my point of view. I see it very 90’s and 2000’s, ”he said. "If a mestizo white person tan and backlit, it will obviously look darker and that is not necessarily" blackfishing, "he said.
“What bothers me most about all this is that to do this funa they didn't even consult us, the black people. They didn't ask for our opinion first, ”he said.
“Globalization manages to make fashionable things that are typical of an ethnic group, for example, as with African braids. You have to be responsible for what we consume in regards to art, fashion, etc. ”, he concluded.