Awkwafina, Honey Cocaine…. These artists are known not only for their huge success in the music and film industry but also for their representation of Asian culture. But behind their success is their exploitation of Black culture—”blaccent,” the n-word, hip hop and rap. If we want real social change, we need to understand that uplifting one culture shouldn’t require us to put down others.
When I first saw Awkwafina, it wasn’t in Crazy Rich Asians or Ocean’s 8, but instead in her music video “NYC Bitche$”, released in 2013. I probably came across the video in a YouTube rabbit hole back in middle school. But I remember that one thing caught my attention—she was a “cool” Asian. Not a Cho Chang (sorry Potter fans), but a rebellious, confident and funny Asian girl. When I saw her again five years later in Crazy Rich Asians, my image of her didn’t change at all. Sure, she was now a big movie star, but she was still the cool, funny and a bit rebellious Asian girl.
That was until she “switched out” of her character in The Farewell. Her “blaccent” and Black slang disappeared, and she seemed to be a more “serious” character.
Black people have long been oppressed and judged for their culture. Black culture is not something that Black people can easily “switch out” of. Awkwafina, on the other hand, borrowed from Black culture, profited from it and dropped it when she no longer needed it. This is something that Asians shouldn’t need to do to climb up the social ladder. She should be “cool” even if she’s Asian.
Society has pitted marginalized races against each other and conditioned us to reject our cultural identity as “not cool” and instead exploit other marginalized cultures. But representation shouldn’t mean Asian people exploiting Black culture or vice versa. Representation should be about the interplay of these marginalized cultures, not one culture hurting another. We need to work together to resist the dominant white culture and help uplift both our cultures.
In order to do this, we need to stop praising people for rejecting their identities. We need to stop praising Awkwafina only when she uses “blaccent” but pay attention to her actual acting skills. We need to let Honey Cocaine know that it is not okay to use the n-word and appropriate rap.
As we go through Black History Month and beyond, let’s remember to be mindful of the word representation and what it means for marginalized communities. Supporting each other will be the only way we can bring meaningful change to today’s unequal power dynamics.