This argument that it’s not blackfishing because non-BW are trying to look “mixed/racially ambiguous” and not Black misunderstands how anti-blackness, as a fantasy of whiteness, functions. BW are necessary for their cosplay to have any coherence and for them to amass capital.

Not only is the distancing from “non-ambiguous” Blackness required for this performance to have an social & economic currency but there are forms of pleasure (libindial economy) that are derived from being able to reterritorialise and colonise the aesthetics of Black womanhood.

The performance falls apart without Black women existing as the foil here. The politics of colourism, desire etc shape how non-Black women can successfully position themselves as the anti-thesis of BW whilst delighting in using aesthetics that are only made possible by BW.

Thinking with @sarah_ogun, @TAMARAJUANA and @yoniixxx here and their recent tweets about this phenomenon.

The Black woman as "Other" is the vector through which non-Blackness as an aesthetic in and of itself, acquires meaning and possibility.