Why Non-Black People of Color Need To Stop Blaming Black People for Their Erasure: A Lesson in 26 Tweets

by Mia McKenzie

This morning on Twitter, Cate Young and I shared some thoughts on #OscarsSoWhite and the unfortunate ways that too many non-black people of color approach issues of media representation. Namely, the tendency to blame black people for erasure of other people of color—”But blacks still get nominated more than (insert non-black PoC)! Stop erasing us!”—rather than blaming, you know, white supremacy.

Some NBPoC I follow need to read this thread. B/c I don’t have the energy for y’all’s bs today. https://t.co/cQ3LseVXYw

— Mia McKenzie (@miamckenzie) January 22, 2016

So… I have a thing I’ve been thinking re: #OscarsSoWhite and complaints from NBPoC about black visibility in the discussion.

— Adonis Creed (@BattyMamzelle) January 22, 2016

Aside from the usual “why won’t black people do the work for us” there’s another angle I think to why the convos always pan out like this.

— Adonis Creed (@BattyMamzelle) January 22, 2016

When it gets down to it, white supremacy is built on anti-blackness. White people see racism in binary terms. Racist or not. White vs Black.

— Adonis Creed (@BattyMamzelle) January 22, 2016

I think that’s why their definition of diversity is “add a black man.” (Always a man, never a woman. But that’s a different conversation)

— Adonis Creed (@BattyMamzelle) January 22, 2016

To them, ending racism effectively means “stop the blacks from being mad at us.” Other PoC don’t really factor into that to them.

— Adonis Creed (@BattyMamzelle) January 22, 2016

Add in the continued legacy of activism and agitation by black people and Black Americans in this context, and you get black hypervisibility

— Adonis Creed (@BattyMamzelle) January 22, 2016

But… literally none of that prevents NBPoC from advocating for their interests. Like, at all.

— Adonis Creed (@BattyMamzelle) January 22, 2016

So it’s been 54 years since a Latina was nominated for (won?) an Oscar. That’s a travesty. It’s also not black people’s fault.

— Adonis Creed (@BattyMamzelle) January 22, 2016

And it bugs me to see attempts to criticize #OscarsSoWhite as something that is excludes NBPoC when, you see, it SAYS IN THE NAME…

— Adonis Creed (@BattyMamzelle) January 22, 2016

NBPoC activists could have added to the #OscarsSoWhite momentum by joining in. Amplifying deserving candidates the same way we have.

— Adonis Creed (@BattyMamzelle) January 22, 2016

Instead, somehow it’s black people’s fault that they’re excluded because we had the audacity to advocate for ourselves.

— Adonis Creed (@BattyMamzelle) January 22, 2016

And well… that’s anti-black as fuck.

— Adonis Creed (@BattyMamzelle) January 22, 2016

I said it on the BGD podcast and I’ll say it again. We stopped doing free labour for WP a while ago. What make you think we’d do it for you?

— Adonis Creed (@BattyMamzelle) January 22, 2016

And that doesn’t mean solidarity isn’t an option. IT IS. It always is, and should be encouraged. But we’re not here to do the work FOR YOU.

— Adonis Creed (@BattyMamzelle) January 22, 2016

Anyway, as I was saying. #OscarsSoWhite firmly places the blame on the white supremacist system that excludes PoC narratives in film.

— Adonis Creed (@BattyMamzelle) January 22, 2016

It is EXACTLY the kind of movement that ALL PoC can galvanize around to put pressure on WP to recognize that we have stories to tell too.

— Adonis Creed (@BattyMamzelle) January 22, 2016

I don’t know @ReignOfApril personally, but I am 99.9999% sure she would welcome and encourage this approach.

— Adonis Creed (@BattyMamzelle) January 22, 2016

IT REALLY BUGS ME to see #OscarsSoWhite, now in it’s second year and making some serious waves, get turned into a way to attack black people

— Adonis Creed (@BattyMamzelle) January 22, 2016

As though working to better our own self interest in somehow something selfish and bad when black people often only have each other!

— Adonis Creed (@BattyMamzelle) January 22, 2016

The tag is #OscarsSoWhite, not #NominateSomeBlacks or some shit. NBPoC were NEVER excluded.

— Adonis Creed (@BattyMamzelle) January 22, 2016

That fact that a BW started it doesn’t mean only black people can identify with it. The tag takes aim AT THE INSTITUTON OF WHITENESS.

— Adonis Creed (@BattyMamzelle) January 22, 2016

We have a common enemy. So can we please just calm down a bit, point our “J’accuse!” fingers in the right direction and amplify each other?

— Adonis Creed (@BattyMamzelle) January 22, 2016

Black people don’t hold the power in Hollywood. We’re not the ones erasing non-black people of color.

Funny thing (not funny ‘haha, funny ‘OMG why are y’all like this??’) is that the same non-black people of color who demand inclusion from black people are mysteriously silent when black people need support. Like folks who, when Daniel Holtzclaw was convicted, said, “But would they have gotten justice if they were (insert non-black women of color)???” but had never even mentioned the case or stood up for the black women victims in the entire year preceding the trial.

The thing non-Black people of color seem to have a hard time understanding (besides the fact that we don’t work for y’all) is that black hyper-visibility is not a privilege. Hyper-visibility of black people doesn’t translate into less systemic anti-black racism or more justice for black people. For example:

Remember that time cops were going to shoot an unarmed BP but then remembered there’s more BP on TV than Asians and didn’t shoot? Oh wait.

— Mia McKenzie (@miamckenzie) January 22, 2016

Remember when docs almost gave worse care to BP but then remembered BP still get more Oscars than NBPoC and changed their minds? Oh wait.

— Mia McKenzie (@miamckenzie) January 22, 2016

Remember when black kids almost got suspended at 5 times the rate of yts then schools remembered the Pres is black so they weren’t? Oh wait.

— Mia McKenzie (@miamckenzie) January 22, 2016

Yeah, that’s not how it works.

So, in 2016, how about less NBPoC demanding black labor and more actual solidarity? Because Cate’s right: #OscarsSoWhite is a great opportunity for all people of color to come together for change. The Oscars may not be the biggest issue we’re dealing with (it’s not) but if we can get this right, maybe there’s hope for real solidarity on the issues that matter most.