I understand the history of why people don’t like, get offended by or don’t want this kind of things happen. But is there an argument to say this outlook is old fashioned these days? Especially with the way we all want to embrace multiculture and multiethnicity.
I don’t even particularly look at the way Jesy Nelson has dressed, danced and sang in this video is particularly “black” anymore. Yes came from black America, it became a way black British girls (and the male equivalent) appropriated black America, but now I just see it as a homogenous multicultural multiethnic American and British urban style. The sub-culture/culture has outgrown black America. But unlike America where their inner cities often have separate areas for different ethnicities; inner cities in Britain are multicultural and multiethnic.
People might think that’s taking black culture away from black people; others might think that’s stepping forward in embracing black culture. Just like the rude boys and the skinheads of the 60s, with white skinheads dressing like Jamaican immigrants to Britain and sharing the same culture and music with them (before skinheads of the 80s ruined what skinhead was all about).
Jesy Nelson (and it doesn’t have to be her as an individual, of course; it can be talked of in general terms for any people) may come from a group of friends from childhood that was multiethnic. She could have had black friends, likely listened to music, did dance moves, dressed up like and did her hair similar to her black friends and the people making the music she liked from an early age. She wasn’t even thinking of it as appropriating culture or mimicking black people, she probably and innocently dreamed of making songs and music videos like this from being a kid and since she may be part of the multicultural multiethnic American and British urban style culture; that’s what she’s done.
The way Madness dressed, danced and made music in the 80s is exactly the same as this with Jesy Nelson. They appropriated black Jamaican culture, dress styles, dance moves and musical genres. But they are classed as a classic British pop band and were loved and celebrated by all ethnicities.
If you compare this Jesy to another Jesse - Jesse Lingard… Lingard grew up in the very white town of Warrington, was brought up by his two white grandparents, probably had very little exposure to multicultural multiethnic American and British urban style culture in his growing up environment, yet he talks and acts like inner-city Manchester black people/multiethnic people do. He even had a black American/multicultural multiethnic American and British urban style culture nickname and logo.
Jesse’s thing is never mentioned in a negative light; Jesy’s has caused a storm in a teacup. But Jesy might have actually grown up around more of a multicultural multiethnic American and British urban style culture than Jesse did despite her being white and him being of mixed ethnicity.
Now the extreme tanning thing is a slightly different topic to the above. But when you look back at Little Mix over the years, and see many white girls all around, tanning, makeup, eye lashes, the daft lips (and even things like perfume and aftershave) can increasingly become an obsessive thing where at first it’s be moderate but after a while becomes extreme.
It could be as innocent of that; it might well be that she’s trying to look at black as possible. But unless she comes out and admits that, I don’t think that should be thrown at her.