Within the last week of my research period, I completed a majority of my interviews, though I’m waiting on a few more due to conflicts with time zones and a few additional participants. However, even with the interviews I completed, there are various points of intersection, many of which I did not mention in my previous post. All participants except for one had agreed that the mainstream ideas and “quotas” of Black identity and Black culture stem from a more African American perspective. According to these interviewees, this is because of America’s position as a powerful cultural superpower. For example, industries like Hollywood and popular music labels all reside within American borders. Because of this larger platform, African American culture making its way into these predominantly white and influential industries may give the impression that those definitions and aspects of Black culture are the only facets of Black culture, though that excludes other nations in the Black diaspora. This has left many interviewees who are not of or entirely of African American descent frustrated, as they feel underrepresented in depictions of the Black experience in the media. Some even go as far as to say the definitions of what Black is are more rigid and exclusive than they are inclusive because of this American domination in the industry, which to them propels their definitions of race and ideas of Blackness over others waiting to have a chance at representation. This rigidity also proves to make it difficult for mixed-race individuals to find a place within it, as their existence inherently pokes holes in America’s stiff racial hierarchy.

I have also noticed that a lot of my interviewees note that there is animosity shown towards people in the Black community who possess more privilege than others under white supremacy and its structures. One interviewee had recounted instances where he witnessed hostility shown towards African immigrants by African Americans, and he has personally attested to instances where he was shown judgment because of his lighter skin tone. Another interviewee, a lighter-skinned actress who protested against a famous Black actor for sexual assault charges and went viral for it, had remembered how people labeled her as “mixed” in a derogatory way, though she is of Jamaican and African American descent. According to her, they called her a “bed wench,” or an enslaved woman who engaged in intercourse with her enslaver for benefits and status. These individuals on the internet also insisted that her perceived “wrongdoings” were because of her “white father,” when in reality, that was her stepdad whom she did not grow up with. According to this interviewee, when someone of African descent does things that are highly acclaimed and conventionally good, they are claimed as Black, but if they do something controversial or wrong, some members of the community blame it on their “mixed heritage.” It raises the question of, if there is a push for Black mixed-race people to identify under the label “mixed,” which there is according to various social media posts, why is “mixed” then used as a derogatory term in some areas? Why is it seen as a blight? My interviewees have shared the sentiment that these divisions inflicted on Black individuals with more privilege could cause more self-destruction to the community rather than holding important conversations to move forward in the fight for Black liberation.