op-ed: british singer-songwriter vv brown writes frank essay about cultural assimilation, frantz fanon’s “black skin, white masks”, and being unapologetically black

On Tuesday, singer-songwriter V.V. Brown wrote an op-ed for The Guardian about precisely this. “As a black person you almost automatically learn to use this this mask in order to survive in a society predominantly catering to a white audience. It shows in different forms – from extremes of self-hate, where all things black are rejected, to coping strategies such as not wearing braids to a job interview in fear of being deemed “too ethnic”.”

As minorities, we’re expected to assimilate into white culture, to not disrupt the status quo with our other identities. But to fit into white standards of beauty, success, white expectations, etc. “The truth is most white people are not used to feeling different. They see white faces in movies, advertisements, fashion campaigns and more. I would love it to be the other way round for a day so they could feel the social constructs and consciousness that black people exist in,” says Brown.

White people are not required to understand or accept black culture and black people for who and what we are, and any suggestion that they should acknowledge and respect our differences is typically meant with words like “race card” and “divisive”. As if we’re not divided already. So screw it. Do you. 

Read the rest of V.V. Brown’s essay right here. Check out her video ‘Sacrifice’, inspired by the concept of a White Mask down below. 

By Erin White*, AFROPUNK contributor