Is this image harmful to people of color? And does it deter POC from wanting to be part of the subculture? Are goths, as a group, racist?
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| Popular Goth youtuber It's Black Friday |
But, let's recount the number of people in popular goth media who are people of color:
Elvira? No.
Robert Smith? White.
Siouxsie Sioux? She's from England AND she uses Sioux culture as a fun moniker. I love her, but yikes.
Andrew Eldritch? A jerk AND a white dude.
Oh! Oh! I've got it- Gomez Addams is Spanish-American! ..And a stereotype of the "Latin Lover". That's half a point, right..? Wait, is Gomez Spanish or Italian? I'm just confused now.
Tim Burton? He thought that the Brady Bunch adding in an Asian and Black character was offensive somehow, and that there "should be more white people in these movies." And when have you ever seen a person of color in a Burton film? (Answer: The villain in Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children... Nice job perpetuating the idea that black people are somehow evil or morally inferior to white people.) We were rooting for you, Tim.
Poe was alive in the early 1800's, so that's pretty self explanatory, yeah?
HP Lovecraft is pretty well known for his racism, too.
And there's never been a person of color on the cover of Gothic Beauty magazine.
Well. Goth media is pretty white, but what about the group of people themselves?
So, there are plenty Goths of color. Well, a decent amount. The (somewhat) famous youtube Goth makeup artist, Drac Makens, is in fact latina. She is very proud of her heritage and talks about it frequently on her youtube channel and her instagram.
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| Drac Makens in her Emilie Autumn inspired makeup look |
Do they "not exist" (they do.) because they don't feel safe in the subculture?
Serene Pristine, a black Goth woman, talks about her experiences in this article. At age 16 she went to a Bauhaus concert, and was waiting at the very front of the line. A group of white goths saw her, and Serene says that they "took one look at [her] and I sensed they thought [she] was inferior". They tried to cut in front of her in line, but a security guard defended her. Serene says that she doesn't feel as safe going out in real life as a Goth of color, when she did, her peers would call her an "oreo" or ask her why she listened to "white music". Online, she would get anonymous racist hate messages attacking her for having the "audacity" to be black and like Gothic Rock.
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| Serene Pristine, a Black poet and Goth |
Goths claim to be progressive and accepting, but still there is huge elitism within the subculture. Goths are different, sure, but to be different, you are expected to be different in a way that conforms to other Goths' expectations. Isn't that backwards?
I can't say that individual Goths are racist, because I don't know every individual Goth. In fact, I'd hazard a guess that most Goths aren't racist (Consciously, at least. Most people do have a societally ingrained internalized racism deep in there. Or not so deep). But there is an air in the culture that still supports and protects racism within the community. Alternative subcultures are supposed to be safe spaces for anyone who is different, and go against societal norms and expectations. Looking down on someone for their skin color and not "allowing" them into an alternative community is actively going against what alternative subcultures are supposed to stand for. Alternative communities should be safe places for strange people, no matter what their race. Our strangeness is what bonds us together, not our whiteness.Creep it real.
*If I said anything offensive, incorrect, or overstepped my bounds on here, please let me know and I will try my best to revise this article to be as racially sensitive as possible. Thanks!
On the other hand, if you have an issue with my comment about Andrew Eldritch, contact me, and I will laugh at you. Not sorry.
This is really interesting. I never thought about goth in terms of race.
ReplyDeleteYes! Surprisingly, it's a really big deal within the community. A lot of black goths feel estranged from the subculture due to the expectations of the community!
DeleteI talked about this topic because I am a very strong advocate for social justice and I noticed that there were a lot of expectations in the subculture that could be racist. It was difficult to find information on this topic, as a lot of white goths seem to turn a blind eye to the idea, so there was not a lot of literature on the subject. I wanted people to realize that goths of color are not "less goth" or "white on the inside" and that goth should be an inclusive movement, not based on skin tone.
ReplyDelete