On a surface level, orange colored spray tans are tacky at best and absolutely hideous at worst. It is a sight that is commonly associated with “white trash” on the Jersey Shore and privileged suburbanites and their sorority girl daughters. The infatuation with spray tanning appears to be innocent enough, but the way in which its most frequent supporters conduct themselves leaves much to be desired.
When I talk about spray tanning, I want to emphasize that I am singling out a specific group of people: white women in Greek life, though my comments can be extended to white bodies and white passing folks as a whole. What disturbs me most about this trend of Cheetofication is this: it smells of racial fetishization and blackfishing.
First, let’s define some terms. Racial fetishization, in this context, refers to the objectification and commodification of a person and their culture; racial features or cultural touchstones, for example, become products to be consumed and discarded at will. This fetishization is part of cultural appropriation, which sees the adoption of a person’s culture by a non-member.
Blackfishing seems to be a recent term for an age old practice by white folks and non-black POC: it is the purposeful“adoption” of black features, and in extreme cases, outright co-option of black struggle and aesthetic by non-black community members. Prominent offenders are Nikita Dragun, who is an Asian woman who is anti-black, and Danielle Broccoli, a white woman who routinely appropriates black culture.
The fetishization and appropriation of black culture is not a new phenomenon and the purpose of this piece is not to discuss the continual looting of the black community. What this piece does want to discuss, however, is why blackfishing and racial fetishization is so tone deaf and harmful, especially on college campuses.
The history of Greek life is rooted in privilege and racism. First, the structural makeup of fraternities, and subsequently sororities, are inspired by Freemasonry and other “gentlemen’s clubs,” which at their core focus around community building through the espousal of elitism and classism. Secondly, Greek life does much to perpetuate rape culture and racism, as these are among the most common criticisms levied against it.
In the last few years, most recently with Trump’s ascension to the White House, the hypocrisy of Greek life has been made blatantly apparent. An entire culture has been built upon the foundations of white supremacy and a rejection of liberal identity politics in favor of “conservative ideals” that champion “political incorrectness” and imply the need for a “return to normalcy.” What is most distressing about this Barstool culture is that it works to reinforce white privilege by deeming any criticism of the status quo or attempts at critical introspection as “overreactions” and being somehow “weak” and “feminine.”
This doubling down on toxic masculinity and any attempts to understand the role of Greek life in racial fetishization are concerning, to say the least. The most blatant example of this brand of cultural appropriation are having frat houses decked out in Trump flags and MAGA signs blast Drake and Migos, as if the very same artists and content creators these budding socialites enjoy aren’t the same targets of their political heroes. The sorority girl’s obsession with spray tanning is the most insidious, however, as it is a direct metaphor for white consumption: these women, birthed into white privilege, are literally clothing themselves in the features of the very same community they condemn/support at will.
The ability for white women to tan themselves into an entire new ethnicity is alarming for a multitude of reasons. First and foremost, it is an obvious practice in racial fetishization. Secondly, it reaffirms their own white privilege by allowing them to “dress up” as black women but face none of the societal repercussions and disadvantages to being black; this slight is the most damning of all, because it directly reinforces white privilege by saying “You can take this off at any time” and by doing so, dehumanizes the very same community they seek to emulate. Thirdly, such actions help to reaffirm and perpetuate colorism, which is a system of discrimination within a racial/ethnic group in which skin tone(s) help to determine how a person is treated and viewed.
The inclusion of colorism in this discussion is important, as it is an issue that plagues black and non-black POC communities. The fundamental issue with colorism as that it is rooted in white supremacy. Whiteness is used as the benchmark in discussions of beauty and culture, and is often used as an indicator of class: Vietnamese culture, for example, has women priding themselves on how “white” they can keep themselves, as the class structure in Vietnam—as well as other parts of Asia—have reinforced that “rich,” “well-to-do” people are white, while laborers and “undesireables” are dark and tan.
The fact that white women may not even realize that they’re “doing something wrong” or potentially being “problematic” is a sign of their white privilege. BIPOC groups and communities are hyper-sensitive to matters and discussions of race, as they are constantly put up against the white benchmark. As the creators and inheritors of this racial hierarchy, white bodies are given the luxury of ignorance and the privilege to withdraw themselves from issues of race at any given time, which is at the core issue of blackfishing and racial fetishization: you can stop pretending to be black at any time. Black people don’t get that opportunity. Even while pretending to be black these white women are still protected by their white privilege and are never exposed to the same kind of misogynoir and discrimination that black women are.
Another troubling reality is that black women may potentially be forced to comfort the same women who were ignorantly appropriating and fetishizing their culture and bodies. Identity crises borne from being biracial or self-loathing from being black/brown are conversations and introspections that white people never have to worry about, because again, their whiteness helps to inform and dominate contemporary and historical beauty standards.
Unfortunately, this behavior is unlikely to go away any time soon. However, what is promising is that issues of race and privilege seem to be carving out a larger and larger corner for themselves within the public consciousness, though any sort of introspection within deeply white spaces must be pursued aggressively and without shame: white fragility must be overcome in order to even begin thinking about potential wrongdoings.
