Despite alternative subcultures such as punk, goth, and grunge often being built upon the foundations black people have made, and despite these subcultures’ origins being political views of anti-establishment and anti-fascism, there are a crap ton of straight Neo-Nazis and fascists in those communities.
Of course, there’s always a couple of disgustingly rotten boot-licking apples within any community, but I often feel so flabbergasted whenever I see white supremacists, homophobes, transphobes, etc within alternative spaces. It’s even more confusing when you learn that a lot of the founding fathers of certain alternative subcultures are black or were inspired by black culture. I won’t be going into the deep dive of the history of black inspiration in the alt community, but I think it’s something worth researching.
It’s extremely aggravating growing up as an alternative black person because of how being outside of the norm is considered “white people stuff”. Crazy makeup, clothes, music, anything that wasn't extremely stereotypically black was labeled as white. Even my own family would call me whitewashed or an "Oreo" for the things I enjoyed, even if there wasn’t anything inherently “white” about them. They would even go as far as to say that I would fit in better at a primarily-white school, opposed to the primarily-black schools I’ve attended my entire life (even though that is largely not the case in the absolute slightest).
It also makes it annoying because, with any intersectionality, it puts you in a really weird middle position. Not quite accepted or understood by the black community, while also being turned away by the white supremacist racism in the alternative community. It’s really isolating walking into a place where it’s supposed to be welcoming for a specific group of people, and yet still being shunned.
I’m not sure when counter-culture became a “white only” thing. Racism of course, is a large contribution, but I think its deeply rooted in the fact that having melanated skin already puts dangerous attention onto you around the wrong people. Learning to blend in became a survival tactic to not get the wrong type of attention. Looking “attention-seeking” was seen as a privilege, most likely because being noticeable didn’t mean a possible death sentence for the average palm colored person.
Being both black and alternative is possibly the most dangerous thing you could do, and let’s not even get into the high likelihood of being transgender or queer on top of it because that opens a whole other can of (related) worms.
Being both black and alternative is possibly the most dangerous thing you could do, and let’s not even get into the high likelihood of being transgender or queer on top of it because that opens a whole other can of (related) worms.
KIo Wallace
