A white TikToker being accused of blackfishing has people divided.
Robyn Jordan Warren, the TikToker in question, recently posted a video with the words: “‘Another white girl tryna be racially ambigious’ or am I just naturally blessed and you don’t like it? 😌” accompanied by a knowing look into the camera.
Warren has tanned skin, plump lips, and big hair with loose curls. In a comment she admits to having “some filler” but says her lips are “naturally big.”
The video has 65,000 views and more than two hundred comments. It was posted with just two kissy face emojis as the caption. Warren has more than 35,000 followers, as of press time.
Blackfishing is when non-Black people try to look as close to Black or mixed-race as they can get. The look is often achieved by altering their natural features to mimic Black features. This can include lip fillers, fake tans, or wearing curly hair or braids. Blackfishing can also take the form of having surgery for a bigger butt or using Ebonics to sound Black.
The term was originally coined by Canadian journalist Wanna Thompson, according to the Huffington Post.
“What makes this ‘phenomenon’ alarming is that these women have the luxury of selecting which aspects they want to emulate without fully dealing with the consequences of Blackness,” Thompson wrote in an article for Paper magazine.
An unknown person by the handle @user7221511328406 created an account to expose childhood photos of her to show that her skin was significantly lighter growing up. But in a surprising turn of events Mama Warren apparently came to her defense in the comments: “Dur! Wrong person! That’s not my daughter! 😂😂😂 Ooh how embarrassing for you. 😂😂😂”
While the photos may not be of her, Warren herself posted a TikTok with photo showing what she says is her natural summer tan. The picture appears to be right at the edge of her bikini line. There’s a stark difference in color between her white nether regions that don’t see the light of day and the deeply suntanned skin next to it.
Whether she tans in the sun, uses a fake tan, or a combination of the two, her own video shows that her skin color is naturally white. You can even see this in earlier videos where she seems to not be tanned or has a much lighter tan.
Her comments section is problematic, with many people saying that blackfishing doesn’t exist or that Black people are making an issue out of nothing. (Reader, blackfishing is not nothing.)
“Love the tan and the hair 😁 let the ‘victims’ comain, its jus few of the ppl anyway! majority of ppl think blackfishing a farce,” wrote user Toni Young488.
“Baby your beautiful. you from Uk right. honestly americans just don’t get it every girl in UK UK so tan blackfishing here doesn’t exist,” commented user @ragebutmakeitcute.
Warren could not be reached for immediate comment after being contacted via TikTok comment.
Update 9:30am CT, Oct. 19: Warren’s viral TikTok is no longer publicly visible and her account is private.
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