PUNK-AFRO black identity introspection

After watching the short documentary about afropunk culture, I was able to deduce that afropunk tends to tread very closely to anti-black sentiments due to the overwhelming majority of white people that occupy the culture. Due to this, many black punks internalize the opinions of those whites and will revel in the fact that they are the only person of color in the room. Part of this I believe comes from the fact that many of the black punks did adopt Eurocentric aesthetics in order to fit in. Such as straight hair and light eyes by use of contacts. 

The gaudy nature of the clothing itself does allow for black punks to break out of the mold and expectations that are attributed to black people. So, in that sense it is very liberating. It should also be noted that for many many years black peoples appearances have been monitored by whites, and African Americans have made sure to hold themselves to their standard of civility by way of respectability politics. Afro-punks go against this grain by destroying the idea that black people have to look a certain way in order to be taken seriously. 

Aside from the one woman who had held a lot of anti-black and misogynistic opinions, such as respecting herself instead of being a “hoochie”, the majority of the punks did seem to do the work to unlearn their own self hating ideologies and have worked to make their own space as black punks. Being black is not a monolithic thing and can look like anything really as long as the person is black. That, I believe was their overall message that was trying to be conveyed. 

There is also the take back of black aesthetics and creations that many Afro-punks did mention. From accessories that are similar to African jewelry styles, to the music itself having a black origin. Black punks are not the type to sit quietly and allow for white comfortability to impose itself on how black politics function in the punk scene.