Dear Rich BIPOC People

It has always been true that black and brown voices in the US, in order to be heard by a general audience, have to adjust their messages for white audiences. Even if an artist is being daring, their daring can only go so far. James Baldwin, for instance, never called for the extermination of white people, and Langston Hughes never called for black nationalism. Had they done so, they would have faced the fate of Huey P. Newton and Angela Davis, or worse still, Fred Hampton. Yet the challenging black academics, artists, and academics of yesteryear had something in common that is increasingly rare: They all came from working class, impoverished backgrounds. There was a unity amongst leftists of all races and the struggle of the poor.

Yet when we look at the new black and brown media, we are seeing a new trend, one informed by social media and a white left that has become dominated by the wealthy. The black and brown creatives of today who have the biggest followings come from upper middle class or wealthy upbringings. This is not talked about when discussing them, just like we don’t talk about how social media influencers, Twitter activists, and the so-called social justice warriors, are disproportionately wealthy. Our media dialogue around culture has always been wealth obsessed, but it used to be that black and brown artists came from and talked about, the working class. Perhaps the most prominent example of a working-class filmmaker is Barry Jenkins, and notably, his work is more artistic, and less mainstream than the work of the above-mentioned artists. Instead of discussing the privileged backgrounds of these creators, we use their works, like Dear White People, which is set in an Ivy League college, as relatable examinations of racial struggle. Lin Manuel’s father worked for New York Mayor Ed Koch in the eighties. While he lived in Washington Heights, he was from one of its wealthy families. His father opened doors that the average brown kid could only dream of. Kenya Barris’s shows solely revolve around wealthy families. Roxanne Gay’s father is a wealthy businessman, and she grew up attending private schools. As a society, the black and brown narrative has been handed over to the upper classes. How is this tinting the perceptions around Black Lives Matters and Latinx political movements when the people being given the loudest mouthpiece are comfortable, privileged, and have more in common with white elites than the working poor?

I believe the result is what we saw in the 2020 election, when Trump increased his support amongst both black and Latino voters by four points. The left in this country is becoming more upper class, and its evident in the products our most prominent BIPOC artists are producing.

Examples:

Dear White People

Hamilton

Bad Feminist by Roxanne Gay

Fresh off the Boat