the plight of the Black female influencer

the plight of the Black female influencer. the plight of the Black female influencer. Let's talk about it. It is impossible to be a successful Black influencer on this app. It's nearly impossible. Unlike white female influencers, many of whom espouse like this basicness, this fundamental mediocrity, Black female influencers have to tread a very fine line between exceptionalism and relatability. We can't be messy and chaotic. Think Alix Earl or Hallie Batchelder. Otherwise, here come the accusations of being "ghetto" and "ratchet." And that's really given how much success is attributed to that type of vulnerability and, like, realism, right? Think about the get on this about having bad skin or going out at night and, like, looking terrible the, like, people eat or the girls who, like, drink on camera about going to Pilates hungover. Ones who have, like, crusted vomit on those videos, when made by, like, a conventionally attractive white influencer, garner immediately, like, thousands of followers, thousands of likes, but don't catch doing that. Many aspiring Black female content creators, the only option or avenue or your foot in the door is exceptionalism. Think Enj and Clark, two women who have literally a league degrees between them and know how. Or Justine's camera roll, whose editing is truly Emmy worthy, right? This is why those posts about Y or Z or a Black person going to this business school goes so viral on social media. Or why Black luxury is such a popular niche. It's because we as Black people, expect our Black influencers to be exceptional. But there in lies the paradox. Only so much Black exceptionalism audiences will tolerate before turning on you. Sure, Alix Earl has made tens of millions of dollars within a couple of years and has, like, MBA worthy business acumen. She's a white girl, and so gobble that up. Black woman flaunting too much of her jewelry collection on here or talking too much about her new house or her new car, and people get angry. Suddenly, that Black influencer that you used to love is no longer relatable. Touch. She's conceited, she's bitchy. And that all renders the influencing game nearly impossible for Black women to even be noticed by audiences, by followers, by brands. Black women have to show that they are exceptional in some way. Beauty and intelligence. And intellect, anything. But eventually that exceptionalism compounds in a way that audiences find uncomfortable, eventually makes them unrelatable. And brands no longer wanna work. I wanna know how we change this paradigm. Know your thoughts. Alright, bye.