Let’s Talk About Awkwafina’s Controversial Nomination for the NAACP Image Awards

Written by Margaret White

If you haven’t heard by now: Awkwafina has received a controversial nomination for the NAACP image award for “Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance” for her role in Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon.

While Awkwafina says she is honored by her nomination, many question why the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People would nominate the Asian-American actress who has been criticized for using a blaccent for the majority of her career.

In an interview with Reuters Showbiz, the actress was asked about her previous use of the blaccent to which she said she was “open to a conversation” and called the issue multifaceted and layered.

.@awkwafina addresses controversy of her using a ‘blaccent’ in films: pic.twitter.com/razgNiTFke

— Reuters Showbiz (@ReutersShowbiz) September 10, 2021

I’m a bit skeptical about her being open to the conversation since the conversation has yet to happen— even though people have tried to start the conversation with her. The NAACP nomination and the subsequent Twitter backlash would have been the perfect time for her to address her blaccent.

Out of all of the awards, I would think the NAACP Image Awards would be the last one to nominate someone like Awkwafina, who thinks it is ok to make a minstrel out of Black people for a living. Yikes. https://t.co/7THr0VNhUG

— 𝐵𝑒𝒸𝒸𝒶 (@MJFINESSELOVER) January 19, 2022

Yes she is a "colored person" but the NAACP really just going to ignore Awkwafina's use of a blaccent for jokes in a minstrel like fashion? She has yet to explain why she used it and why she suddenly stopped. We all know she only stopped because she started getting bigger roles.

— The Boy: The Zo Year (@blkbuddha) January 19, 2022

However, I want to talk about her calling the issue of her blaccent “multifaceted.” One of the most common defenses for non-black people using a blaccent is that it’s the language they grew up with. Yes, I will agree that the environment that someone grew up in will have some impact on the way they speak— there is a reason regional accents exist.

“Awkwafina or Nora Lum is from Queens, New York. The way she speaks is due to her being from New York,” says her defenders. We could argue about the demographics of Stony Brook, where she was born, or Flushing, where her paternal grandparents owned a restaurant— but maybe Nora really did hang out with the 1.7% of African-Americans in the population.

The thing I don’t understand about blaccents: if a nonblack person is around enough Black people to pick up on AAVE and transition it into their everyday language, why don’t they ever pick up on the ability to code-switch?

And Awkwafina has made a stance against taking any roles that force her into a stereotypical Asian accent because she understands the damage portraying accents has on the Asian-American community. Yet, she has not addressed the hypocrisy of her public stance against using an Asian accent as a prop only to arrive on set with her blaccent in tow.

The backlash that Awkwafina and the NAACP has received over this nomination is well deserved. It’s time for Awkwafina to actually step up and have this conversation she claims to be open to.