Colombian artist J Balvin, born José Álvaro Osorio Balvin, caused another sh**storm on social media after winning the Afro-Latino Artist of the Year award at this year’s African Entertainment Awards USA (AEA USA).
After winning the award, the 36-year-old urban music artist accepted the prize while clarifying that he wasn’t Black, “I am not Afro Latino but thank you for giving me a place in the contribution of Afrobeat music and its movement.”
His audacity about his contribution to Afrobeat music and the actual win had Black Latinos and other diasporans up in arms on social media.
J Balvin is not an Afro-Latino artist.
Just like Bruno Mars is not a Black artist.
Just like Ariana Grande isn’t a racially ambiguous artist.
Just wanted to provide clarity on this today.
— Ernest Owens (@MrErnestOwens) December 27, 2021
J. Balvin getting an award designated explicitly for Afro (the “Afro” means Black, in case that’s not obvious) Latinos from a @AEA_USA shows the continued failure of Latinidad and the myth of mestijaze. Y’all refuse to listen to Black people from Latin America.
— a Black-passing openly Black Latina. (@aliciasanchez) December 27, 2021
gonna need the african entertainment awards to gatekeep blackness a lil more coz how tf they gave j balvin white as shit ass a afrolatino artist of the year award. sech and ozuna are right there??? and are actually black????
— not his peace, hispanic (@bad_dominicana) December 27, 2021
I don’t even get angry over white Latinos anmore. they R just like Anglos and Euros. I ignore them ALL. I don’t listen to J Balvin or any other white Latin artist.We have to be intentional about not centering, making space for them. Mi gente, Y’all ain’t ready for that. #Jbalvin pic.twitter.com/yDiHmGgD4U
— Keka Araújo (@KAraujoNWT) December 27, 2021
#Jbalvin said “I’m not Afro Latino, but thanks niggas”. pic.twitter.com/n607sniqa4
— BLAKTHOUGHTZ (@BlakThoughtz) December 27, 2021
In response to the pushback, the president of AEA USA, Dominic Tamin, posted an obtuse, useless explanation video to the organization’s page about why Balvin was selected over actual Black Latinos. He captioned the video, “After listening to the concern of our audience, we have decided to maintain the purpose of the award but changed the name to Best Latin Artist Of the Year.”
“The Best Latin Artist category is for any artist based in Latin America that is contributing to the African culture, especially the Afro-beats sound globally. It is not based on race but more importantly based on pushing the African culture forward on the world stage,” Tamin continued. “This is the first year that we introduced this category to include our Latin brothers and sisters who have embraced Afrobeats music within their platforms.”
“The winner of this category has demonstrated that and is deserving of this award based on the fans’ votes. Please remember the nominees in this category had no say in their nomination or influence on the award show. Instead of voicing dissatisfaction, let us encourage these artists to continue bridging the gap between Africa and Latin America.”
Tamin’s gaslighting was par for the course regarding excluding Black Latinos. In this instance, the culprit was a Black man who failed to seemingly walk back from saying that an Afro-Latino category isn’t about race.
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This situation isn’t the first controversy Balvin has been entrenched in concerning race. The “Mi Gente” singer caught heat for his misogynistic and racist portrayal of Black women in his music video “Perra.” The problematic artist was filmed walking two Black women on leashes down a street.
J Balvin was walking black woman on leashes in a music video this year and then just won the Afro Latino award?!
— META SNACKS (@MetaSnacks) December 27, 2021
Lo más afro que tiene j Balvin es este video. pic.twitter.com/AxNMmILP88
— Bartola Shelby. (@gatasinbotas26) December 27, 2021
In conversations surrounding the blanqueamiento (whitening) of urban Latin music genres like reggaeton, dembow, R&B in Spanish and bachata by white Latino artists like J Balvin, Karol G, Daddy Yankee and others, the erasure of Black Latinos from Black music narratives is in line with the erasure of Black Latinos in Latino culture.
Remezcla Magazine’s Eduardo Cepeda weighed in on the problematic phenomena.
“These are terms that are inextricably linked to a history of exclusion and segregation within the music industry,” he said. “Within the recording industry and in award shows, the word [‘urban’] has been used as a way to separate Black artists, while hypocritically allowing many white artists to freely navigate in and out of numerous categories — including urban. … ‘Urbano’ comes with a fraught and problematic history reeking of exclusion and othering.”
Suzy Esposito, a Latin Music Editor, said it plain in an interview.
“White Hispanic artists are more able to hop from genre to genre. They’re given the room to experiment by audiences and critics, to be all things to the extent that Black artists cannot,” she said. “We should be consulting Black artists and see how they feel about the term. See if they feel the same way that Tyler, the Creator, feels about it.”
Although we expect white organizations to get it wrong, Tamin’s response, as a Black man, to Balvin’s nomination and subsequent award is really the issue.
