00:00Punk means going against the status quo.
00:04Being like, no, fuck you.
00:06Like, I'm gonna be what I want
00:09and you're not gonna like it and I don't care.
00:13I never thought that like anybody would like,
00:16except me, but you're acting too white
00:18or like, why are you trying to dress like white people?
00:20Big alternative is when you take that
00:22and you write it on the tissue
00:24and you wipe your ass with it.
00:26Like they wouldn't classify a darker skinned person
00:29to be alternative.
00:31They will classify you as being ghetto.
00:33Colorism is a big part of why black people
00:36can't just be expressive of themselves
00:38and white supremacy as well.
00:41Let's put that in there.
00:42I don't have to be the best.
00:43I don't have to know all the knowledge
00:45to mosh and fucking punch people in the head.
00:47That's what I want to do.
00:49I feel like there's nothing more goth
00:52or punk or alternative than being black.
01:01They say the scene isn't about what you look like,
01:04but how you feel.
01:05Black alternative people have always existed,
01:08but it has not been without alienation and ridicule
01:11in whichever scene they inhabit.
01:13Even though it's easy to spot how blackness
01:16and alternative goth and punk style intersect.
01:20My name is Katie.
01:21I am a filmmaker and alternative clown from Brooklyn.
01:24In my formative years,
01:26there were pretty brutal consequences
01:28for not fitting a monolithic black mold.
01:30So I always identified deeply with feeling
01:32like an outsider.
01:36I turned to music and film to know I wasn't alone.
01:40My earliest memory is of Rochelle
01:42in the 1996 cult classic, The Craft.
01:45She was frequently bullied and struggled
01:47being a token witch in her coven.
01:50When I look back at the roles I did in the 90s,
01:52I kind of call them alterna black girl magic chick roles.
01:57You know what I mean?
01:58I did not realize what a big deal it was
02:02to be the person of color
02:04in basically what would have been an all-white movie.
02:06What was your response that you were getting,
02:08I guess, after the film had, you know,
02:11kind of been out there for a couple years?
02:12The thing about a movie like The Craft is it did okay
02:14when it was out, right?
02:16But it started to grow and become a cult movie.
02:19One day I was somewhere random in America
02:21in the middle of the country
02:22and I get off an Amtrak train
02:23and there's like a 12-year-old black girl
02:25and she goes,
02:27you, you, you, you, you're in the movie!
02:32And I went, oh.
02:35She's having the same response I had
02:37to seeing someone who looked like me
02:39when I was four-age in a movie,
02:40which was very few and far between.
02:43You are, in a sense, part of the pioneers, right?
02:46Part of being the pioneer generation
02:48means it's lonely and painful.
02:51Hey, baby, let it go!
02:52The past few years have been a new age
02:55for black people in scenes
02:57that may have once seemed inaccessible.
02:59Rappers and artists Rico Nasty,
03:02Lussic Puppy, and creative makeup artist Raissa Flowers,
03:05as they depict self-expression and artistry
03:08that have often been made invisible
03:10in the black community
03:11and usually perceived as sole domain
03:13of white social outcasts.
03:18You know that you're a black girl, right?
03:20Your hair's supposed to be sewed in, not spiked up.
03:23I did the mohawk with the braids
03:25because that was literally kind of at the peak
03:27where people was like, she's trying to be white.
03:29You know, most women of color,
03:31they prefer to wear their hair like this
03:35and you coming out here with this.
03:37Don't ever tell a black girl what to do with her hair.
03:39I listened to a lot of rock when I was younger
03:42and I felt like I was really judged
03:44by a lot of my black friends
03:47about what I listened to and how I wanted to be.
03:50It kind of annoyed me that a lot of people
03:53are kind of using the punk and alternative aesthetic
03:57in their everyday now
03:59when they made fun of people that were like us.
04:02You know what I'm saying?
04:03When I already lived in Sugar Land,
04:05so that was like a really white area,
04:07I felt kind of like a traitor.
04:09Even though I didn't do anything except express myself,
04:12I was made to feel like that's not what we do.
04:16You're siding with them.
04:17There weren't like a lot of people
04:20who were into the like dark and spooky stuff
04:24that I was into because it was seen as like evil.
04:27What reasons do you think are why we're like limited?
04:31Like even if someone's alternative or different,
04:34they always highlight the light-skinned person.
04:37They will classify you as being ghetto.
04:39You're just saying that because you think
04:41it's related to whiteness.
04:43I hate that they just put that on the black community
04:47and just like I wish people would be more open
04:50than just willing to people who are different.
04:52It makes you want to tone it down like,
04:55y'all can't do it?
04:56A'ight, I see y'all.
04:57As black people in the scene,
04:59no matter how much we show up,
05:01we are continually confronted
05:03by internal and external gatekeepers.
05:05We constantly have to prove how authentic we are
05:08by unrealistic double standards.
05:10What is the craziest reaction you've gotten from somebody
05:14for doing something that is considered alternative?
05:16The worst reaction I've ever gotten is from a white cis man.
05:20Like I was wearing a metal band shirt
05:22and he like came up to me and was like,
05:24who's the first?
05:25Like what was that first album,
05:26that first fucking song or whatever?
05:28And I was like, get the fuck away from me.
05:30So because I have on this shirt
05:31and I probably like paid to be here
05:33and I paid for this merch
05:34because I don't know the music.
05:35I could be a new fan.
05:36Right.
05:37That challenging aspect is annoying.
05:39Like when someone like Third Eye Chakra
05:42turned me into the Blink 182 cover,
05:45people were in the comments like,
05:46y'all don't even know who this,
05:47what this band is.
05:49And I'm like blocked, first of all.
05:51It's so fucking weird to do that when it's punk music.
05:55It's like, bro, this is supposed to be so anti
05:57everything that you're doing to me right now.
05:59You're anti, you know?
06:02You're anti.
06:02You're mad.
06:04Why do you guys think it's important in general
06:07to take space within these, you know, subcultures?
06:11There are very limited platforms for us to represent ourselves,
06:15especially not for Black women.
06:17For me specifically, there was definitely a sense of self-hatred.
06:21I didn't want to be Black.
06:23I didn't want to be a Black alternative kid.
06:25I wanted to be an alternative kid,
06:27which means like straightening my hair and practicing it.
06:31Yeah.
06:31It was a very dark part of my identity
06:36because within me trying to understand the things that I love,
06:41there was also so much self-hatred mixed into it.
06:44I do feel like since I did not, you know,
06:47feel comfortable enough to express myself,
06:50you know, more so when I was younger,
06:51I feel like I had to like, you know, kind of mute myself.
06:56It's an ever-growing thing.
06:57Like, we're continuously like learning how to like,
06:59you know, be comfortable.
07:00Like, I'm still muting myself every day.
07:02I get white people together.
07:03I get all types of people together.
07:05I get gay people together.
07:06I get straight people together.
07:09And we marched together actually,
07:11but you won't ever credit me that because it's like,
07:14then I have too much more.
07:15Right.
07:16It honestly makes me so happy that I make music
07:19in the scene that I make music in
07:21because it is really dominated by white people.
07:25And I really just love to see like brown faces in the crowd,
07:31like, fucking shit up.
07:32Fuck you!
07:33Fuck you!
07:34There's this quote from The Office where Dwight is like,
07:39if you want to get the white people to do something,
07:41you have to get the black people to do it
07:43to get the white people to think it's cool,
07:45then you have to get the time to stop doing it.
07:48And I feel like that is like the thesis of all cultures
07:52and subcultures in this country.
07:54It's hard to ignore the dramatic news shift
07:57to celebrating alternative black femmes on the internet.
08:00While the Black Lives Matter movement cuts through social media
08:03and social conversation,
08:05but whilst many more are receptive to imagery of black people
08:09embracing alternative identities,
08:11it's not without its battles.
08:13I really hate the fact that like after, you know,
08:16like the whole George Floyd situation,
08:18now all of a sudden everybody's Black Lives Matter,
08:21all of a sudden everybody wants to like spam posts
08:24like black women and black people like that are alternative.
08:26But it's like, where was all this energy before?
08:29Like, why does it take somebody to have to die
08:32for you to give a shit or pretend like you give a shit?
08:35Like that rubs me the wrong way.
08:36The algorithm is biased and if you're not looking for black punk girls,
08:41like you're probably not going to see them on your feed.
08:43People look down on us and they copied us later on
08:47and it's just like...
08:48Black people create everything.
08:50Black people are the originators of everything.
08:52Who was the first person to show an electric guitar?
08:54A black lady.
08:55Right, right.
08:56Black woman.
08:57Right.
08:57Elvis stole from...
08:58What was it?
08:59Chuck Berry?
08:59Chuck Berry was a black man.
09:01The stretching of the ears.
09:03Right.
09:03Culture.
09:04Body mod is...
09:05Tattoos on your face.
09:06Right.
09:06Means something.
09:07The amount of piercings you have on your nose
09:09means how many properties you owned in some tribes.
09:12Like it all goes back to our roots.
09:15I used to feel so sorry.
09:16I'm so sorry I chose to cut my hair off
09:18and get piercings.
09:20But it's like, no, I'm a blessing.
09:24Just like having the courage to be like,
09:25yeah I did that and I'm not hurting anybody.
09:27And that's what alt means to me.
09:29I need people to know that black can look like anything.
09:32I know through my existence that people understand
09:36that black is expansive.
09:39And that's really beautiful to me.
09:42Like when I'm walking around, I'll see like younger girls,
09:45even black girls especially.
09:47And they're like looking at me like,
09:48oh my gosh, I've never seen that before.
09:50Yeah.
09:50And you can tell like,
09:51they're like, I want to do that.
09:54You know, it helps open up that imagination.
09:56Having black skin, having black parents,
10:00stepping out into the world and facing just like any type of racial,
10:04any littlest type of racial profiling is fun.
10:07That's shit.
10:08And it is alternative.
10:09Being black is alternative.
10:10Because guess what?
10:11Being black is different.
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