5 Ways Porn Is Bizarrely Racist Behind The Scenes
Porn can be pretty progressive. Name a race, body type, and perverted sexual act, and chances are that porn has hundreds of videos of it in stunning 4k HD. Sadly, though, when you look closely at the XXX industry, you discover that, for all their talk of "big black cocks hammering minuscule Asian beauties," they can be shockingly racist. We spoke to African-American porn actress Nyomi Banxxx and Dr. Mireille Miller-Young, an academic who studies pornography and sex work, about these issues. They said ...
White Actors Can Charge Extra For Sleeping With Black People
Banxxx, who has starred in nearly 200 adult movies, told us that, "Black women are at the very bottom of the totem pole." After making sure that she wasn't referring to a hot new sexual position, we followed up with Dr. Dr. Miller-Young: "In some instances, white actresses charge an 'interracial rate' to counter any possible devaluing they may experience due to their involvement in the interracial porn market, because they say that black men have penis sizes that require much more labor-intensive work on their part." Well that makes sense, right? You move house, the movers charge you more for a five-bedroom mansion than they do for a tiny little studio ...
This is all part of a larger problem with the pay scale in porn. According to Dr. Miller-Young: "African-American actresses are paid one half to three quarters of what white actresses earn for the same work. This is the sorest issue for black actresses in the adult business." We assume the good doctor chose that particular word for a reason. Possibly throwing us poor comedy writers a bone.
Equal pay for equal lay, dammit.
"The pay inequality is both longstanding and blatant," Dr. Miller-Young continues. "When actresses are perceived as being too pushy (or bitchy) because they're demanding certain pay and working conditions, producers easily replace them with the next new young talent. The porn industry treats all actors as disposable, but black actresses are treated as the most disposable of all."
Even Misty Stone, an extremely successful African-American porn star, sometimes described as the "Halle Berry of the porn industry," is often paid significantly less than her white coworkers, despite never having done anything half as degrading as Catwoman.
White Actors Can Simply Refuse To Have Sex With A Black Person, But Not Vice-Versa
One time, Banxxx was supposed to shoot a scene with a white actor who suddenly announced that he couldn't perform on camera with her because she was black, and his girlfriend was worried that doing scenes with "ghetto girls" would alienate his fans. The two were as carefree and open with their racism as a Trump supporter in a YouTube comment section, and the really sad thing is that this wasn't a surprise to Ms. Banxxx. "Sure, you can refuse to work with a black actor," she said. "Racism is rampant in porn. You can't get away from it. It's there. It's been there forever, especially with African-Americans."
Dr. Miller-Young concurs: "According to black performers in the adult entertainment industry, white actors sometimes refuse to work with black actors ... One time, a black performer was given money for a taxi and told to leave the set because a white actress was uncomfortable working with an African-American actor."
Which we're assuming is how this series was created.
And if you're wondering if the opposite ever happens, the short answer is "No," while the long answer is "No, of course not. Don't be ridiculous. Who doesn't love white people? NAHNAHNAH I CAN'T HEAR YOU."
Mixed-Race Actors Promote Themselves As White
You know what our favorite porn category is? "White girls." Oh wait, that's not a thing ...
That's more of a "tragedy" category.
According to Dr. Miller-Young, "'White' is not a searchable category in porn because it is the norm," so there's no need to actually label it, unless you're stressing a normally ethnic feature that a white girl seems to have ("White Girls With Inexplicable Asses!") or the video stars a biracial actress, in which case you apparently have to hammer home that the actress getting hammered on screen is so Caucasian that she probably puts chilled grapes in her white wine during brunch.
You can't see their feet, but they're all wearing Uggs.
Bridgette B. (NSFW) was born in Spain and mostly bills herself as a Spanish or Latina actress. Yet many of her videos are badly trying to convince viewers that she's just your typical white girl from Nobraska, because Caucasian girls getting drilled is normal, while it seems Latina porn is some weird fetish. That's why some of her most popular videos are titled Big Booty White Girls (NSFW) or Big White Tits And Large Black Dicks.
If she doesn't sip a Starbucks grande half-skinny pumpkin spice latte while getting drilled, the illusion's ruined.
You see the exact same thing with Alexis Texas (NSFW) and Kristina Rose (NSFW). Despite the actresses being, respectively, part Puerto Rican and part Mexican, their filmography includes titles like Thick White Asses 3, White College Girls Wit Ass, Worship My Big White Ass, White Booty Clappin, and Big Slippery White Butts 4. If you're looking to check those out, do yourself a favor and start with the original Big Slippery White Butts, or you'll be completely lost during the fourth installment.
"Going Black" Is Still Considered A Risky Career Move In Porn
The phrase "Once you go black, you never go back" runs slightly longer in the porn business. It goes, "Once you go black, you never go back to being as popular as you once were because you've seriously pissed off your fans." See, most porn is aimed at white males who apparently don't like it when their porn strays from the white and familiar.
As Nyomi told us: "Interracial porn isn't good for your career. It's bad for your fanbase ... at least that's what some actresses are told."
Dr. Miller-Young elaborates: "Overwhelmingly, white actresses declining to do scenes with black men do so because they have been told by management or agents that it will decrease their value, or erotic capital, in the business. These producers and agents argue that fans often believe that white women become tainted when they have sex with black men."
Once you get black balled, you get blackballed.
But as long as their partners were also white, porn actresses could screw their way through the entire phone book and still be considered untainted, no matter how many taints we've personally seen them handle.
Racism In Porn Is A Big Moneymaker
According to the porn emporium site Adult Empire, six of their top 10 bestselling XXX DVDs (NSFW) include interracial crotch jousting. So why does the porn business discriminate against people of color when they are obviously a big hit with the smut-watching audience? Sadly, interracial porn may be so popular because it's considered a shameful, unnatural deviation from the norm. The thrill of the forbidden is a big part of porn's appeal. There's a reason the #2 most-used language for searches for "gay sex" is Arabic. Meanwhile, over in the American South ...
Utah gets off by staring at a blank screen while contemplating death.
"Ebony" is the #2 most-searched term in Mississippi, the #3 term in North Carolina, and the #1 term in the District of Columbia. And D.C. is the only place north of the Mason-Dixon line where "ebony" appears in the top three searched terms. Every state with "ebony" in its top three search terms is also a state that kept anti-miscegenation laws (aka laws banning black and white people from boning) on the books until the Supreme Court forced them to stop in 1967.
Nyomi Banxxx explains: "Porn is a taboo topic, but when you mix in race with that, then it becomes a double shame ... People might think that having sex is bad, but now also you're doing it with black men?! That is a double shame right there." Simply put, we want our porn to violate both orifices and social norms at the same time.
"Please don't tell the Grand Wizard. Oh, how he'd kill me if he knew."
Dr. Miller-Young elaborates: "Pornography always portrays the violation of boundaries, whether they be class, age, social status, family relationships, gender norms, or racial lines. As a society, we are fascinated with transgressing the walls we erect between ourselves ... Porn is in some ways being very honest about this dilemma, often chooses the easy way out -- profit from the forbidden fruit in the most simplistic way possible."
In porn's defense, though, it's not like it goes down very well when they do take on serious subject matter ...
"From the makers of Rodney King XXX: Can't We All Just Get A Dong?"
Cezary Jan Strusiewicz is a Cracked columnist, interviewer, and editor. Contact him at c.j.strusiewicz@gmail.com. Mireille Miller-Young is associate professor of feminist studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara and the author of A Taste for Brown Sugar: Black Women in Pornography.
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