A blaccent (a portmanteau of black and accent) is the accent associated with the use of African-American Vernacular English (AAVE). It is typically used disparagingly to describe the use of AAVE by non-black people, which is considered a form of cultural appropriation. In the late 2010s and early 2020s, it became prominently associated with non-black media figures such as rapper Iggy Azalea and actress Awkwafina.

The term blaccent is a portmanteau of the words black and accent.^[1] It can be used to describe any accent associated with the use of African-American Vernacular English (AAVE), but is more commonly used to describe a feigned or affected accent used by those who are not African-American in an attempt to imitate AAVE speech patterns.^[2][3]

Criticisms of blaccents often view them as a form of cultural appropriation and stem from their being used to make their users appear cool, typically for financial gain.^[4] American author Mikki Kendall stated that a blaccent is a "fake accent racists and cultural appropriators use when they mimic black people" despite African-Americans not all sharing the same accent.^[2] American activist Bree Newsome has decried blaccents as a form of minstrelsy, particularly due to their users' discarding of it upon wanting to "distance themselves from blackness", while professor Danielle Bainbridge likened it to what she called "vocal blackface".^[2]

Blaccents have been popular in American entertainment since the 1920s according to Bainbridge, who has pointed to the radio series Amos 'n' Andy, which featured white actors playing black characters, and Elvis Presley's success after his 1956 recording of the song "Hound Dog" as early examples of blaccents in American media.^[1] For Vulture, Lauren Michele Jackson also wrote that blaccents "apart from the actual speech patterns of black people" have been used "since America had a theater tradition to call its own".^[5][4]

The first usage of the term blaccent to describe African-American accents in general appeared on forums online in 2003, though it became more commonly associated with non-black imitations of AAVE by the 2010s.^[6] In 2015, rapper Eve used the term "blaccent" to describe the rapping voice of Iggy Azalea, a white woman.^[7] The term was later used frequently in reference to Azalea's rapping style.^[8][9] A 2015 assessment of Azalea's discography by linguists Maeve Eberhardt and Kara Freeman published in the Journal of Sociolinguistics concluded that Azalea's success due to the "overzealous" use of AAVE in her music, including through a lack of copula, was reliant on appropriation and white privilege. Kristen S. He of Vice wrote in 2017 that Azalea had "conditioned us to hear blaccents as both inauthentic and offensive". Bhad Bhabie first rose to fame due to her blaccent on a viral 2016 episode of the talk show Dr. Phil and for her saying the phrase, "Catch me outside, how 'bout that?"^[10]

Awkwafina, an American actress and rapper of Asian descent, came under fire in the late 2010s and early 2020s for her alleged use of a blaccent in her comedy, her music, such as in her 2012 song "My Vag", and in her film roles, particularly her character of Peik Lin in the 2018 film Crazy Rich Asians, who uses aspects of AAVE such as the habitual be.^[1][11] According to Lauren Michele Jackson, Awkwafina's use of a blaccent in Crazy Rich Asians revitalized the use of the term itself in 2018, which had "hardly [been] seen since Iggy Azalea could claim song of the summer".^[5] She issued an apology on her Twitter account in 2022, attributing her "American identity" to her schoolmates as a child, the films and television shows she watched growing up, and her love of hip hop music. Critics and social media users criticized her statement as a non-apology apology for the blaccent.^[2] In 2023, Nardos Haile of Salon wrote that her blaccent was "thick" and "infamous" and jokingly called her a "blaccent queen".^[12]

Other celebrities also courted controversy for using blaccents in the early 2020s, including American singer Olivia Rodrigo, who is of Filipina descent.^[4] The 2020 film Zola stars Riley Keough as Stefani, a stripper who speaks in a blaccent.^[3] In Britney Spears's 2023 memoir The Woman in Me, she described an instance in which her ex-boyfriend, Justin Timberlake, spoke in a blaccent to singer Ginuwine by saying "fo shiz" and calling him his "homie". A clip of Michelle Williams reading the passage for the audiobook version of the memoir went viral online soon after its release and sparked discussions online about the use of blaccents for commercial gain.^[12]