Gothic culture is often uniformly linked with whiteness. Mainstream Goth icons, such as Marilyn Mason, Bauhaus, Dracula, and the late Vincent Price, comprise the most revered Goth icons in popular culture. It’s a movement typically associated with the self-absorbed melancholia of 19th century Victorian Europeans, therefore automatically dissociating with what is perceived to be a crucial aspect connected to African Diaspora cultures.
However, the reality is far more complex. Within Gothic appropriation of African and Caribbean macabre aesthetics is the history of Black Diaspora cultures around the world. These anti-Black definitions of Goth not only obscure the history of Gothic aesthetics deriving from Black folk, but also erase the reality that the African Diaspora’s history of enslavement, colonialism, trauma, and search for belonging are inherently Gothic themes.
This article explores the often overlooked presence and influence of African Americans within the goth subculture, challenging the notion that goth is solely a white phenomenon. It delves into the historical connections between African spiritual traditions and gothic aesthetics, and examines how black goths navigate identity, racism, and cultural appropriation within the goth scene.
What's It Like Being Black In Goth Culture
The Roots of Gothic Aesthetics in African Culture
Serpent imagery, a prevalent feature of Gothic themes, is deeply rooted in indigenous African spiritual traditions. Colonizers often viewed snake veneration with extreme distaste, particularly in Haiti, as enslaved people were watched under the eye of French masters. Animal magnetism in early Gothic literature views the snake with fascination, as well as with trepidation; snakes were associated with the grotesque supernatural forces of the natural world in 18th century English Romantic literature.
“Frequently, the appearance of the serpent lends to this Gothic atmosphere an effect achieved by a combination of the ugly and the beautiful,” note researchers Lura and Duilo Padrini. Serpents as symbols of great spiritual power are greatly African in nature, as many indigenous West African peoples considered snakes to be reincarnations of deceased ancestors.
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Mami Wata, a deity revered in West, Central and Southern Africa, and the Americas, is often pictured with a snake wrapped around them.
Mami Wata, a deity revered in West, Central and Southern Africa, and the Americas, is often pictured with a snake wrapped around them.
“In Africa, snakes were viewed differently. Serpent veneration was found throughout much of the continent,” explains Kenaz Filan, in The New Orleans Voodoo Handbook. “The Fon-speaking people of Dahomey honored the great serpent Ayida, who stretched across the sky as a rainbow by day and shimmered among the stars as the Milky Way by night. The Timbuktu of central Malawi paid homage to the sky-dwelling python Chikangombe. The Bantu of central and southern Africa had Monyoha, the great water snake who ensured that the rivers and lakes would never dry up for those who honored him. And during the Middle Passage and the horrors of slavery, this snake veneration was carried to the New World, particularly New Orleans.”
North African Spiritual Symbolism
Gothic culture also appropriates North African spiritual symbolism, most notably with the Egyptian Ankh and the Eye of Ra. The Ankh, representing eternal life, and the eye of Ra, representing destructive forces, are heavily referenced in Gothic literature, particularly pertaining to “occult practices”.
As Britain aimed to colonize Egypt with repressive political policies in the 19th century with the erection of the Suez Canal, white colonial fears and anxieties were expressed in Gothic fiction. Ailise Bulfin attributes the emergence of the Anglo-Egyptian Gothic sub-genre in response to Britain’s colonial aims: “From 1869 when the canal opened, gaining further momentum after the 1882 occupation, numerous tales positing the irruption of vengeful, supernatural, ancient Egyptian forces in civilized, rational, modern England began to appear…the typical plot turns upon modern English trespass into an ancient Egyptian tomb, the misappropriation of a mummy or its artifacts back to England, and the unleashing of a curse which sees an ancient supernatural invader exacting revenge in the heart of the imperial metropolis.” The staples of Ankhs and the Eye of Ra in Goth wardrobe are attributed to this colonial era in Africa.
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Skulls and Ancestral Veneration
Skulls, another prominent feature of Goth culture, borrow from African spiritual traditions. Gothic wedding cakes are often decorated with skulls or skeletons, detailed with glitter and jewels; throughout the Americas, indigenous peoples employed the spiritual utilization of skulls. Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) in Mexico celebrates deceased spirits with the decoration of sugar skulls, and manipulation skulls heads as puppets in parades.
Africans also derived sacred meaning from skulls. “Among many African tribes it is common to preserve bones, and especially skulls, of ancestors as relics of the dead. These were supposed to be the abode, temporal or permanent, of the departed soul, and were tended and guarded with all the reverence and filial piety the transition to worship would be natural and easy,” author James MacDonald writes. Families were expected to care for the remainder of the relics, relying on priests to care for the skulls of their loved ones.
Color Symbolism: Black and Gray
In addition to skulls, color historically plays an intriguing role in Goth culture. Black is a color associated with the morbid, shadow aspects of life that are hidden from public consciousness. Gray, another, prominent Gothic color, is connected to Afro-Caribbean spirituality.
Gris Gris bags were a part of working conjure in order to achieve a specific result; these amulets were in heavy usage in New Orleans as well before the creation of Vodou dolls. “Gray lies somewhere between black and silver. The gris gris (gray gray) of vodoun (voodoo) blends herbs, seeds, hair, and other elements into an amulet that is worn in order to work magic spells. Gray is the institutionally drab dress Wednesday Addams prefers, an outfit sought after by goth girls,” continues Goth writer Kilpatrick. “Gray is the color of the shadow, the part of the soul the ancients believed was detachable. It is the twilight and the predawn, when the birds do not yet sing, and the squirrels sit stunned in the trees. The time when the spirits can slip unseen between worlds.”
Navigating Identity and Racism in the Goth Scene
Despite the historical connections between African culture and gothic aesthetics, black goths often face challenges within the subculture. Some encounter racism, while others feel pressure to conform to white beauty standards. The rise of the prefix “afro” in alternative scenes has generated an accessible, digital library of inspiration for young Black alt kids all over the world.
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Experiences of Black Goths
Many black goths share similar experiences, regardless of their location. They dress the same, enjoy the same music, and engage in similar activities as their white, Japanese, or Mexican counterparts. However, being a black goth in America comes with its unique set of challenges, primarily due to the pervasive racial dynamics in the country.
One of the main issues black goths face is the perception that certain activities are exclusive to white people. This can lead to feelings of isolation and exclusion, as if they are not fully accepted within the goth community. There is this idea that there are these categories of activities that White people do and Black people do, and that Black people don’t do this. They don’t go camping, and they don’t go swimming, and they don’t go to Burning Man or steampunk fairs. And I was like, I don’t know if that’s actually true.
The Pressure to Conform
Black goths often grapple with the pressure to conform to white beauty standards, particularly when it comes to skin tone and hair. The goth aesthetic often emphasizes pale skin, which can create a sense of exclusion for black individuals. I’d look at the photos of my white friends with their vampiric pale skin, and I will admit that I was sometimes envious at how effortlessly they could present as goth.
The Gothic as a Reflection of American Anxieties
The gothic in literature, music, film, and art has always been a means to illuminate cultural anxieties. It gives a voice to our collective fears, and America, a country stolen through genocide and built by slave labour, is by its very nature predisposed to anxiety. It’s the fear of having gotten away with murder for 400 years and waiting for the jig to be up. It’s the multitudes of ghosts from chattel slavery, and it’s various oppressive machinations since. It’s in the rituals of public mourning for the victims of stand your ground laws and deadly force.
The gothic metabolizes trauma and turns it into something useful, even beautiful, something that black people in America have had to do for centuries. Listen to Billie Holiday sing “Strange Fruit” or read Toni Morrison’s Beloved, and you’ll see what I mean. You’ll see it the next time you pass a painting of a young black man in memoriam on the side of a building. You saw it in Jordan Peele’s Get Out and the final scene of George A.
The Importance of Embracing Blackness in Goth Culture
The very existence of what is Gothic is predicated upon the African Diaspora. An embrace of Goth culture is to deeper understand the complexities of Blackness in its relationship to colonialism, identity, and ancient ancestral wisdom. If black goths are “weirder” than white goths, it is because others have attempted to restrict the immeasurable, to define what it means to be black.
Both goth and blackness have their foundation in transgression, an intimacy with death, the aesthetics of mourning, and a keen awareness of the darker side of human nature.
Black Goth Fashion
Key Figures and Cultural Expressions
Several figures and cultural expressions highlight the presence and influence of African Americans in the goth subculture:
- Screamin’ Jay Hawkins: America’s first “shock rocker,” laying the foundation for what would later be known as Gothic music in the United States.
- M. Lamar: A contemporary artist who embodies the black goth aesthetic.
- Black Sheep Goths, Darque & Lovely, DarkSKIN: Tumblr pages dedicated to black people who identify with a darker aesthetic.
The Goth subculture of the 1980s drew inspiration from a variety of sources. Some of them were modern or contemporary, others were centuries-old or ancient. Michael Bibby and Lauren M. E. Goodlad liken the subculture to a bricolage. Among the music-subcultures that influenced it were punk, new wave, and glam. But it also drew inspiration from B-movies, Gothic literature, horror films, vampire cults and traditional mythology.
Influential Writers and Artists
Writers that have had a significant influence on the movement also represent a diverse canon. They include Ann Radcliffe (1764‒1823), John William Polidori (1795‒1821), Edgar Allan Poe (1809‒1849), Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873), Bram Stoker (1847‒1912), Oscar Wilde (1854‒1900), H. P. Lovecraft (1890‒1937), Anne Rice (1941‒2021), William Gibson (1948‒), Ian McEwan (1948‒), Storm Constantine (1956‒2021), and Poppy Z.
Contemporary Graphic Artists
Visual contemporary graphic artists with this aesthetic include Gerald Brom, Dave McKean, and Trevor Brown as well as illustrators Edward Gorey, Charles Addams, Lorin Morgan-Richards, and James O'Barr.
Goth Fashion and Style
Gothic fashion is marked by conspicuously dark, antiquated and homogeneous features. It is stereotyped as eerie, mysterious, complex and exotic. A dark, sometimes morbid fashion and style of dress, typical gothic fashion includes colored black hair and black period-styled clothing. Both male and female goths wear dark eyeliner and dark fingernail polish, most especially black.
In contrast to the LARP-based Victorian and Elizabethan pomposity of the 2000s, the more Romantic side of 1980s trad-goth-mainly represented by women-was characterized by new wave/post-punk-oriented hairstyles (both long and short, partly shaved and teased) and street-compliant clothing, including black frill blouses, midi dresses or tea-length skirts, and floral lace tights, Dr. Martens, spike heels (pumps), and pointed toe buckle boots (winklepickers), sometimes supplemented with accessories such as bracelets, chokers and bib necklaces.
Goth Subculture and Social Media
The last years, through social media, goths are able to meet people with similar interests, learn from each other, and finally, to take part in the scene. These activities on social media are the manifestation of the same practices which are taking place in goth clubs. This is not a new phenomenon since before the rise of social media on-line forums had the same function for goths.
Observers have raised the issue of to what degree individuals are truly members of the goth subculture. The BBC described academic research that indicated that goths are "refined and sensitive, keen on poetry and books, not big on drugs or anti-social behaviour".
Teens often stay in the subculture "into their adult life", and they are likely to become well-educated and enter professions such as medicine or law. The subculture carries on appealing to teenagers who are looking for meaning and for identity.
