During a year in which it seems that practically everything is racist, it should be no surprise that social justice warriors are now pointing out the “racism” of a British pop band from the 1990s, an issue they apparently forgot to be offended by 20 years ago.
On the 20th anniversary of the release of their first single, “Wannabe,” three of the Spice Girls announced that they’d be returning to the music scene as “GEM.” While most millennial women were excited to see their favorite girl band back in action, some people took to Twitter to convince Melanie Brown, aka Scary Spice — who also happens to be the only black member of the group — to change her nickname, calling it racist.
“We’re not racist–we just decided to call the black one ‘Scary Spice’.” -the 90s
— Alex B (@GirlAlexB) March 22, 2016
Black people are always DEEMED as scary & for the only black girl in the group to be called scary spice ??? THATS SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
— MOVING STRANGER (@MessiahMARIAH) July 10, 2016
However, Brown herself seemed to enjoy the name, with no reports of her ever complaining that it was racist. And she certainly seemed to have fun playing it up by wearing “scary” costumes and making “scary” faces in photos.
“I’m still Scary Spice. It was because I was very opinionated and people perceive that as being a bit scary,” Brown recently told The Sun. “But these days women who have opinions speak up — they know what they want. You don’t want a wallflower that bends in the wind and follows everyone else.”
According to HeatStreet, each of the Spice Girls’ nicknames — Ginger Spice, Posh Spice, Baby Spice, Sporty Spice, and Scary Spice — was coined by Top of the Pops magazine. Then editor Peter Lorraine recalled that they came up with the name Scary Spice when Brown tried to hijack a photo shoot. He recalled everyone in the room at the time laughing and embracing the name.
“But apparently, it’s not up to this black woman herself to decide what she should be comfortable being called as a black woman,” said National Review reporter Katherine Timpf. “Many people — including, of course, many ‘woke’ white people — came out on Twitter suggesting that they know better. Welp, someone had better tell her. After all, that’s much less offensive than allowing her to decide these things for herself.”
