Should Black Brits Play African Americans? Stop Asking

Diaspora wars — those recurring fights over identity and ownership among the global Black community — are never pretty, and they’re rarely necessary. But the latest battle feels particularly wasteful.

American comedian Druski reignited a familiar debate last week when he released a skit satirizing Hollywood for casting Black British actors in stereotypical African American parts. In it, Druski plays an English thespian who shifts between the roles of an enslaved American and a modern-day gangster, only to jarringly return to a British accent moments after a director yells, “cut.”