Interracial porn – generally taken to mean performances between white women and black men – is historically a divisive subgenre. Such scenes have a massive audience and frequently appear at the top of ‘most searched’ lists.
Despite the popularity of interracial porn, Black female performers report that they receive less compensation than Black men or white women. This is attributed to the supposed lack of demand for “Black-on-Black” clips or, indeed, for any with Black actresses.
Money allocated to so-called “ethnic” scenes tends to be on the low side, and there are frequently issues that stem from white writers attempting to write dialogue and interactions for Black performers.
In addition, cultural sensitivity professionals assert that such scenes perpetuate racial stereotypes that are inimical to Black people, and would never see the light of day in any other entertainment industry. All of these factors lead many to conclude that there is no desire to see performances from Black actresses, and there Black-on-Black scenes are not in demand.
It’s possible, however, that the advent of independently created adult content could present an answer to some of the issues faced by female performers of color. Independently created content may offer a more efficient bellwether for consumer desires – and could stand in stark contrast to dated perceptions of what viewers want to see.
The porn industry is far more accessible nowadays than in the past; even performers who lack funds and don’t have much technical filmmaking ability are now able to film, edit and release their own content without third-party assistance.
This means that performers who major studios fail to appreciate are still able to find their own niche without having to dilute their brand or their performances to sate the demands of big studios. It’s also possible for independent studios to decide upon their own scripts and content without being a slave to what others perceive as commercially viable.
The independent creator is also assisted immensely by the use of social media. Through the use of such tools as Facebook and Twitter, performers and fans are able to directly forge a more durable connection, and fans are able to connect with one another as well as the performers themselves. The models are also to get direct feedback from those who appreciate their work, and can then create the kind of content that such users want to see.
Independent content creators and performers like Natalie Luxxurious and Jenni Knight have plenty to say about their experiences in putting out independent content, as well as whether or not their fans’ opinions and feedbacks were a factor in determining the direction of future content.
Knight, a Black performer and content creator hailing from Virginia, goes by the sobriquet “The Queen Of Dirty Talk” and asserts that the majority of those who watch her content are white men. Knight has also looked at the analytics for her content and found that her interracial output (meaning, for her, performing with a white man) was far more popular than her Black-on-Black productions.
Luxxurious, a fetish specialist who has won multiple awards for her fetish work and comes from Florida, says that she has worked with many more white performers than performers of color simply because they are much more numerous.
However, she asserts that her circle is diverse and includes people of varying ethnicities and cultural backgrounds. Ultimately, Luxxurious states that she works with whomever she is comfortable with. She expresses a wish to work with more performers of color, but doesn’t believe that her fans have an opinion on this one way or another.
The opinions of independent creators like Knight and Luxxurious do certainly point to a willingness for changing the mainstream narrative in pornography. There is still a dearth of voices contributing to the conversation, but independent content creation is a light in the dark, and can act as a bellwether for determining what viewers actually want to see in their pornography.
