For those who might have forgotten based on an ever-darkening spray tan, Ariana Grande is white. It’s easy to overlook this fact the darker her skin becomes, the more melanin she seems to “inject.” But yes, the truth is, she is blanca. And a song such as “Just Like Magic” (which really ought to have been the second single choice from Positions over “34+35”) rather makes you hyper-aware of that seemingly swept under the rug reality.
Filled with mumbo-jumbo about how easy it is to “conjure” the things you want with nothing more than a positive attitude and the “good vibes” the universe will radiate back in response, Grande seems to be blithely unaware that part of her belief in this hooey stems from the privilege of being white. Because, sure, it’s easy to say, “Wake up in my bed, I just wanna have a good day/Think it in my head, then it happens how it should, ayy” when you have a skin tone that makes you anathema to police harassment. But it’s also a skin tone just ethnically ambiguous enough to reap the benefits of being white, Latina and/or Black (her descent is, by the way, Italian). To the point of the latter classification, Grande has been accused of “blackfishing” and adopting a “blaccent” many times before, with cries of appropriation being especially loud when she released the song (and its accompanying video), “7 rings.”
Aware of the benefits of capitalizing on the “trend” of “Black music” (a.k.a. trap and hip hop), Grande has played the “urban” card like it’s her favorite hand. Except when it’s more suitable to veer toward the side of whiteness for the sake of the privilege it grants (often revealed when she opts for a lighter shade to appear on the cover of a magazine like Vogue). Plus, leaning into the whole “I’m so witchy” motif is a decided white girl move, with Grande revealing as much when she sings, “Middle finger to my thumb and then I snap it/Just like magic/I’m attractive/I get everything I want ’cause I attract it.” Uh, that’s not called “manifesting,” or even “attracting,” that’s called being a rich white girl (or just a plain white girl who isn’t a total Monet). But whatever floats Grande’s witch wannabe boat (Lana Del Rey, too, has had her fair share of attempts at promoting a “coven”-inspired platform, and look where that’s gotten her: she’s manifested herself right into a Karen).
While the song is definitely more single-worthy than “34+35,” Grande still takes some rather unpleasant liberties with her lyrical choices. This includes, “I got a team meeting, then a meditation at like 1:30/Then I ride to the studio listening to some shit I wrote” and “Read a fuckin’ book, I be tryna stay connected.” Here, too, the “blaccent” charge remains accurate, while, at the same time, Grande is expressing sentiments unique to the experience of white privilege, with those in the Caucasian category genuinely believing that it’s natural for things to come this effortlessly with the simple implementation of a so-called “attitude adjustment.”
So it is that Grande continues, “Good karma, my aesthetic/Keep my conscience clear, that’s why I’m so magnetic/Manifest it/I finessed it/Take my pen and write some love letters to Heaven.” Okay then, you do that. One is sure you have a direct line to God thanks to being blanca…but also “Black” (when the “tanning” purpose suits a particular context). Yes, “just like magic,” Ariana is any skin tone she wants to be. The worst kind of chameleon who can mold to any color necessary to “attract” not just the “good karma” she’s referencing in the song, but the audience she wants to appeal to as well. Again, that isn’t really “magic,” so much as a rampant disregard for the appropriation she enjoys (hence the nickname Appropriana). And what is appropriation if not the whitest privilege of them all?
