The diaspora's infatuation with interracial couples
Nikki Thot and Jamie Perkins' Youtube drama explained with some critical race theory.
When popular family vlogger Jamie Perkins released his latest video, Why I Left Nicki, I was shocked. He published the video several years after his split from Nikki Thot in 2019, and I hadn’t checked for any of his content since then. Nikki Thot is a Sudanese-Australian model and content creator. She is also the sister of supermodel Duckie Thot.
Jamie “exposing” more details of their failed marriage was surprising since both kept relatively quiet after the breakup. Other than a few shady likes and quotes by Nikki on social media, subscribers had nothing but rumors to speculate on. In the years after, Jamie pushed forward with his exploitative family vlogging content since no one checked for him without Nikki or their two young daughters. Nikki withdrew from heavy content creating other than sponsorships and soft launching her new(and Black!) boyfriend this year.
In the hour-long video, Jamie shared his truths about the relationship and his frustrations with Nikki. Along with sharing he was now an Uber driver due to his YouTube funds running out, he blamed Nikki for his financial demise and the marriage. Alleging Nikki was physically abusive, cheated on him, and made it much harder to co-parent their daughters. I’m waiting on Nikki’s response video to make my full judgement on this specific matter.
The interracial kink
“Often White followers perceive the lives of interracial couples as speaking to a “post-racial point in time … where racism has been overcome,” a false notion that draws advertisers who seek to benefit by proximity without actually taking action to solve racial inequities, she said. The presence of mixed-race children can serve to underscore this post-racial narrative that puts White consumers at ease.”
The lucrative, complicated world of TikTok’s interracial couples, The Washington Post (July, 2022)
I discovered Thot and Perkins’ channel through another popular interracial couple, Patricia Bright and her husband Mike. I was with enamored with Nikki’s beauty, and immediately bored with Jamie’s presence.
Embarrassingly, I watched a lot of interracial dating content then. Mostly Black women with their white male partners, ignoring my then Anti-Blackness for Black men and the underlying exotification of these couples. I even dated a white dude for years, an experience that was a catalyst for my current dating preferences. I strictly(mostly) date only Black men, and would like to end up with a Black partner.
On TikTok, these interracial couples are thriving. I scroll right past them. In the myth of a post-racial world, viewers often project their fantasies and biases onto these couples. And these couples, aware of the obvious draw to their content are monetizing this heavily racialized love.
Who knows what happened between Nikki and Jamie, but was our earlier investment in the couple ever sincere?