Porn star Jacen Zhu took to his Twitter earlier this week to discuss why he quit Noir Male, a porn studio that touts itself as one that “breaks free from stereotypes” and showcases “black men as sensual, sexual and unapologetically fine!”
https://twitter.com/jacen_zhu/status/1112791979534872577
“I stop working for Noir Male when I woke up,” Zhu tweeted on Monday, April 1. “When I saw that everything was a lie and I would like to apologize for having the wolves in suits to sell this lie. Wake up y’all and see it’s not about us.”
https://twitter.com/jacen_zhu/status/1112792693086683136
“I want to be clear I’m not angry, he wrote in a separate tweet, “I just sat back and watched as the aspiration didn’t meet the reality. We are being used to sell a product that doesn’t cater to our community.”
Zhu spoke with Out about his issues surrounding Noir Male on Tuesday, April 2. He said that him leaving was a gradual process and not a one-time thing.
“It’s not standing up to what they initially started out with,” Zhu said. “I’m not going to do any more work with them because to me, it’s getting worse.”
He ran into issues surrounding a scene where he was cast as a parolee who would end up having sex with a parole officer who checked in on him. He got into a verbal spat with Noir Male’s founder Chi Chi LaRue over the ordeal.
“I said, ‘Hey, that’s not cool, that’s going to be problematic,’ and Chi Chi said, ‘Well, when I write these things, I don’t think about that,’” he said. “Putting the pieces together, I realized that they don’t care and I need to separate myself from this.”
“I loved working with Jacen Zhu,” Chi Chi told Out about his departure and alleged parole scene. “He’s one of the best performers I’ve ever worked with.” The 59-year-old didn’t say anything further.
Zhu also tried to work with Noir Male behind the scenes like getting them invested in the black gay community by doing black gay pride events. He wanted to also diversity the way black men men were depicted on scene like them taking the bottom. Not only that, but he wanted more scenes with two black men.
“Other companies made no promises of diversity that was my own personal initiative,” he tweeted.”So if you want to compare apples to oranges by all means waste your time.”
Str8UpGayPorn reported on the statistics regarding Noir Male’s current roster. As of April 1, there are 67 men: 30 of whom are white and 37 of whom are black or mixed race. When the website launched in August 2018, it had 29 models: 16 white and 13 black or mixed race.