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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Everything Else
CrystalRaindrops — 3 years ago(March 28, 2023 07:20 AM)
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Maybe you shared that viral video of Kimberly “Sweet Brown” Wilkins telling a reporter after narrowly escaping an apartment fire, “Ain’t nobody got time for that!”
Perhaps you posted that meme of supermodel Tyra Banks exploding in anger on “America’s Next Top Model” (“I was rooting for you! We were all rooting for you!”). Or maybe you’ve simply posted popular GIFs, such as the one of NBA great Michael Jordan crying, or of drag queen RuPaul declaring, “Guuuurl…”
If you’re Black and you’ve shared such images online, you get a pass. But if you’re White, you may have inadvertently perpetuated one of the most insidious forms of contemporary racism.
You may be wearing “digital blackface.”
Digital blackface is a practice where White people co-opt online expressions of Black imagery, slang, catchphrases or culture to convey comic relief or express emotions.
Digital blackface involves White people play-acting at being Black, says Lauren Michele Jackson, an author and cultural critic, in an essay for Teen Vogue. Jackson says the Internet thrives on White people laughing at exaggerated displays of Blackness, reflecting a tendency among some to see “Black people as walking hyperbole.”
But critics say digital blackface is wrong because it’s a modern-day repackaging of minstrel shows, a racist form of entertainment popular in the 19th century. That’s when White actors, faces darkened with burnt cork, entertained audiences by playing Black characters as bumbling, happy-go-lucky simpletons.
This guidance might help: If a White person shares an image online that perpetuates stereotypes of Black people as loud, dumb, hyperviolent or hypersexual, they’ve entered digital blackface territory.
And yet even with that definition, it’s hard to figure out exactly what is and isn’t digital blackface.
This is the challenge that Elizabeth Halford faces.
Halford, a brand designer, wrote an apologetic essay in 2020 about how she made a meme out of Wilkins’ “Ain’t nobody got time for that” catchphrase and sent someone a GIF of the singer Beyonce repeating, “I’m not bossy, I’m the boss.”
“I’ve engaged in digital blackface,” Halford wrote.” I’ve laughed at people of color on the news facing horrifying crime and disaster and loss. I’ve appropriated Black trauma as punchlines and peeled their faces off to put on my own and say what I can’t say, to make you laugh, or just because it went viral.”
Halford tells CNN she was bothered that she overlooked the context of Sweet Brown’s interview. The woman had just experienced a tragedy.
“I guess we find it funny, the way (Black) people tell their story with so much flair,” she says. “but at the end of the day, one woman’s apartment building burned down while she was in bed.”
But Halford says that doesn’t mean she won’t use any more GIFs of Black people. She doesn’t object to the Beyonce “I’m the boss” meme because she thinks it empowers women. She says that as long as a meme or GIF “is empowering and not demeaning” she feels free to use it.
Besides, Halford says, if she refrains from using any Black memes, she runs into another problem:
“Those are the most effective, because White people are so boring,” she says.
Jackson, in her Vogue essay, acknowledges it can be hard to know where to draw the line.
“Now, I’m not suggesting that white and nonblack people refrain from ever circulating a black person’s image for amusement or otherwise…” she writes. “There’s no prescriptive or proscriptive step-by-step rulebook to follow, nobody’s coming to take GIFs away.”
Jackson writes:
“If you find yourself always reaching for a black face to release your inner sass monster, maybe consider going the extra country mile and pick this nice Taylor Swift GIF instead.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/26/us/digital-blackface-social-media-explainer-blake-cec/index.html -
CrystalRaindrops — 3 years ago(March 28, 2023 08:48 PM)
Of course not. I don't think 99% of the world agrees with this. If it hadn't been an article on CNN, I would think it was satire.
Just because I enjoy looking at Biden's booty doesn't mean I'm a "super big liberal." And just because I post something doesn't mean I agree with it or like it. I post a lot of things I don't agree with and things I don't even have an opinion about, as long as it's something I think people will find interesting. -
WarrenPeace — 3 years ago(March 28, 2023 09:41 PM)
I like it how you post things controversial etc but then tend to stay out of offering an opinion and arguments when others bring it up if they agree or disagree with it.
Even though you may not be neutral on the subject you make it look like you are and I like that.
"Please vote to preserve the unique character of Warren…" - Robert Duvall -
CrystalRaindrops — 3 years ago(March 28, 2023 10:20 PM)
Thanks! Sometimes I offer my opinion, but other times I'm just curious about other people's opinions.
And then there are certain debates I just stay out of (even if I do have an opinion on one side of the issue), because they're repetitive and go nowhere. Sometimes I start to get into a debate and I end up quickly losing interest. -
WarrenPeace — 3 years ago(March 29, 2023 01:59 AM)
Yeah, everyone will always come in with a stubborn mindset.
I have never once ever seen anyone in a debate go, "You know. I think you are right after all. I will change my position on this and agree with you."
Instead it becomes this bickering back and forth that never goes anywhere.
I dunno what drives it but there is something that makes one want to share their viewpoint, myself included, then get into arguments should anyone disagree.
Some knowingly do this to get a rise from others just to troll.
"Please vote to preserve the unique character of Warren…" - Robert Duvall