This is so sad Alexa play Despacio all weekend long
He got his start as a DJ so maybe itās him?
Was gonna say I donāt know anyone below line 2, but then saw The Breeders out of nowhere on line 4.
1 Like
I got made fun of for being so old I wouldnāt know The Breeders. When I heard this in a Poker Face episode, I actually thought Natasha Lyonne was doing the vocal.
1 Like
The idea of digital blackface has been around for years.
I dont understand why this is controversial.
-
How people represent black people in jokes and online obviously has the potential to be racist.
-
Stereotypes obviously can be racist and we should look out for how we use them.
-
Memes and gifs rely on stereotypes.
-
People be racist, often unintentionally and in minor ways.
Like. None of these statements are controversial at all here. Itās not a leap at all to go from these 4 to. āMaybe how people use black faces in gifs is problematicā
6 Likes
Right, like you canāt tell me that you donāt see any sort of racism embedded in a bunch of popular memes. Bed intruder, yall seen the leprechaun, etc.
Youāre missing the universal qualifier: a white person using a meme of a black person is necessarily racist.
Otherwise, I agree with you.
Heck yeah, The Breeders rule school. I got to see them play the Black Cat in DC many years ago. I kinda like Bad Bunny too.
1 Like
Maybe Iām getting confused on the levels and double negatives here.
The author explicitly says that that is NOT what they are saying.
You saw that too. Right?
The question for me is around the utility of the term and what the prescription is supposed to be here. Should the use of memes be racially segregated? Do we need to do meme affirmative action to ensure a racially balanced meme pool? To me it is factual that Black Americans frequently behave in a more expressive and demonstrative way than, say, the Japanese, and that this accounts for much of the preponderance of Black memes involving expressive and demonstrative behaviour. This is going to be impossible to disentangle from what the article is talking about so, as Hue said, once you apply all the caveats and so on youāre left with ātry not to express yourself in ways that caricature Black peopleā. Which I already do.
I have clashed with you on this before because what you see in all these things is a sincere desire to help each other be better progressives or whatever. What I see among people who take this sort of thing seriously (and there was a good Carl Beijer tweet to this effect that I unfortunately canāt seem to dig out) is the desire to dominate other people wrapped in the flimsiest possible veil of social justice pretensions. The term ādigital blackfaceā as opposed to a more neutral description of the phenomenon is crafted expressly for this purpose.
The article covers all those caveats.
You seen to be arguing with a strawman that doesnt exist in the article
Whether the term has utility is debatable I agree. Because being right and being effective are two different things. But the term doesnt come out of no where. Its drawing a direct link between minstreling and the use of exaggerated black stereotypes for humour in gifs which seems reasonable on the face of it.
2 Likes
Memes = silly
You almost hesitate to say the word aloud (āshit, now this person knows I am a user of The Internet.ā)
Obviously, thereās a lot to talk about regarding racial tropes but starting the conversation with āyouāre guilty of wearing digital blackfaceā for posting Crying Jordan just isnāt going to bring about a conversation that will increase understanding.
(even ignoring race āaināt no one got time for thatā always made me uncomfortable)
2 Likes
Whether it works is a seperate question from whether itās right
And yeah. Iāve never used the terms except occasionally with mrs rugby. I dont think Iāve ever even called someone out for it.
Its more something I just occasionally think about in my gif selection, and occasionally go for different ones.
Bowling team name secured
Much classy, very leftist.
Youāre going to have your mind blown when you discover black stand-ups.
I guess Iāve crossed over into out of touch asshole territory but why is it that the only solution ever offered to large embedded societal problems is me personally being scolded (usually by fellow oppressors) into having less fun? Like with climate change. 10 mega companies are responsible for 70% of greenhouse emissions or whatever but the only āsolutionā ever talked about is me digging through my rubbish to separate it into 15 different coloured bins and bringing my carrier bags back to Sainsburyās. Which, sure I guess but it does seem to be kind of nibbling at the edges.
Western society is inherently racist so most actions with a racial element end up reinforcing racial hierarchies. Oh so are we going to spend on some form of reparation that will help black people build personal and community wealth and allow them to redress the power imbalance? Are we going to legally mandate more black and brown people in positions of financial and cultural power in society? No. You personally just have to post better IE in a less fun way. Weāre not going to change any of the underlying power structures in any way. You just have to feel bad about yourself enough for culturally appropriating the drake meme and then society is bound to heal.
2 Likes
Thatās a you thing, where you feel scolded when you read these peopleās words, instead of just taking the point for what it is, and remembering that we all participate in racism, instead of feeling personally scolded
2 Likes
Like imagine a person in blackface in the 1920s going, āthat hurts my feelings. I canāt have any fun anymore without being scolded? Itās society thatās racist! Thatās why I canāt listen to you anymore. Thatās why I have no solidarity anymore.ā
When, as none of you besides Rugby read/listened*, the article/person you think scolded you, made those same points about society being racist.
*despite typing a whole novel about it, in the case of ChrisV