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We Need to Talk About Digital Blackface in Reaction GIFs

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B

bigpumbaa

Member
And hey.

If you're feeling some sort of way about this, it doesn't mean you're racist OR alarmist.

It's just something to consider as we venture forth into this ever newer and newer digital culture thing.

The Internet isn't some vacuum, it exists in an overall white supremacist/misogynist culture.

Don't mean that as a personal attack either - it's just look at the Forbes 100 CEOs list, or pay disparity, or hell - your grandparents history (who had rights and who didn't).

It wasn't that long ago and we still got a lot of sickness to heal in this motherfucker - so I ask - if you're triggered by this in EITHER direction just look within to your own complicity and/or ask yourself how it might feel to be the other side.
 
WiseguyMVP

WiseguyMVP

Member
RDreamer said:
Clicked kind of expecting to laugh off the article, but I read it and it's pretty spot on.



This sort of thing is probably the worst of the gifs people use. I feel like its spread and use is basically "Look how funny and hysterical black people are! LOL"




This sort of stuff, too, is pretty bad. The celebrity and TV show gifs are just the tip of the iceberg and for the most part are probably pretty harmless. Stuff like this, though is where that line is definitely crossed into using black people for our own amusement.
Click to expand...


And I agree when people using it in the wrong context that it definitely be seen as making fun of a culture or making fun of that person.

But to take the counter on that, I like this person and I liked the interview that I saw with her so if I posted it maybe I'm trying to express myself just the way she is even though I'm not just like her. The emotions and expressions that she had are conveying my message the way I want to express myself online. I don't think there's anything wrong with it as long as you're coming from a good place. Problem is many people are not coming from a good place and are f****** it up for the cool people that just want to have a good time, laugh, express themselves in a fun way and don't have mal-intent. I feel sometimes everything is so serious nowadays and we can't laugh at ourselves when looking at it in the right context.

Ain't nobody got time for that!
 
H

hey_monkey

Banned
Infinite said:
Definitely.


I didn't dismiss this as white wokeness. Her perspective is not tied that. I'm just saying a good editor would have helped her fleshed out this idea a lot more, probably one NOT from a publication that just wants to simply appear "woke".
Click to expand...
Re the first: https://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatest...ation-lollipop?utm_term=.ckKMOvr2V#.jx2zGERP3

Bailey Poland's book Haters also goes into good detail.

Re the second: it's an op/ed. They are often somewhat limited. The author is an academic and I would bet she has or is working on this and she does mention other researchers who probably have.
 
C

Count Dookkake

Member
Although I kind of expected to see her referenced in the article, it's still always a treat to see my first gf make waves. You rock, Mikki.
 
mckmas8808

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Snarky(HEART) said:
See you know this is a perfect example of what we're talking about.

There's a lot of problematic implications with this gif as hilarious as it is and I've shared it plenty too

This is a woman who I'm pretty sure her house burned down or something like that and people think she's funny because of the way she talks
Click to expand...

But didn't this lady find out that a song was made about her and she laughed and liked it?
 
NOLA_Gaffer

NOLA_Gaffer

Banned
Snarky(HEART) said:
And who can forget HIDE YO KIDS HIDE YO WIFE.

A catchy song parody made from a viral video of a black man warning his neighborhood about a rapist.

Funny because "lol black people talk funny"
Click to expand...

I never really saw that as "Black People Talk Funny" and more of "Antoine Dodson is quite the character."

It's not really a race thing and more of an individual thing.
 
M

MistakenMobius

Member
bigpumbaa said:
The Internet isn't some vacuum, it exists in an overall white supremacist/misogynist culture.

Don't mean that as a personal attack either - it's just look at the Forbes 100 CEOs list, or pay disparity, or hell - your grandparents history (who had rights and who didn't).
Click to expand...
Biggest online country are China then India.
Once again American bringing back everything to USA USA USA.
 
H

hey_monkey

Banned
mckmas8808 said:
But didn't this lady find out that a song was made about her and she laughed and liked it?
Click to expand...
I'm not sure that really matters? Things can be layered, y'know? There are definitely people who use that gif in the stereotypical "lol black women" way. And that's what the article is getting at, I think. Sometimes it's fine. There's no hard line.
 
WiseguyMVP

WiseguyMVP

Member
NOLA_Gaffer said:
I never really saw that as "Black People Talk Funny" and more of "Antoine Dodson is quite the character."

It's not really a race thing and more of an individual thing.
Click to expand...

Right, if I saw Antoine Dodson on the street and we started talking we'd probably have a good time bullshiting and get along fine. Problem is there's a lot of dumb m************ out here that don't know how to treat people and have never been around people that are different than them and so everything they see that's different is a f****** hilarious meme or whatever for their personal amusement. I'd rather laugh with people than laugh at them, that's the difference.
 
G

Griss

Member
We're getting close, guys. Soon we will have reached peak Poe's law, and we can all celebrate the achievement together.
 
S

Snarky(HEART)

Banned
-Ddiun.gif


This one will never not be good though
 
C

CraigerGamer

Member
Trojita said:
How can you not see he was talking about three very specific exaggerated ideals in society. Porn revolves around exaggeration. Bikini models have to maintain a very unhealthy eating disorder to stay the way photographers want. Movie characters are exaggerated fictional characters played by actresses that are touched up or photoshopped. He even afterwards says that girls shouldn't think they have to fit in a certain mold. That includes all women.
Click to expand...

I guess I do not understand the need to marginalize someone that obviously is an ally who just needs to be educated on their own blind spots to more effectively communicate a very positive message. Instead, they have bullied both the messenger and the subject, for what?
 
B

Bad_Boy

time to take my meds
Aizo said:
See how different your reaction is to people coming in and saying "Fuck this," or "People get outraged at everything. It's like the boy who cried wolf."

It's one thing to disagree and another to completely shut down how someone else is feeling.
Click to expand...
I mean im never one to say you shouldnt be triggered or offended. But i really have no idea whats going on.

I never noticed this trend i guess. I see it more as individual characters being made into reaction gifs. Actually i think i see more white reaction gifs on the gaming side. I never made a racial connection.
 
Trojita

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
CraigerGamer said:
I guess I do not understand the need to marginalize someone that obviously is an ally who just needs to be educated on their own blind spots to more effectively communicate a very positive message. Instead, they have bullied both the messenger and the subject, for what?
Click to expand...
Some kind of faux superiority?
 
I

Infinite

Member
hey_monkey said:
Re the first: https://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatest...ation-lollipop?utm_term=.ckKMOvr2V#.jx2zGERP3

Bailey Poland's book Haters also goes into good detail.

Re the second: it's an op/ed. They are often somewhat limited. The author is an academic and I would bet she has or is working on this and she does mention other researchers who probably have.
Click to expand...
Thank you, friend.

@second point: that's completely fair. I guess where I'm stuck at with this article is I agree with everything she's specifically about how black people are viewed and there's research to substantiate that. I agree on the points she made about people literally impersonating black people online and wish she went into that a lot more. The part where I'm stuck is whether or not a non-black person sharing a "reaction gif" that features a black person is apart of this digital blackface phenomenon. But yeah the fact that it's an op ed kinda limits what she can write.
 
E

excelsiorlef

Member
Trojita said:
You want posters to take your issues seriously and agree with the article in the OP, yet you can't even see what a collective problem is when a person is retweeting with laughter a proponent to shame someone publicly. And the person she was retweeting and supporting then goes on to say he gets a disease. It's the same shit on a different coin.
Click to expand...

I am impressed that you've managed to create a side argument about how mean it is to laugh at some random white guy's writing (and please remember they are laughing at what he wrote... and we've already tackled why some might laugh or in my case criticize it)

I mean Jones is literally a blip in the article but because her twitter got posted here (solely because someone wanted to know if she was real) you decided to raise (in a thread where this woman again amounts to a single reference in the article) that she's a hypocrite on her position of cyber bullying because she laughed at an image of some white dude's instagram writing. I mean you understand she gets direct threats and shit and this is not a direct anything right?

Btw: https://www.buzzfeed.com/morganmurr...tive-wife-post?utm_term=.ycRe9ggee#.fhPAB22AA

Dude is an author writer and public figure and this is how the original tweeter found the story, meaning by your logic anyone really shitting on the author here is cyber bullying her.

The reason the original tweeter was crass (not how I would do it, but it's also not like there's a sincere wish of harm here it was more about the culture... but yes it's stupid and shouldn't be said, nor should it be said here about this author which fortunately has not happened) is she was annoyed that people were fawning over him when you know full well that women of his wife's size would be getting harassment for talking about body positivity (and probably wouldn't do it with the tired "Real Woman" ) but your attempt to elevate all this to cyber bullying and equivilate it with the cyber harassment Jones and other out spoken black women face is pretty disingenuous.

That said I must admire your attempt to tie all this into my credibility here. It's an impressive misdirection.

I mean you've essentially hinged my credibility in defending an article written by a black woman about how white culture deals with black folk (and frequently other black women) on how willing I am to what dismiss (get mad at?) another black woman because she retweeted a white woman saying something mean about a white man.

in conclusion: the original tweet was shitty, the text was worth laughing about, Jones retweeting doesn't make her a hypocrite and none of this has anything to do with the topic at hand.
 
1

1.21Gigawatts

Banned
excelsiorlef said:
Well that's a new one...

Never heard yeah but Ann Coulter as a means of trying to stop a discussion
Click to expand...

Not trying to stop your discussion. I'm just thinking that this is hurting your cause when you can't even bring the most basic points about racism across.
You need to learn how to walk before you can run.
I can promise you, the alt right will use articles like this against you, I can already see the Tweets by the usual suspects, for example Paul Joseph Watson.
And you might call them fringe, but you know what, a majority of Americans will take their side. They fucking elected a president. This is not a group you can ignore and refuse to debate.
This shit has already been normalized and half the country wouldn't consider anyone a Nazi/Racist unless they are wearing swastikas on their arms or burn cross in some Mississippi yard. And even then they still defend their right to free speech, while they are totally fine with BLM activists being locked up or gunned down on the spot.
This is where you have to start, not with "digital blackface" and culturally appropriating reaction gifs.
If you are willing to die on that hill, go ahead, but don't act surprised if we end up with another 4 years of Trump.
 
E

Ekai

Member
I've talked to a lot of women of color who feel like they're being appropriated by some specific communities who use gifs that feature them heavily.
 
E

excelsiorlef

Member
1.21Gigawatts said:
Not trying to stop your discussion. I'm just thinking that this is hurting your cause when you can't even bring the most basic points about racism across.
You need to learn how to walk before you can run.
I can promise you, the alt right will use articles like this against you, I can already see the Tweets by the usual suspects, for example Paul Joseph Watson.
And you might call them fringe, but you know what, a majority of Americans will take their side. They fucking elected a president. This is not a group you can ignore and refuse to debate.
This shit has already been normalized and half the country wouldn't consider anyone a Nazi/Racist unless they are wearing swastikas on their arms or burn cross in some Mississippi yard. And even then they still defend their right to free speech, while they are totally fine with BLM activists being locked up or gunned down on the spot.
This is where you have to start, not with "digital blackface" and culturally appropriating reaction gifs.
If you are willing to die on that hill, go ahead, but don't act surprised if we end up with another 4 years of Trump.
Click to expand...

If black folk waited until people like Coulter (and her numerous predecessors) were fixed there'd have been no civil rights movement.

And now you're not trying to shut down conversation... but you just think this not stopping this conversation means 4 more years of Trump. Glorious.

I don't make it a habit of letting racists dictate what I care about or talk about or support.
 
M

MikeBreezy92

Member
lifeexpectancy said:
It's an interesting premise, although I feel like it falls into the same trap a lot of such discussions have -- the assumption that there is a singular "black" identity. You cannot suppose that any form of internet expression using images/memes involving people of high melanin content might be co-opting "black" identity without first making a pretty big assumption yourself about what that "black" identity is.

I've never in my life met two consecutive black people that were even remotely 'cut from the same cloth'. Everything from their musical interests to their taste in cars, clothing, and food as been as varied in my experience as that of any other race or national origin. To assign one identity to them as a whole and then try to build some sort of high-minded intellectual discourse over how we may or may not be using their identity/culture as a disparagement seems absurd just on its initial premise.

Now if someone is reposting ACTUAL blackface or has a pattern of only using black imagery andnonly in conjunction with emotional extremes, then by all means call them out on it. But asking the average user to self-censor for fear of being labelled said type of person just seems to me to be looking for a tempest in a teapot, sort o speak.
Click to expand...

There actually is. That's why Black Twitter is a thing.
 
S

Snowybreak

Member
Oh, OK, totally makes sense. I guess the concept of trying to win an argument by claiming you're something that you aren't has always just made me feel weird. Also I don't use reaction GIFs all that much, too much work.
 
mckmas8808

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Snarky(HEART) said:
Okay good points.

It's still shaky idk
Click to expand...

I feel you though. The thing that has helped me with this kind of stuff is honestly trying to embrace my blackness and not to run away from it. Are their some people within our community that to some degree if we are honest kinda embarsses us in front of company (aka white people)? Yes. Andre Dodson can be one of those people.

But instead I've learned to embrace Dodson and that "aintnobodygottimefordat.gif" lady as characters like that other person said and just laugh. I literally have cousins and Aunts in my family that are 100% like those two people and I always laugh and have fun with them. I love them as family, so why be ashamed when white people use them as a response to something on the internet?

And I'm also going to big-up my peoples when we succeed in life and do great things too. Nobody will make me believe that we are only Andre Dodson, because I know we have big time players within our "race" too from Lebron and Michael Eric Dyson, to Charlarmange Tha God, Neil DeGrase Tyson, and the man in my Avi.
 
1

1.21Gigawatts

Banned
excelsiorlef said:
If black folk waited until people like Coulter (and her numerous predecessors) were fixed there'd have been no civil rights movement.

And now you're not trying to shut down conversation... but you just think this not stopping this conversation means 4 more years of Trump. Glorious.

I don't make it a habit of letting racists dictate what I care about or talk about or support.
Click to expand...


You are giving them ammunition...
What do you think scared away the people who voted for Obama twice?
Just saying that they have been racists all along is not a constructive way to go about that.

What do you want to achieve?
 
E

excelsiorlef

Member
1.21Gigawatts said:
You are giving them ammunition...
What do you think scared away the people who voted for Obama twice?
Just saying that they have been racists all along is not a constructive way to go about that.

What do you want to achieve?
Click to expand...

Please please stop.

This is absurd.

This is article is not why people voted for fucking Trump.

Stop wielding him like a weapon to tell people (specifically Black people) to stop talking about issues they care about.
 
G

Gordon Shumway

Banned
1.21Gigawatts said:
You are giving them ammunition...
What do you think scared away the people who voted for Obama twice?
Just saying that they have been racists all along is not a constructive way to go about that.

What do you want to achieve?
Click to expand...

We should just shut NeoGAF down if folks are so worried. Literally every thread is archived by weirdos on several different sites (sorry, guys 👋). Who cares what they..
 
1

1.21Gigawatts

Banned
excelsiorlef said:
Please please stop.

This is absurd.

This is article is not why people voted for fucking Trump.

Stop wielding him like a weapon to tell people (specifically Black people) to stop talking about issues they care about.
Click to expand...

Damn libruls taking over the country is literally amoung the biggest fears of Trump voters.

I am not saying you shouldnt talk about it. I just think it should be weighed differently.



Peltz said:
A dialogue?
Click to expand...

With who? This is how you preach to the choir.
You won't reach anyone from the other side...
 
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