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We Need to Talk About Digital Blackface in Reaction GIFs

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mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
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.

Or their reactions could be celebrated by these communities on the internet. I'm a straight male, but I've seen PLENTY of gifs of gay men that are amazing! And if I was a gif responding type person, I'd use them every day.

I've seen plenty of gifs using different cross dressing males and/or trans-women on Ru Paul's show that are certified Rotten Tomatoes level great. If I were to use any of them, it would be out of deference, not ridicule.
 
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.





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

It's an article from Teen Vogue being discussed on NeoGAF...

This is about as low key as you can get.

I mean seriously stop using The Threat of Trump as a way to shame people who are talking about something you don't think is important. It's gross and nonsensical.
 

LotusHD

Banned
It's an article from Teen Vogue being discussed on NeoGAF...

This is about as low key as you can get.

I mean seriously stop using The Threat of Trump as a way to shame people talking about something you don't think is important. It's gross and nonsensical.

This...
 

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
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) 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 positivist (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.
excelsiorlef, I've seen you create more side arguments on this site than any other user I can recognize. You will repeatedly attack people that don't share the same opinions as you. I don't believe you were replying to Mammoth Jones for a good faith argument.

Jones literally retweeted the following comment "4 mins and I'm already mad at some dude the internet is celebrating. I hope this guy gets a tropical disease". The retweeted tweet did not focus on the writing itself. She was mad people were congratulating the guy on his public stance and his love for his girlfriend. The retweet that she laughs at was wishing a disease on the guy. People shitting on her if she spoke about body positivity are irrelevent. I'm pretty sure those same people aren't congratulating this guy and are probably going to call her fat.

If you cannot tell this is cyber bullying, than I don't know what to say. You are defending an article that some people may or may not agree with, the subject is complex and the possibility of a gif containing minstrel aesthetics can be hard to back up or prove. Yet somehow you seem to agree with something that many would see as a leap of logic, while chastising me for evaluating what they are doing to Tripp as "Cyber Bullying". You have a problem putting blinders on anytime a subject does not involve Trans or PoC subjects. Just because it isn't as organized or relentless, doesn't mean it isn't cyber bullying. It's bullying. You've lost a moral high ground.
 
It's an article from Teen Vogue being discussed on NeoGAF...

This is about as low key as you can get.

I mean seriously stop using The Threat of Trump as a way to shame people who are talking about something you don't think is important. It's gross and nonsensical.

Yes and in a few days you'll see the article taken out of context on imgur reddit and 9gag and millions of young people will circle jerk in the comments about how liberals want to censor free speech etc...

Maybe it stays low key. Maybe not. I'm sure you've seen this play out before.
 
Yes and in a few days you'll see the article taken out of context on imgur reddit and 9gag and millions of young people will circle jerk in the comments about how liberals want to censor free speech etc...

Maybe it stays low key. Maybe not. I'm sure you've seen this play out before.

Again I don't make a habit of basing my decisions on what racists will be mad at.. When they lack something real they just make it up (hello Pizzagate).
 

Aytumious

Banned
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?

How else am I supposed to feel good about myself?
 
Well do what you want but stop expecting others to follow down the path of letting the right dictate our conversations

I just told you what i think about not engaging with them. I think its was brought us Trump and the way it looks right now this culture war is being lost so i think its time to rethink the approach.
 

gfxtwin

Member
This reminds me of when one of my former roommates would "be a black woman" on twitter for the sole purpose of calling out racism as much as possible to get people banned or fired. Trolling the trolls, etc. He said he didn't want to be himself when doing it because calling out racism is more effective when a person of color does it and looks less like virtue signaling, or something to that effect. He would use actual social justice theory to root out racists and get them to expose themselves. Ironically, he felt like he had to do something kinda racist in the process.
 
Digital blackface is real and happens often. The amount of white people on twitter with bios that say "independent black woman trapped in a white man's body" or some bullshit like that is crazy. It extends to gifs sometimes too.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
I just told you what i think about not engaging with them. I think its was brought us Trump and the way it looks right now this culture war is being lost so i think its time to rethink the approach.

Or maybe Trump won and it wasn't because of the so called "culture war". Maybe Hillary just was a tiny bit too relaxed during the campaign. Maybe we are becoming a society of people that just LOVES big personalities. Just look at the attention Lavar Ball is getting.
 
Digital blackface is real and happens often. The amount of white people on twitter with bios that say "independent black woman trapped in a white man's body" or some bullshit like that is crazy. It extends to gifs sometimes too.

1403.gif


This is a real thing? Of course it is..😂
 
Or maybe Trump won and it wasn't because of the so called "culture war". Maybe Hillary just was a tiny bit too relaxed during the campaign. Maybe we are becoming a society of people that just LOVES big personalities.

I hope you are right, but I currently see the Trump presidency further normalizing racism, sexism, police brutality and generally a lack of compassion.
What would have caused outrage 3 years ago is just another Tuesday today.

I am actually concerned that this isn't just a phase, but rather just a beginning.

Just look at the attention Lavar Ball is getting.
Who?
 

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
My question to Mammoth was literally in relation to this actual topic...

In the first paragraph the first sentence was aimed at your comment that you were impressed that I somehow created a side argument, which I only ever had the purpose of making one post about, off of a mean spirited tweet about a guy's instagram post. This side argument involves both of us.

The second and third sentences were focused on how you go after posters on this board who don't share your exact opinions. You cannot tell me you haven't sidetracked a thread because you went after what another poster said unrelated to the topic of a thread. You've gone after people for, likely innocently, writing transgendered instead of transgender and for using the word female. Mammoth Jones simply stated he agreed with what the poster said, which was likely going to be exactly the same thing he would say if he replied to you.
 

Airola

Member
That would mean that the people that care would post less reaction gifs featuring black people, and that people that post them with a bad intent (that would never care) would post just as much. So we would have more reaction gifs with black people posted with a racist undertone, percentage wise.
On topic, I do get what the article is talking about. Not a reaction gif but the way TriHard is being used on twitch made me shut off twitch chat for good. But a good article doesn't make up for a clickbaity (?) or just bad (?) title that intentionally or unintentionally will rub many people the wrong way. Also, while I see the issue and agree with the points being made, the sheer awesomeness of reaction gifs featuring black people makes up for it, imo. Black people are just more colorful (no pun intended) and many of the greats of comedy/acting/music are black.

Good post.

Could we also discuss about whether or not these gifs could actually be sometimes seen as something good? Are there some positive things to be learned about the usage of gifs of black people? Like, I wonder if 50-60 years ago people would've even accepted white people using pictures of black people to express their own thoughts and emotions. Maybe the way these gifs are used is actually a sign of things progressing?

It might not be, but would that be something that would be worthy of a discussion?


Is it racist to believe that black people have a wider range of expressed emotions than white people?

It's definitely scientifically false. I don't know about racist.

Ah. Expressed emotion? Sounds like a generalization to me.


Are generalizations or even caricatures bad no matter what the context is?

What comes this expressed emotions thing, one of the most used ones in comedy is that black people generally do things more expressively than white people. I don't think people actually think that because of that all black people are like that. Just as it is an often used caricature that white people can't dance or that they speak less expressively. I recall one of Chappelle's bits is where he speaks like a white person, and that always sounds like an emotionless news anchor. And that to me actually seems to be a joke that sort of needs a "race" or cultural gap for it to be as funny as it could be.

I mean, I don't think a white person could pull of the joke of "a white person sounding like an emotionless news anchor", or at least not as effectively since the general speaking style of the white comic would most probably be already closer to the news anchor speech than how the black comic would generally speak. So that would make the "black" version already more effective because of the contrast of the tones alone.

I really don't quite get why either one would be a bad thing to use in comedy.

Couldn't it be seen from a more positive point of view too? I mean, this expressiveness is usually seen as a positive trait that brings some life to this planet (the reality show things are a whole different beast though, there all expressions by anyone are made to be a circus act - from Snooki to Tiffany Pollard to Gary Busey). Yet it doesn't clearly mean that white people couldn't be as expressive. Nor does it say that black people should use this expressiveness for our amusement. It just says that when it happens, it's often a good thing.
 
Honestly, I don't see an issue with white/non-black people posting reaction .gifs .jpgs featuring black a black person/s. What is problematic is when the .gif has subtle racism like the "Dis gon be good" .gif OR if you're a white person sharing a meme that has that refers to yourself being black like this meme.

tumblr_m2nm8qkUt71rtb03io1_500.jpg


Probably not a good idea to post a meme that says "I'm black" when you're not black. That is appropriation
 
And your suggestion is not talk about stuff like this... like I said nah.

No, I would suggest talking about it in a different way.
This article reads as if it was targeted at people who already know what cultural appropriation is agree that its problematic, but those are not the people you want to reach, do you?

I mean, Teen Vogue is great, its pretty much the most surprising positive development in media in recent years. I'm a sucker for thing high politics.
And I don't want to take that away, my point is just that someone like Jon Steward might have been more successful in reaching the other side with his approach.
Someone who can reach across the party line is missing right now, and I think thats not only because the right is so far gone, but also because the left doesn't like when people try. They feel like it diminishes their cause if you even engage with them.
And I agree with that partially. Megyn Kelly interviewing Alex Jones was a stupid idea, but its not always that easy.
 
Fair. When you look at China's relationship with people with darker skin tho, it doesn't get much better.

My friend who visited India for a few weeks said they glorify light skinned people as well in advertisements, on television, and in public. You won't see many light skinned people on the streets but they are over represented in Indian media because thats what is seen as ideal.
 

Sunster

Member
Honestly, I don't see an issue with white/non-black people posting reaction .gifs .jpgs featuring black a black person/s. What is problematic is when the .gif has subtle racism like the "Dis gon be good" .gif OR if you're a white person sharing a meme that has that refers to yourself being black like this meme.

tumblr_m2nm8qkUt71rtb03io1_500.jpg


Probably not a good idea to post a meme that says "I'm black" when you're not black. That is appropriation

it's a little more than that. there's something loaded about whenever posting gifs of black people they are doing crazy stuff like, weavesnatch.gif but then the gifs you use with white people are just like, jenniferlawrenceyeaok.gif
 

Ekai

Member
Or their reactions could be celebrated by these communities on the internet. I'm a straight male, but I've seen PLENTY of gifs of gay men that are amazing! And if I was a gif responding type person, I'd use them every day.

I've seen plenty of gifs using different cross dressing males and/or trans-women on Ru Paul's show that are certified Rotten Tomatoes level great. If I were to use any of them, it would be out of deference, not ridicule.

I just know plenty of women of color who don't like feeling appropriated by white gay cis-dudes who like to say they're "a black woman trapped in the body of a white man". Especially since those people tend to not even care to listen to the struggles that black women face. It's almost infantile in the way it treats other minorities.

Honestly, and I can't speak for all trans individuals, I can't stand Ru Paul. Show has a lot of latent transphobia, especially from Ru Paul themselves.

I can see your point/view on the matter but I can't fully get behind it.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
being black on gaf forces you to get practice in rhetoric and debate

And I LOVE IT! lol

I hope you are right, but I currently see the Trump presidency further normalizing racism, sexism, police brutality and generally a lack of compassion.
What would have caused outrage 3 years ago is just another Tuesday today.

I am actually concerned that this isn't just a phase, but rather just a beginning.

It is just the beginning. Your worse nightmare is coming true. But it's not because black , gay, trans people and women are finally being heard.

I just know plenty of women of color who don't like feeling appropriated by white gay cis-dudes who like to say they're "a black woman trapped in the body of a white man". Especially since those people tend to not even care to listen to the struggles that black women face. It's almost infantile in the way it treats other minorities.

Honestly, and I can't speak for all trans individuals, I can't stand Ru Paul. Show has a lot of latent transphobia, especially from Ru Paul themselves.

I can see your point/view on the matter but I can't fully get behind it.


I TOTALLY understand that though. That is messed up.
 

Media

Member
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?

r8zzCPu.gif


You realize you are literally telling black folk that Trump was elected because they were whiny right?

In an era of mass incarceration and cop violence? Really?
 

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
r8zzCPu.gif


You realize you are literally telling black folk that Trump was elected because they were whiny right?

In an era of mass incarceration and cop violence? Really?

I wouldn't call this an era of mass incarceration and cop violence, since it has been going on for 1.5 centuries. And we know what happened before that....
 

Airola

Member
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"

Why not "lol that guy talks funny"?

Or is it automatically color + funnything when it's black man who says something that sounds funny? Is it not even possible that this type of a thing would be just because of what is said instead of the color of the guy who says it?

I mean, there are lots of viral videos where stuff like that have been taken out of context and it has been made into a song. And lots of them have a non-black person saying something.

Now I haven't seen the actual video you mentioned so I don't know if it actually looks like it has been done solely because of that person is black and says the thing. It could have other racist remaks too. But in general I think if a black person "talks funny" the comedy is in the words themselves rather than in black person saying the words. Or then I'm just way too optimistic and naive. Nevertheless it would be interesting to have a longer discussion about this point of view too.
 
r8zzCPu.gif


You realize you are literally telling black folk that Trump was elected because they were whiny right?

In an era of mass incarceration and cop violence? Really?

I am telling everyone who considers themselves decent that Trump was elected because they refused to engage with those they deem "not decent"(deplorables).

Mass incarceration and police brutality are exactly the issues which can be used to engage. Digital blackface not so much.

Is this really such an outlandish thought?
 

RSTEIN

Comics, serious business!
I think the author is really thinking too deeply about gif selection. When I need a reaction gif sometimes I feel like Seinfeld, sometimes I feel like Jay Z. If I choose Seinfeld that doesn't mean I'm putting on a Jewish persona or intentionally misrepresenting Jewish people or continuing offensive Jewish stereotypes. I do it because Seinfeld is a genius. I'll pull out a Chappelle gif because he's a genius.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
I don't get what you mean by that.

You said this.

1.21Gigawatts said:
but I currently see the Trump presidency further normalizing racism, sexism, police brutality and generally a lack of compassion.
What would have caused outrage 3 years ago is just another Tuesday today.

And I agree and think it will get worse.
 

Sunster

Member
I am telling everyone who considers themselves decent that Trump was elected because they refused to engage with those they deem "not decent"(deplorables).

Mass incarceration and police brutality are exactly the issues which can be used to engage. Digital blackface not so much.

Is this really such an outlandish thought?

lol it's not like dems will run on the anti digital blackface platform. this is just some black people telling others, "hey we feel this way about this. can you hear our thoughts and possibly think before doing it? thanks." I'm pretty sure communities can engage with each other on smaller issues like this.
 
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