ScavengerFox

Based and Estrogen-Laced

  • She/It

31 | ΘΔ | Bat-Eared Fox | Engaged to Xain Alopex


SpottedMenace
@SpottedMenace

About two/three years ago, there was a discussion (not a consensus) about the prevalence of 'digital Blackface' on the internet. This was a talk, mostly among Black people on social media accounts, speaking to the ways in which non-Black people engaged in the use of memes/gifs/reaction images/etc. on the internet. It was never a blanket 'you use this, it's Blackface' conclusion; there was nuance to it. Namely in the wake of several activists finding commonality between #YourSlipIsShowing - an online movement to root out attempts from 4chan/right wing trolls trying to claim they were Black in an attempt to normalize their racism and give bad acting or otherwise well meaning spectators cart blanche to ignore our grievances or see them as hysterical.

Again, no consensus, but a nuanced conversation not unlike the ones taking place when discussing how AAE - African American English - is utilized in online spaces (and elsewhere) and how refusing to acknowledge it as a dialect worthy of respect with its varied history and syntaxes creates problems in an online, social media space.

Cut to the present and CNN, refusing to really acknowledge that, banks on clickbait headlines about digital Blackface to drum up people dismissing it as a checks notes hysterical and easy to ignore grievance. Huh... sounds familiar.

This is why it's so important for our various communities to lead the conversation on our particular issues rather than have them reported on by spectators and tourists whose only goal is to drive engagement. They don't care if people come away with a misunderstanding of the point or an excuse to double down on harmful actions (whether intentional or not). It's why so many of us take our time choosing our words carefully because we know one misstep can mean cementing the way our community is portrayed - even though we don't dare deign to speak FOR all of community.

And, don't get it twisted: this is a choice. You can tell the difference between journalism that pushes hard to get every detail correct; meticulously gleaning and plumbing through quotes to ensure correct information is passed through and, if not, who is beholden to a retraction and an apology.

And that's usually never us. We get a first pass, a false framing, and they move on to the next clickbait article while we're stuck spending days arguing what words actually mean.

Like... 'woke'.


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