I read the new CNN piece on this and I do actually empathize to some extent with the author's main point, at least as I understood it. Interestingly, the author started out with a particularly broad interpretation of digital blackface (the implications of which are the most absurd), but gradually wound their way down to a much, much more narrow and nuanced interpretation of the term. It was hard to believe it was all written by the same person.
The main idea was that white people wanting to meme a strong emotion go straight to black representations of that emotion, as they think it will be exaggerated, funny, or something to that effect. Frankly, this probably is true in some cases. However, that this phenomena exists isn't a very compelling reason to completely prohibit (intellectually/socially) white people from using a meme with a black person if the meme expressed a strong emotion. There are also countless examples of people using white faces for this - the Vince McMahon faces meme, anyone? Possibly -the- most popular example used for exaggerated facial expressions. So if a white person uses a black face to express some strong emotion in a meme format - is that blanket banned across the board? What about if the use of a black-faced meme isn't being driven by the dynamic above (i.e., "I need a face that expressed exaggerated emotion --> black people are cray and always have the most extreme faces")?
All in all, it reads as an absurd idea to me with absurd implications that wouldn't be good for anyone. As it always does, the pendulum can and will swing too far on its return journey.
tootoo_mcgoo t1_jdtfajz wrote
Reply to Explaining what's wrong with digital blackface by ADefiniteDescription
I read the new CNN piece on this and I do actually empathize to some extent with the author's main point, at least as I understood it. Interestingly, the author started out with a particularly broad interpretation of digital blackface (the implications of which are the most absurd), but gradually wound their way down to a much, much more narrow and nuanced interpretation of the term. It was hard to believe it was all written by the same person.
The main idea was that white people wanting to meme a strong emotion go straight to black representations of that emotion, as they think it will be exaggerated, funny, or something to that effect. Frankly, this probably is true in some cases. However, that this phenomena exists isn't a very compelling reason to completely prohibit (intellectually/socially) white people from using a meme with a black person if the meme expressed a strong emotion. There are also countless examples of people using white faces for this - the Vince McMahon faces meme, anyone? Possibly -the- most popular example used for exaggerated facial expressions. So if a white person uses a black face to express some strong emotion in a meme format - is that blanket banned across the board? What about if the use of a black-faced meme isn't being driven by the dynamic above (i.e., "I need a face that expressed exaggerated emotion --> black people are cray and always have the most extreme faces")?
All in all, it reads as an absurd idea to me with absurd implications that wouldn't be good for anyone. As it always does, the pendulum can and will swing too far on its return journey.