Why "digital blackface" is not a thing

Once upon a time, black performers weren’t really a thing. What you had were white people covering their faces with makeup to sort of appear black, then performing as a caricature of black people.

There were a lot of reasons why blackface was a terrible thing, but this caricature aspect may be among the worst.

Yet now it seems that some are claiming “digital blackface” is a thing, and we white folks who use memes featuring black people are just putting on an old-timey minstrel show.

From CNN:

Maybe you shared that viral video of Kimberly “Sweet Brown” Wilkins telling a reporter after narrowly escaping an apartment fire, “Ain’t nobody got time for that!”

Perhaps you posted that meme of supermodel Tyra Banks exploding in anger on “America’s Next Top Model” (“I was rooting for you! We were all rooting for you!”). Or maybe you’ve simply posted popular GIFs, such as the one of NBA great Michael Jordan crying, or of drag queen RuPaul declaring, “Guuuurl…”

If you’re Black and you’ve shared such images online, you get a pass. But if you’re White, you may have inadvertently perpetuated one of the most insidious forms of contemporary racism.

You may be wearing “digital blackface.”

Wait…what?

Wearing “digital blackface” for sharing a meme or two?

Oh, just wait. It gets better.

Digital blackface is a practice where White people co-opt online expressions of Black imagery, slang, catchphrases or culture to convey comic relief or express emotions.

These expressions, what one commentator calls racialized reactions, are mainstays in Twitter feeds, TikTok videos and Instagram reels, and are among the most popular Internet memes.

Digital blackface involves White people play-acting at being Black, says Lauren Michele Jackson, an author and cultural critic, in an essay for Teen Vogue. Jackson says the Internet thrives on White people laughing at exaggerated displays of Blackness, reflecting a tendency among some to see “Black people as walking hyperbole.”

Well, that’s stupid.

No, really, it’s absolutely idiotic.

If I share a meme or gif of a black person saying or doing something, I’m not play-acting as anything. I’m simply using an image to convey an idea I think someone conveyed better/funnier/overall more entertainingly. That’s literally it.

Especially as my profile pictures are typically photographs of me.

I’m not “play-acting” as any damn thing. Neither is anyone else who shares a meme featuring a black person for some reason.

Absolutely none of them are trying to portray black people in any way, shape, or form.

Further, let’s remember that many of these memes—the ones we’re told are so problematic—are moments of people basically being themselves. How are white people who share these memes creating a caricature of anyone by sharing moments of people being real?

It honestly makes absolutely no sense.

What’s really happening here is that white people are simply not showing the outward signs of racism many want to see, so what they do is pretend what white people actually do—particularly in regard to anything that might look like inclusion—is what’s really racist.

The goal, of course, is to push white people to be afraid of doing anything that even touches on black people, black culture, or whatever. Then, that will be the racist thing.

Some people exist only to be offended. When they can’t find anything to offend them, they decide to make up stuff to be offended by.

In this case, memes that aren’t actually insulting in and of themselves, but somehow morph into a digital minstrel show the moment a white person clicks to share it.

“Ain’t nobody got time for that,” became a meme not because they were making fun of the woman, but because she was saying something we all felt at one time or another. That’s kind of how things become memes in the first place.

But by trying to create a digital plantation, all these folks want to do is push to distance this kind of understanding, this feeling of relating to what people are doing or saying.

It’s not going to make anything better. What we’re seeing is an effort to eradicate understanding between the races, and that way lies madness.

That’s especially true if you’re a member of a minority race. Do you really want the majority to think of you as “other” considering how that’s worked out historically?

Yeah, I didn’t think so.

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