period oh god oh god like why you on my Twitter why you on my Facebook why you on my Why you DMing me sis why you tagging me in photos you don't even [ __ ] with me let me know komi get your ass in here come on girl i'm like [ __ ] that's my cookie that's my juice okay carry on thank you next that's what this baby picture says it's a gorgeous day to be a baddie out here and live in the bottom now we look at this y'all this is crazy no cuz it's kind of giving Mona Lisa it's kind of giving Woo i'm going to say that Lana is the most body tea i'm going to say I love that one yes i'm going to say that Lexi is the most Who that mommy that [Music] you [ __ ] and a lot of people have been saying I'm the goat they don't mean greatest of all time they mean that one from Narnia i've seen a lot of kids running around dressed as me for Halloween too and I just I just want to say like cut it out because my culture is not a costume you are so corny yo yo the bian was like what and I was like later on what up dog and I start keeping it real you thinking way too deep into I'm saying but that's the that's the powers that we be going through man it's real out here you feel me hey you see how boring they are trigger warning this video contains images of blackface discussions of racial trauma examples of cultural mockery and stereotyping references to slurs discussions of discrimination and systemic racism mentions of police violence and racial profiling viewer discretion is advised i believe these topics are necessary to approach head-on but please take care of your mental health and step away if you need to if you hit a wrong note it's the next note you play that determines if it's good or bad miles Davis while the famous trumpeteer was clearly talking about music this applies to everything especially our discussion today the US continues to hit the wrong note when it comes to addressing its deeply shameful and racist past instead of addressing anything and changing its tune to move towards true understanding and accountability that would lead to real change this country is stuck playing the same one note flat tune and hoping that we all just cover our ears and unfortunately some of us will but I hope more of us won't i remember being a kid and hearing about YouTube and immediately wanting to find out who the biggest creators were that everybody was talking about the one name that kept popping up was Shane Dawson i'll never forget the visceral shock I felt seeing him in full blackface using slur after slur and racial stereotypes and thinking this must be a mistake this can't be the number one YouTuber that everybody is propping up as peak comedy but there was no mistake a little over a decade ago it was still profitable and normal to do blackface on a large scale and the craziest part is that Shane Dawson's cataclysmic cancellation had absolutely nothing to do with his racist actions he was able to rebrand again and again and his racism was never the biggest issue people had with him it was merely an afterthought since then him and creators like Jenna Marbles have given effective apologies that showed a clear understanding of the problem and the first steps toward accountability shane even said in his apology that he couldn't imagine being a black person and seeing hundreds of thousands of people praise a man for doing blackface blackface was something that I did a lot like I did it a lot on my channel and there's no excuse for it there's literally no excuse i made a video six years ago talking about it and I gave excuses and I knew it was wrong and I knew I would never wanted to do it again but I didn't do the work i didn't actually look into the history of it and why it's so wrong and why people were so upset because my excuse oh I was I was just being funny i I love black people i'm not racist i was trying to be funny like I all of that is stupid and wrong and I put that onto the internet as an adult and that is insane i'm so sorry i am so sorry to anybody that saw that and that also saw that people were lifting me up and were saying "You're so funny Shane oh my god you're so funny." Like I I can't even put myself in that heads i can't even imagine what it would be like to be black and to see this white [ __ ] guy do blackface and the whole internet at that time being like "Lol that's insane." And I am so sorry i don't know how to even fully apologize because it almost it seems like something that is uh irredeemable or I don't know the right word it's something that I shouldn't even be able to get out of i should lose everything for that i don't have hate in my heart for anyone but it doesn't make up for the fact that I made jokes about everyone and I started seeing black people who I know who I'm friends with who I've known for a long time i'm seeing them openly talking about on their Instagram or Twitter the years of anger they've had about racist jokes about blackface about you know microaggressions everything that they've gone through and I felt like the biggest piece of [ __ ] in the entire world i felt awful and the biggest problem with me doing that and posting it on the internet was it made young people at the time who were watching me think it was okay and and that that's the craziest part it's like I've had people tell me "Well I used to watch your videos when I was a kid and yeah I never saw anything wrong with that." And that is scary because it made me realize "Oh my god I have been a part of such a huge problem and I have just been avoiding it." And that's wrong so I'm so sorry i'm sorry that I added to the normalization of blackface or the normalization of saying the nword that's another thing i mean and and my justification at the time for that was "Oh it was you know I was playing a character and it was in comedy and my black friend was there and you know that makes it okay." No it's not okay and it's not a funny word especially for a white person to say me as a white person wearing a wig and playing a character and doing stereotypes and then saying the n-word is something that I should have probably lost my career for at the time and there's no amount of apologizing that can take it away and take away the impact it had and take away the amount of people that have been hurt by that or have felt like I I was just oh another white guy who can get away with everything when I really looked into the history of black face I looked into it years ago and it obviously disgusted me made me sick I felt awful that even at that time I still was being ignorant and I was saying in my head well but I didn't do that you know I was playing Winnie Williams or I was playing a character that justification that is wrong i mean I've watched so many videos on the history of blackface and how it was created to make fun of black people to make them feel less than and the fact that I in in some way was a part of that like the fact that the word blackface now will forever be attached to me that's the level at which I have been lately just feeling very awful about myself about what I did about the jokes I've made about the videos I've made and wanting to disassociate from that person i'm sure that there were black people at the time pointing out how disgusting and racist this was feeling the same visceral shock that I did as a child but these people probably went ignored told "It's just comedy it's dark and edgy is it really that bad if he has a black friend laughing alongside him?" This is just how comedy evolves so I have to ask is it really going to take looking back in 5 to 10 years and seeing tearful apologies for the blatant appropriation of AAVE and black sense for y'all to think maybe black people are actually hurt by this behavior despite me being entertained by it maybe it's not worth it and I should listen to them when they say it's not okay instead of fighting tooth and nail for my right to offend them yeah no it was never going to be that simple the question isn't whether we'll eventually recognize today's black sense as problematic we will the question is how many more decades of harm will we allow before we decide to listen to black voices the first time every few years when I hear about a new comedic influencer I'm inevitably exposed to a new version of this appropriation of blackness that is quirky or trendy it was Shane Dawson with the Shane character on YouTube shane and Heath's hood skits on Vine thank you EH Harmony for finding me my baby daddy who birthed me my beautiful baby my baby Anna and Drew and friends ghetto personas i want to you coming at me [ __ ] you can hit me i got more man in me than you got in you and now Alex Canani's model of the year worthy black scent okay y'all we're backstage with the BS with the TS you know what the [ __ ] is good yes transexuals rise all I'm going to say is it's a Jersey remix summer yet a lot of people want to comment that I'm exaggerating by saying Ave and black sense are just the next progression of this vicious cycle that doesn't affect y'all but continues to harm people that look like me in my video on white feminism and the white savior rebrand I mentioned the evolution of blackface and minstrel seat into digital blackface today and I got some strong but mixed reactions a lot of people felt seen when I pointed out the normalization of the black scent and how it's made brands for white influencers like Alex Consani but there were also a lot of defenders of appropriation and people downplaying it and calling me extreme and disingenuous for making such a comparison i think it's very telling how people in the US will vehemly deny this country's racist past and present while simultaneously remaining willfully uneducated on it rather than considering that they might not know everything they assume anyone more educated on the subject might be lying or exaggerating this instinctual anti-intellectualism isn't accidental it's by design what did Liam Niss say in Atlanta hold up hold up hold but then you learn that you shouldn't say [ __ ] like that huh but I also learned that the best and worst part about being white is you don't have to learn anything if you don't want to take it easy paper boy in today's video I'm going to trace the evolution from blackface minstrel to today's digital appropriation of blackness showing how the costume has changed but the performance remains disturbingly similar [Music] [Applause] [Music] tea or how y'all would say it tea welcome or welcome back to Lonnie's Lens my little corner of the internet where I talk about film TV pop culture and literally whatever else is on my mind today by popular demand we are going to be talking about Alex Consani Black Sense Sinners and more broadly the evolution of the culture vulture but first I have to say thank you for 30,000 subscribers oh my gosh 30,000 was my goal for the year i started the year with 2500 I think and it's only May so what the hell am I supposed to do now like what do I do you know but I'm so excited and I'm so thankful for all of your support but I guess the new goal is 50K let's say that but on a more serious note I always put the sources and mentions in my video in the description but for this video I really want to stress that each of you really engaged with one of those materials in its entirety there is absolutely no way that I'm going to be able to convey the history of cultural appropriation or blackface or minstrel sea in this video i did I tried I tried desperately but it's it's impossible there's so many historians writers doing great work to to describe and educate people on this phenomenon i got so many comments on my white feminism video saying "Thank you for being a resource." And I just want to make sure that my YouTube videos are a launching pad for your unlearning and never a final stop on the lighter side I highly recommend Intellectual Media's video on the history of black parties she goes in depth on the different eras of black parties and that was the first time I'd ever heard about a juke joint when I watched the video like a year ago and so going into sinners I already had an idea of what a juke joint was which was so cool and rewarding so I highly recommend that she has so many great videos on black history in general so go check her out and on the heavier side I really recommend the backstory podcast specifically their episode titled The Faces of Racism: A History of Blackface and Minstalc in American Culture it really provided the foundation of a lot of the information I'm going to be talking about today so can't recommend it enough um but there's going to be so many mentions and sources in the description so please check them out i'm also shamelessly plugging my Venmo and my Patreon for this video just from reading the script I know that this is going to be my best video so far i put so much work into it and I'm very proud of it but it was also intensely traumatic and stressful to see decades and decades of videos and photos of people putting on blackface to resemble the people that look like me and my family you know and that's really hard so in the name of education and in the in the name of you know trying to spread awareness I thought it was really important but it's awful i'm going to have to read this because I don't want to I don't want to get too emotional but seeing people who look like me be dehumanized and gaslit for centuries and receiving uncritical justifications for it over and over was almost unbearable and I can only imagine the ones I'll get under this video so please consider supporting me and showing that support monetarily i really appreciate it if not a like comment share and subscribe is also greatly appreciated do whatever you can but if you'd like to keep up with me outside of YouTube you can follow me on Instagram or Letterbox to see what I've been watching lately as per usual everything will be linked down below in the description so now without further ado let's get into the video so we're going to start the video off with me addressing a lot of the defenses of appropriation which is wild to even say and some of the fallacies that go along with them i had some comments of people genuinely asking like "What is the line with using AAVE?" And people ask like "Is it really that bad if I use one word if I just say period or cis?" Like I just want to know in response I have one question why do you need to say these words why is it such a sacrifice to stop using the words that you learned on your for you page two months ago you had no idea what they were and now you're acting like they're vital to your life source or something i don't understand like it's such a sacrifice to stop saying period like it's going to take some work but that's the point like in my Peak White feminism video the the main thing that I didn't say in that video that uh that I wish I'd really focused on was Chapel saying that because it's hard it's impossible and it's just weird to me that do they think it's supposed to be easy if it was easy do you think we'd be where we are like I just Do you think maybe they decided to make it hard on purpose so that the people that weren't willing to put in the work would tap out and leave the rest of us high and dry do you think maybe that's how the system works in real life if you're doing something that seems innocuous to you and you don't really see the problem with it and somebody politely asks you or says "Hey do you mind not doing that?" Like it it's it really bothers me are you going to say "Well why can't I?" or are you just going to stop the behavior my besty PA pause she'll get that my besty PA had a really good analogy and she likened it to a kid who has like all these toys their parents can buy them whatever toy they want and they have like 50 different toys to choose from and they have a friend who only has one toy and their parents worked so hard to get them that toy and they're really appreciative of it and they really love this toy the kid with all the other toys sees the kid with one toy and just desperately wants that toy so badly and their parents all the adults are telling them "Hey like you have all these toys like why do you want that one?" And and they throw a hissy fit and they're just like "Why can't I like why can't I have this one toy i have everything else but why can't I have that toy?" And that's that image is all I have in my head when I hear people say like "Why can't I?" Trust me you won't suffer any major loss from not using AAve unless you've built your entire brand and internet persona off of it then maybe there's something at stake but the other thing is like I get it's fun but there's a lot of things that are fun that you just don't do and it's only so hard and so difficult for people to understand when it's something that belongs to black people we as a society know it's unacceptable to mock an Asian person's accent to slant your eyes to resemble an Asian person but when it comes to mocking black people and the way that some of us speak it's just how our generation talks this shows just how deeply embedded anti-blackness is not only in the US but globally and people were trying to say it's okay if we're just not if we're not making a mockery of y'all it's okay if we're not doing that if we're just saying it but we're not making a mockery and I think the best example is that Britney Broki clip of her saying of her quoting Nicki Minaj in her live saying "Big boobs child." Anyways because the funny part of that is her saying "Big boobs child." Okay anyways and moving on but the way Britney impersonated her was by saying big boobs t Why is that why do we need the hand gesture we need the eye is that not mockery because it really just highlights what y'all think is funny what is so funny about that clip cuz I think it's her saying big boobs and then moving on but y'all think it's big boobs and doing all the stuff that Nikki did not do in that clip big boobs what um child anyway so this shows what people really find funny about that moment the way a black woman expresses herself or actually more so the perceived way a black woman expresses herself adding all these mannerisms she didn't do that but why do you think when they reenact it they do that there's this weird impulse to minimize and invalidate black people's concerns and rationalize your behavior we all do things that are bad on occasion but you don't get to do the bad thing and then explain to the people that you're harming that it's actually not that bad just so you don't have to feel bad about it that's what a lot of these comments are excuses and ways to avoid reflecting or changing your behavior and if you're looking for those excuses from me you're clearly at the wrong channel i'd suggest asking a black conservative specifically featured in a Jubilee or Cut video to get the answers that you're looking for or if you can't find one of them just stop by your local PWI they got you but know that just because a black person lets you do something doesn't mean that it's okay especially when black people have no real power over you and historically have had to defer to non-black people to make them feel comfortable in order to survive themselves you're not wondering if it's bad because of how it harms others you're wondering if it's bad because it makes you look and feel bad and those are two completely different things that you're going to have to parse out it's uncomfortable i know the next defense is that it's just Gen Z slang and internet culture [ __ ] i got this comment on my peak white feminism video and it puts it so simply and perfectly the AAV topic is really frustrating because I think it's one of the easiest ways to understand how racism influences everything and how everyone participates in it whether it's voluntary or involuntary english is my third language and as a teen I spent a lot of time in English speaking internet spaces i naturally picked up on AAV thinking it's universal slang eventually I learned about AAve how and why it developed and how white people keep finding ways to appropriate black culture so to be defensive and claiming it's Gen Z language is beyond me it's so easy to say "Oh I didn't know about that thanks for telling me." I'll be more mindful about it and tell my peers about it too contrast this to the comments in defense of appropriation saying Jenzi slang is modern-day blackface is crazy a bunch of Jenzi slang comes from black people because we love y'all and I don't see what's wrong with us becoming more like each other and using each other's slang i'm going to stop right there because yeah but a couple things y'all love us but refuse to listen to us when we tell you directly that your behavior is offensive and harmful that's not love it's not appreciation it's appropriation and gaslighting under the guise of love and acceptance okay cornbread we all just have to be kind to one another right i found that it's always the people who have never created something of their own that see no problem with other people taking things that they didn't create you wouldn't understand the hard work and meeting that went into it so of course it wouldn't seem like a big deal to you and lastly we are not becoming more like each other this is not a mutual exchange this is a continuation of the appropriation and colonization of marginalized people's cultures seriously I'm going to keep saying this until I die american culture is black American culture it just gets filtered out and watered down and whitewashed until they can give credit to a white guy jazz country rock and roll rap all black American creation and then you want to move to the protest side bro not only did black lives matter spark actual other things like Asian lives matter and queer lives matter and trans lives matter but on the flip side when racist [ __ ] were trying to say well blue lives matter through humanity what happened is it translated into less of a sarcastic thing and more into a genuine like support your nurses and firefighters and EMTs so even the people who might be the most discriminatory they got to thank a black American for their own [ __ ] views another defense is the I naturally speak this way because of where I grew up i'll never forget this tweet of a black woman saying that she was raised by her stepdad and he had a heavy Vietnamese accent and somehow she never picked up on that accent despite living with him and being around him her entire life proximity doesn't automatically mean adoption unless there's some other motivation behind it no but like I talk like this because I grew up around like a lot of Latinos like like I'm American i just my best friend's Puerto Rican like you know what I'm saying i pick up things cuz I I've grew up around like a lot of Latinos so like when people say like why do you talk like that like why do you like why are you trying to like act like you're Latino and stuff like that it's like gay like I I just pick up things from you know like just my surroundings and like I don't know that I'm not acting a lot of people aren't in community with black people and more specifically black people from these subgroups like the ballroom scene most of the time the one black person you'll know speaks like me and I have even had to check myself even though I am a black queer person and understand that I am not in the ballroom scene and using their language and using their terms in my everyday life and taking them away from their original context is weird behavior and I don't need to be doing it there are so many different dialects of Ave that change geographically and based on the community the confusion comes when people take bits and pieces of this dialect with its own grammatical rules and vocabulary and make it this jumbled mess of nonsense it's like taking random words of Spanish French Italian and claiming that you're speaking European it reveals a fundamental lack of respect and understanding of the language there is however an important distinction to make some immigrants and non-native English speakers may develop speech patterns similar to AAV because they learn English primarily through black media or in predominantly black spaces a great example is comedian Jimmy O Yang and he has discussed how he learned English partly through watching BET which influenced his speech patterns and you can tell but the key here is that he doesn't exaggerate these patterns for comedic effect or put on a black scent like Aquafina he is a comedian and he's very funny but the humor doesn't come from how he talks it comes from how he crafts his jokes and how he shares his perspective something that Aquafina has yet to do so this highlights the importance of nuance and context there's a huge difference between naturally adopting speech patterns through genuine immersion in a community versus deliberately putting on a black scent as a performance or for profit that you can easily take off once you clock out so the question isn't simply are you using AAV but rather are you exaggerating or performing blackness are you using it selectively for entertainment or profit can you drop it when it's convenient while black people cannot escape the same consequences of their blackness these distinctions help us move beyond the simple fingerpointing of you're bad and you're doing the wrong thing but help us understand the complex power dynamics at play when it comes to cultural appropriation and the last defense I hear is that languages just naturally evolve suddenly everybody in my comment section is well-versed in the history of linguistics and got their degree and they know everything they argue that languages naturally evolve and blend so appropriating AAV is just a part of this natural process there's a crucial distinction between acknowledging that this has happened historically and concluding that therefore this should keep happening the latter statement requires no reflection or accountability while the former invites us to learn from the past languages embody nuance history and deep insights into a community's lived experience it's so disheartening to hear people casually participate in whitewashing and stripping away the meaning of a dialect that emerged from my community's horrendous historical oppression and then have the audacity to justify it with this is just how language evolves to avoid any self-reflection or sacrifice on their part countless indigenous languages have been completely eradicated through these supposedly natural processes using this argument to justify your black scent essentially says "Well cultural eraser has always happened so why stop now?" But just because something has happened historically doesn't make it inevitable natural or appropriate behavior for you to perpetuate as societies evolve we abandon harmful historical practices we no longer believe that bloodletting cures disease we don't consider women property most people agree that blackface is wrong so why is appropriating AAV where you draw the line on progress because it's fun you don't think the people attending menstrual shows were having fun what makes this particular form of appropriation so precious that you'll fight to defend it and do you think it's much different from how people justified blackface in the past now let's actually dive into the history of blackface and minstrel see in the US people were particularly upset when I compared using AAVE incorrectly and having a black scent to blackface and minstrel shows and this highlights non-black people's urge to gaslight and minimize anti-blackness in US history comedian Louis C who is very problematic in his own right has a surprisingly astute joke about this you can't take people's like historical context away from them and everybody wants this to like white people are always like come on it wasn't us like they want black people to forget everything like every year white people add a hundred years to how long ago slavery was i've heard educated white people say slavery was 400 years ago no it very wasn't it was 140 years ago that's two 70-year-old ladies living and dying back to back that's how recently you could buy a guy and it's not like slavery ended and then everything has been amazing like it just Oh yeah and it's true blackface and minstrel sea and slavery are not distant practices they're not ancient history like most people would like you to believe look at these images from the 1950s and60s with people protesting against integration and bullying children like Ruby Bridges what truly separates us from these people they weren't super villains who were nothing like us just because we were born a few decades later these people raised children and those children grew up and raised us these attitudes behaviors and practices didn't just disappear into a thin air because we'd like to think they did so what were minstal shows actually like these shows mostly consisted of performers in blackface blackface was the practice of non-black performers darkening their skin with burnt cork or shoe polish to caricature and mock black people the tradition reached its peak between 1850 and 1870 however although the form gradually disappeared from professional theaters its influence endured in vaudeville radio television and the motion picture and music industries of the 20th and 21st centuries many people don't realize how popular in the mainstream blackface was professional blackface shows were the number one form of entertainment in the 19th century in New York City they created blackface celebrities and a whole entertainment industry around blackface the Ku Klux Clan would use blackface to disorient their victims during raids making them temporarily think that they were seeing black people and were safe and this is one of the most sinister applications and one that will continue to haunt me forever blackface performances were even used for KKK recruitment even in settings such as school performances these weren't just isolated incidents they were highly profitable events college fundraisers during the reconstruction era would put on blackface shows raising thousands of dollars theater companies publish their own DIY blackface guides so what began as a passive consumption in theaters moved into people's homes through radio then TV and now YouTube streaming and social media the difference now is that real black people are the subjects of this mockery not just white performers in makeup one thing that I think it's really important to understand is blackface has been intimately linked to every major form of American culture which is why someone like Megan Kelly thinks that this is innocuous so for example the first major film Bath of a Nation silent film the first Taki the Jazz Singer a blackface film uh the first cartoon the synchronized sounds Steamboat Willie Mickey Mouse all of that is happening to Steven Foster songs and um you know pretty pretty horrific references to minstrel and so we see over and over and over again that um advancements in American culture and technology are linked to blackface in a way that makes it celebrated and so by the time you get to someone like Megan Kelly you might have somebody whose great-grandparents grandparents and parents were all raised to believe that this is an accurate representation of African-American life and that by doning blackface you are appreciating someone she talked about Diana Ross but what I want to say here is there is a massive difference between watching something and consuming it passively and physically painting your face learning how to walk stereotypically speaking in dialect and imitating African-Americans in a way that is very offensive and people don't understand that black people also participated in blackface shows and minstrel because for a lot of them it was the only way to make it in show business and be a performer the impact of minstrel went far deeper than just the shows themselves a lot of the popular songs at the time that people know even now originated in minstal shows camptown Races and O Susanna had overtly racist lyrics often containing the NS slur common jokes like why did the chicken cross the road have origins in minstal humor one of the main events of the minstrel show was a segment called the stump speech where a performer would mimic and exaggerate black dialect deliberately mispronounce words use the words incorrectly and present black people as unintelligent and incapable of proper speech sound familiar this is the direct historical connection to modern-day black sense i'll say it again stump speeches included mimicking and exaggerating black dialect deliberately mispronouncing words incorrect word usage presenting black people as incapable of proper speech as blackface became less acceptable visually it evolved to focus on vocal impersonation i actually mentioned this in my Abbott Elementary video that you guys should check out but Amos and Andy was the first ever black sitcom and it had its roots in minstal shows and mocking black dialect amos and Andy began as a radio show with white actors mimicking black speech in the 1920s they occasionally did in-person shows with blackface but the main focus was the vocal impersonation and trying to sound black the show transition to television with actual black actors but maintained the same stereotypes the show aired in the 1950s this demonstrates how mockery of black speech continued even after the visual element of blackface became unacceptable unacceptable people still do it today so how does this connect to today when you use a black scent or appropriate AAV you're not participating in some new internet trend you're not just using Gen Z slang you're continuing a specific tradition of mockery that has deep roots in American racism you're engaging in a practice that is directly descended from minstra shows just without the black face paint the mockery of black speech patterns wasn't just incidental to minstrey it was fundamental to it and that's exactly what continues today when non-black people put on black sense for entertainment comedy or to seem cool and relatable online the entire I I just want to say this the entire point of mineral and blackface is to appropriate the likeness of of a black person and that includes not only their visual aspect but how we speak how we communicate how we walk how we talk hi Benji here and I'm going to explain what digital blackface is digital blackface is when non-black people use images or emojis of black people to express emotion online often extreme ones like anger or disbelief sometimes images are edited to indicate blackness for this purpose the intents may be innocent but digital blackface like the original use of blackface exploits blackness through media for entertainment the overuse of these images also reinforces negative stereotypes that drive racial discrimination we can use images of people that are a different race it's okay to enjoy popular culture we should just be conscious of the impact the media that we share online may have on communities with less privilege for example if you find you always use images of black women to express sass consider the negative stereotypes you're reinforcing and how this might reflect your own unconscious biases and try a different image next time hope that helps bye quoted in the article what's digital blackface and why is it wrong when white people use it lauren Michelle Jackson says "Digital blackface does not describe intent but an act the act of inhabiting a black persona employing digital technology to co-opt a perceived cache of black cool involves play acting blackness in a minstrelike tradition no matter how brief the performance or playful the intent summoning black images to play types means pureetting on over 150 years of American blackface tradition african-american vernacular English isn't just slang it's a legitimate dialect with consistent grammatical rules syntax and vocabulary that developed from the complex history of African-Americans in this country it emerged from the linguistic patterns of enslaved Americans who were forbidden from speaking their native languages and forced to learn English under brutal conditions again to quote Cara McAnnrews "In the past Aeve was banned from school settings belittled and mocked by racists in America even today people are told they are speaking ghetto or improper English racist cartoons and caricatures would be designed to mock black people by using exaggerated blackface and racist stereotypes depicting black people as uneducated lazy anim animalistic creatures with such a history of white people using AAV for minstal comedy it's concerning to see how AAV is being rebranded today aav isn't broken English the next time someone tries to correct AAV as improper or incorrect remember that white supremacy created a system that denied black people education and then mocked them for how they spoke the normalization of AAV has reached unprecedented levels on platforms like Tik Tok when you scroll through your for you page I want you to take a mental note of how many sounds songs dances phrases come directly from black people it's not 10% it's not 25% it's the majority of the content that is driving these platforms what we're seeing is digital colonization taking black creatives output stripping it of its context and redistributing it as internet culture or Gen Z slang we see this with several black creators creating phrases and sayings that go immensely viral and are co-opted by businesses and firms and they see none of the return on that they are not able to capitalize on it in any way but all of us are just having the blast saying this and not thinking twice about where it comes from or who created it it's like did y'all not see Hidden Figures like I haven't even seen that isn't that the whole message of the movie like I don't know the appropriation isn't just about using the individual words from AAV it's about taking seemingly normal moments of black celebrities and normal people expressing themselves and turning them into performative catchphrases let's look at everyone's favorite well yes which comes from Tokyo Tony i know most people are going to be like oh that how is that an example it's literally just well yes like everybody says that that's not AAV it's not specific to AAV and sure but that's exactly the point it's such a small statement and it is funny if you look at the context of what she's saying it in and saying "Well yes it is funny." But the way it's caught like fire and everybody says it now there's clearly something about the way that black people express and articulate themselves that non-black people find so special so exotic so entertaining that it warrants constant imitation and appropriation and if we're being honest I think the word is envy they're performing them they're putting on a character does that sound familiar it should because remember the stump speeches I mentioned earlier where white performers would mock black dialect for laughs when you film yourself using a black scent or imitating black expressions with exaggerated gestures you're essentially performing a digital stump speech the tools have changed tik Tok instead of theatrical stages subtle vocal shifts instead of black face paint but the fundamental activity remains the same non-black people performing exaggerated blackness for entertainment in the 1800s white audiences would pay to watch white performers mock black speech patterns today non-black creators get paid in views likes and sponsorships for doing essentially the same thing the most insidious part is that many young people have no idea that they're participating in this tradition they think they're just having fun with internet sling or Gen Z language that's how effectively white supremacy has obscured the origins of these practices while continuing to profit from them and now that we've talked about the history of AAV menstrual shows and how it's all interconnected I want to go deeper and try to understand why non-black people are so desperate to use black sense in AAve and have been throughout history the most obvious reason is using it for comedic effect but I also think there's a deep-seated sense of envy and a desire for connection that we're going to explore through some case studies for the comedic aspect I want us to reflect on why it's funny to mimic black speech patterns it's mockery you see this [ __ ] you see this lost in New York i am like officer i'm like I'm like really performer that people like who stole from black people to make their fame now is this an impression or just a racist character you have you do a lot of black voices i don't do a lot of black voices i do a lot of characters and some of them are you know African-American or ethnic do you know who all started out with impressions who's that hitler i want to hear this this uh stereotype this one's a person it's based on a real man when did you start doing voices you never I always do voices he honestly John can do anybody he can impression of anyone if they were black and you can really you can knock it out of the park do demons right now demons was black and had no money oh damn you actually sound more natural and down to earth than your real standup i'm so much happier as that character than I am as myself when watching his own comedy special with two other comedians John Melany jokingly said he feels so much happier as that character than I am as myself after his peers called him out for repeatedly putting on a stereotypical black scent it's a throwaway comment but I think there's some truth to it white people in the US in their quest for assimilation and white supremacy have lost their own cultural roots and they feel that emptiness despite white supremacy being designed to benefit them they're left without a culture and in some ways appropriation has become their culture just glad we're having these conversations in this country you know and they're not easy conversations to have like I was talking to my friend she's Puerto Rican she was like Rosie white women have got to stop wearing hoop earrings you guys are appropriating Latin culture and I was like all right cool i get it you know like your people came up with this [ __ ] um but if you want me to get my own identity uh my people came up with appropriation like technically I'm very in touch with my backgrounds it's just hard to tell a white person to get their own identity it's like telling a homeless person to get a job it's like where cultural ties despite all attempts to strip them of their identity white people consistently try to appropriate blackness and other marginalized cultures to feel connected to something authentic but it always remains superficial because they're taking without understanding or respecting they can't just coexist within the community they have to take the pieces that they like and use them elsewhere to profit off of like white supremacy promotes ryan Cougler demonstrated this dynamic in his latest film Sinners where Remick a vampire from Ireland he was experienced his own oppression at the hands of white supremacy becomes drawn to Sammy a young chest with taking and possessing Sammy's essence for himself not realizing he's doing to Sammy exactly what If you want more of my in-depth thoughts on sinners feel free to hop over to my Patreon and we can have a good time we can have a good discussion about it there were so many themes and so many aspects of it that I really wanted to discuss so I will see you behind the payw wall if you decide to join me thank you i also saw a Tik Tok of someone pointing out how Remick was so KKK he was so offended and he was like "I can't believe you would even think that." And I think that represents a lot of how white people try to distance distance themselves from the overtly proud racist people and like to think "Oh well I'm not doing that so I'm good." Like I how why do you even see me as a threat and then they go on to do what Remick did in the film this is where many queer people like Alex Consani struggle they've experienced oppression through the violence and transphobia that white supremacy promotes they find comfort in queer spaces created maintained and fought for by black queer people but they go too far appropriating things that aren't theirs taking them outside of these communities and making a mockery of them while simultaneously benefiting from them socially and the thing that bothers me the most about Alex Gani is that people try to be like "Oh it's not a big deal like she's just having fun and all this." But she's deliberately building a brand as like I'm just this dumb brat and like I'm just dumb and so why do you need to speak like that to portray that you are dumb like do we not see and then it's always like it's always a caricature it's always larger than life it's always this persona that is obviously not how she acts in real life but this is what gets millions of likes and attention why do we think that is how do you guys think from the 19th century and blackface being the most popular form of entertainment that we've we've we've somehow grown so far away from that when we barely discuss the effects of anti-blackness and racism in this country but we just magically have moved past that despite this being the most effective way to get attention on TikTok when Alex Gani won model of the year she said "I'm the first trans woman to win this award but I can't accept this award without thanking those that came before me." and specifically the black trans women that really fought for the space that I'm in today dominique Jackson Connie Fleming Aon Rose Phillips and countless more you fought for the space that allowed me to flourish today and I'm eternally grateful for that on the surface this seems great she's acknowledging the black trans women that made this possible but why is their existence relegated to a thank you speech why does she then go on to use a black scent and mock the way these very same women speak and profit off of it while they are lost to the sands of time it's really cra I'm still like coming to terms with the fact that I have this award in my hand but like it's so impactful and it's so meaningful but I hope that it means something bigger than just me because like it's not about me and like what I'm celebrated for within the industry is so centered around who I grew up around which are like the black women and the people of color who are trans who are like marginalized and felt and meant to felt and important but they're really the origin of my community and I hope that that opens the conversation to them look at this y'all this is crazy this is why the as long as we give credit to black people defense never made any sense to me what does credit do exactly a quick acknowledgement at the end of your thank you speech does not make up for the continued exploitation and mockery of the very same people you claim to honor it's the ultimate form of disrespect editing Kelan again i just realized when watching her acceptance speech that this is the first time I've heard her speak without the black accent and of course it's when she's being honored on stage in front of a ton of industry professionals and wanting to be taken seriously then all of a sudden the black is nowhere to be found but as soon as she's off stage is back in action this is another example of how they know it is not appropriate and don't use it when they want to be taken seriously but when they want to joke around and show that they're not serious the black scent comes out the other issue here is the lack of identity outside of this performance who is Alex Kani without the black scent i'd guess she's a fiercely talented model who clearly loves to be the center of attention and make people laugh and these are great qualities but why does she feel the need to use a black scent as a crutch for comedy and attention as Carrick McAndrew notes in her article why non-black creators need to stop using AAV on social media placing the point of expression onto black bodies not only perpetuates the harmful belief that black people are more exaggerated in their words and actions but it also absolves the user of putting effort into creating a unique or compelling persona by using blackness as a tool for profit and fame non-black celebrities capitalize upon black creativity for their own gain wearing blackness as a costume for material gain and refusing to credit where it's due or return that profit back to black spaces furthers racial inequalities and promotes the minstal idea that blackness is a costume back to the double standard this question has been on the tip of my tongue ever since I thought about making this video do you guys think if Anokei acted even in the slightest way like Alex Kanani that she would have the same success if we're being brutally honest she probably wouldn't even have a career let alone be able to profit off of her personality and be upheld for her quirky demeanor she would be considered unprofessional ghetto and appropriate yet Alex gets model of the year i'm not trying to discredit Alex's work as a model i'm sure she's very talented i'm not really well verssed in the fashion world at all but acting like there is no double standard or disparity in how she is perceived versus someone like Anokei is ridiculous and we need to point it out and at least talk about it because all the discourse I've seen is like oh yeah like Anokei like she really deserved it last year but Alex really deserves it this year and it's like y'all can't help but discredit and skim over injustice towards black people and it's very telling again back to sinners this is why people praise Ryan Cougler for not code switching to show his pride in his upbringing despite the possibility of coming off as unpolished or unserious to mainstream audiences making the way black people speak inherently comical or unserious harms them when they need to do a job interview and can't code switch or drop the black scent like a white person who is just putting it on for fun black people face realworld consequences for the very language that others treat as a costume and as a trend we're witnessing the treatment of blackness as a personality quirk an aesthetic a comedic flare essentially a mask or costume that can be put on and removed at will white people benefit from performing blackness while black people are punished simply for being themselves we see this pattern repeated endlessly black people having restrictions put on their hair in schools and workplaces while white people wear those same styles with no repercussions or are even praised and seen as edgy or starting a new trend alabama Barker is the perfect example of this privilege as the daughter of Travis Baker she's a wealthy neo baby who's currently trying on blackness much like her family friends the Kardashians before her i found this video on Twitter that demonstrates exactly what I'm talking about choose a player to dingdong ditch but they have to kick the door hardest all right so we should go do that y'all in this neighborhood bro and we get arrested dog get arrested dog attempted burglary like I ain't you know we black it ain't going to look good it was you thinking way too deep into I'm saying but that's the that's the powers that we be going through man it's real out here you feel me hey you see how boring they are no we could do it let's do it in the clip she made fun of her black friends for not wanting to play ding-dong ditch because they were afraid of being arrested based on how differently police treat black youth she got an attitude and called them lame for Alabama blackness is a fun aesthetic a phase something she can put on and take off the black scent the style the music it's all a game to her but for her black friends the consequences of their blackness are real and potentially dangerous they can't take their skin off they can't change their voices and their dialect when the police show up alabama's inability to recognize this to see that what's a costume for her is a live reality for her friends is the exact mindset that makes culture appropriation so harmful she wants the cool parts of blackness without any of the struggle or discrimination she's basically the real life version of Cindy from the Boondogs we'll walk up to them and say "Hi," and they say "What?" And then we say "This is our block now you going to get down or you going to lay down?" And if they be like "Oh oh I don't know let me think about it." We put out the Rosco and we be like "Fuck out [ __ ] out." And they be like "Oh you shot me." Or I guess that was more Billy Eyish right i feel like my favorite cartoon character honestly would be Cindy from the Boondocks cuz that's like me that's like that's me that's me if I if I just did all the things I thought about doing if I didn't have good judgment I think that's me who knows if I have good judgment though low key we can also see that this is a global phenomenon in practice with the K-pop group Kiss of Life and their recent live where they were celebrating one of the members birthday and she wanted the theme to be hip hop and they were just dressed in stereotypical like black outfits and using black sense and eating soul food for fun and using blackness as literal costumes i can do a video on K-pop if y'all want i've been a K-pop fan for since 2014 I think let's say 2014 it's over a decade now so it'll be a good video but that's a whole other can of worms that I'm actually down to get into if y'all want let me know in the comments i also wanted to touch on the lack of accountability and reflection when non-black creators are confronted about their digital blackface or appropriation of AAV there's a pattern of wanting to diminish their actions and refusing to acknowledge them as harmful in any way take Enya and Drew getting called out for using AAV oh I was going to say the the in the pit joke because I know someone's going to be like "You act like that wasn't you a few years ago." Like "Yeah and like what about it?" Like genuinely what about it you've moved on their response didn't show any reflection or acknowledgement it was so dismissive and defensive all right it's editing Kaani and I just rewatched the Enya and Drew clip and I realized that nobody was actually calling Enya or Drew out anna was making fun of the Finnabbe in the pit girl and anticipated that people were going to call her out for also using AAV incorrectly and in my opinion that's actually worse than if people were calling her out because that means that she is aware that she used to misuse AAV and instead of reflecting on it and getting out in front of it and being like "Yeah that was really embarrassing and I'm sorry that we did that." Perfect opportunity there to take accountability and reflect and she said "Nah." Drew said "And what about it?" Genuinely what about it genuinely they could simply say "Yeah that was kind of weird and bad of us and I'm really embarrassed that I did that and I don't think anybody should be using that language or doing that anymore we learned from the mistake and we're wanting to do better." Instead there's this attitude of why should we apologize and this is because it's become so normal to ignore any of the harm done to black people or think that they deserve any kind of acknowledgement or apology if someone has truly changed and grown it shouldn't take much for them to acknowledge how they were wrong in the past and apologize because they've evolved from those behaviors but it's clear many of these creators haven't actually changed and don't recognize the problem which is why they become so defensive when they get called out now let's talk about Jenna Marbles i'm not a fan of Jenna Marbles and I never really was i've always been aware of her i thought she was funny i only watched her infamous apology video for the first time while doing research for this video and I had no idea that she had done blackface until I watched it and she upfront was like "Yeah I did blackface in this yes I mocked Asian people." And it was so jarring to me as someone who didn't know anything about what she had done but consistently heard people saying "Jenna's the only creator that was so unproatic and didn't deserve to be cancelled." I'd heard that so many times i literally didn't think that she had done anything wrong because that's the sentiment that I would see i thought she was just really seeing like the environment that was on YouTube and realizing like she had made mistakes in her past and she wasn't interested in benefiting from it anymore but I didn't know those mistakes were blackface and mocking Asian people i had no idea because what the internet would like to have you think is that she did absolutely nothing wrong because they want her to come back and make videos again this shows that most people literally do not care about racism or its effects in the slightest if it gets in the way of their entertainment and I'm not bringing this up again to reopen the wound and shame Jenna i think her apology was a great first step in the in terms of taking accountability way i'm more so bringing it up to show the reaction from a lot of people because it's literally that clip of the girl from Community saying that she can excuse racism but she draws the line at other things i can excuse racism but I draw the line at animal cruelty you can excuse racism so what that's how a lot of people feel like they're okay with racism as long as it doesn't affect them the lack of accountability is part of a larger cultural pattern where racism specifically anti-lack racism is treated as a minor infraction rather than the deeply harmful force that it actually is when creators appropriate black culture for profit and then dismiss concerns with "And what about it?" It shows how little value is placed on black experiences and perspectives their refusal to acknowledge any harm coupled with audienc's willingness to forgive or ignore racist behavior creates an environment where appropriation can continue unchecked the message is very clear black pain is less important than white entertainment or profit real accountability would require not just apologies but genuine reflection change behavior and a commitment to understanding the historical context and ongoing harm caused by these practices without this we're just perpetuating the same cycles of appropriation and dismissal that have characterized America's relationship with black culture for centuries forever playing the wrong note so now let's talk about some solutions for the people that are using AAV and black sense right now just stop that's the first solution just stop doing it you don't need to do it and going forward if you're somebody who like has used it I'm not trying to condemn you and again I have literally no power over you i'm literally sitting in my bedroom minding my business so I have no power over you i'm not going to be there to to wave my finger at you and tell you you need to stop you literally can take the information from this video and decide what you're going to do with it i cannot tell you to stop but what I can suggest that you do is just be more mindful about the way that you're communicating what you're taking on what you're misusing and who it affects and just in general just be more considerate and mindful of other people and other cultures that you don't understand be curious be open be willing to change ask yourself honestly what are you getting out of using this language and is it worth the potential harm that you could be causing and are you okay with that cuz you could be and that's your choice also just think about the way that your actions and your language would be perceived if you were black would you face discrimination for speaking that way could you easily code switch and do speaking proper standard English in a job interview also just generally be yourself i feel like a lot of this is people lacking their own identity and playing into these traditions that get them easy laughs so that they don't have to challenge themselves or really do the work of discovering who they are and what their identity is and that does everyone a disservice especially yourself be yourself it's all right it's not that deep be yourself you don't talk like that you don't walk like that you don't you don't act like that come on be yourself you have your own unique charm and charisma that you could be tapping into but instead you're relying on outdated practices and the mockery of marginalized people and you don't have to so don't do it for more external things you can do even if you're not black I saw somebody commenting saying that they don't feel like it's their place if you do see somebody doing something that's wrong even if it doesn't affect you you still should say something even something as simple as Phineas calling out Billy for using that accent was like "You don't talk like that like why are you talking like that?" Respect to Phineas i don't know anything about that man but that was great that was baller just check your friends why are you talking like this could really prompt a lot of self-reflection it doesn't have to be confrontational at all i could just be like hey like is there a reason you're talking like this and maybe they'll realize how inauthentic and ridiculous that they sound and stop doing it also normalize accountability it should be normal in your social circles to acknowledge making mistakes and then learn from them so creating an environment where people can say "Oh I used to do that i learned why it was bad and I stopped doing it." could really normalize that this doesn't have to be a big deal it doesn't have to be some cancellation it could just be like "Yeah I I was doing that and I was really misguided and I didn't understand and now I I stopped and I stopped and you can too." And then also amplifying black voices if you're someone who finds yourself consuming a lot of creators that have black sense but aren't black themselves maybe try enjoying content from black creators who do this naturally and aren't putting on a performance that could also work and then these are just some more general things first just continue to educate yourself like I said at the beginning of the video my videos any creators videos should not be where you stop unlearning certain behaviors or learning about certain topics you should always be willing to engage with different materials there's so many historians writers that are doing amazing work that you could always be tapping into and you should be also if you've made it this far into the video I'm sure some parts of this made you uncomfortable i know a lot of people said in my peak wife feminism video that they felt very uncomfortable and that's how they realized that it was important for them to sit through and I do try to be very direct and unfiltered in my approach well I don't try that hard it's just kind of my personality to be honest with you and sometimes I'm like am I even being that unfiltered i don't know but realizing that sometimes when you are uncomfortable it is important for your growth that discomfort is you doing some self-reflection and thinking hey maybe this isn't right and maybe I could change and alleviate some of those feelings so being uncomfortable is not always a sign to run and defend yourself immediately and then I always try to say this but remembering that it's about impact and not intention i know that a lot of people genuinely did not know about this history and most people still don't but knowing that even though you don't know you are still responsible for your own actions and how it impacts other people so always remember impact over intent when someone tells you that your actions are hurtful just believe them even if it wasn't your intent i just want to end by saying that the path forward isn't about shame or guilt it's about growth and respect and I understand that some of my the way I might have presented a lot of this information might have been a little direct and confrontational but you have to understand that this is something that does harm people that look like me and even myself so I am going to be emotional i am going to be a little heated and not like I had some people saying like "Oh you're not you're a little too extreme in the way you present this information and you're not going to convince people that are on the fence." And I'm always like "I don't think it's my responsibility to gentle parent people that are desperate to be dense." I I really just try to be a voice to the experiences and perspectives of people that are often overlooked and articulate feelings that are really hard to articulate because it is so painful for a lot of people and that's really my goal with this and I think I can also educate some people along the way but again my goal is never to gentle parent people that are desperate to be dense that's not my end goal the evolution from blackface to digital appropriation spans centuries but the cycle can end with us if we're willing to make different choices sometimes the most radical act is simply to stop take us act of respect is to allow black culture to belong to black people in 5 to 10 years when we look back on the problematic nature of black sense and the appropriation of AAV how do you want to remember your impact on the issue and that is all I have for you today folks this was probably my longest video i'm anticipating it's like an hour hopefully i did try to put some humor in there but again this was a really hard video to make and I can only imagine the editing is going to be much worse so again I mean thank you for watching and sticking with me this might be my last video for a month and a half because I am graduating college y'all i'm graduating and you know living my life so I'm going to be touching grass for a little bit you might get to see some of it i'll say that but that's all I have for you today thank you again don't forget to like subscribe and comment as always I can't wait to read your thoughts down below and with that I will see you guys in the next one thank you bye