Hard Wire

'Digital Blackface' Accusations From CNN Spawn Hilarious Reponses Online

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John Blake, a writer for CNN has elected to accuse all white people of wearing "digital blackface" if they choose to share any memes or gifs that feature a black person or expressions as a means to "convey comic relief or express emotions."

Seemingly trying to rebrand some of the most popular gifs and memes as "radicalized reactions," Blake made the argument that black people should "get a pass" for their use -- but when white people choose to make use of them, they have "inadvertently perpetuated one of the most insidious forms of contemporary racism."

Blake continued on his rant to quote an article from a 2017 edition of Teen Vogue that was written by Lauren Michele Jackson -- in which she made the argument that people more often than not went out of their way to cherry-pick gifs showing black people when trying to show more extreme emotions.

"While reaction GIFs can and do every feeling under the sun, white and nonblack users seem to especially prefer GIFs with black people when it comes to emitting their most exaggerated emotions," exclaimed Jackson in her piece. "Extreme joy, annoyance, anger and occasions for drama and gossip are a magnet for images of black people, especially black femmes."

Blake would go even further beyond in the article to make reference to "digital blackface" as a "modern-day repackaging of minstrel shows."

Despite his high horse and spotless references to Teen Vogue, when the article went live and made its rounds this past Sunday on Twitter, the platforms users and a number of critics tore into the idea with reckless abandon.

Clay Travis, a radio host, quickly leashed the idea being pushed to the transgender movement, stating in a tweet, "I’d love to hear an explanation of how posting a gif or meme of a black person online is digital blackface, but a man dressing up like a woman in real life is heroic. Please explain @cnn."

Nicholas Fondacaro with the Media Research Center went on to add, "CNN boss Chris Licht: I want to make CNN a place of reasonable discussions again. CNN: Segregate memes!!!"

"CNN is more concerned about digital blackface than they are biological men wearing womanface IRL," chimed in Siraj Hashmi.

"The modern-day segregationists do everything possible to keep people divided by race, prevent them from having joyful and natural interactions, ban them from appreciating the culture and humor of others, and in general demand that they have as little in common as possible," stated independent journalist Glenn Greenwald.

Even Ben Shapiro, most well-known as the editor of the Daily Wire, piled in with the hot take, "When the demand for racism radically outstrips the supply."

 

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