Oh boy. It’s finally here. The day I get to talk about Digital Blackface in an academic setting.
If you had told me two months ago that I would be writing a blog post about Digital Blackface for an assignment, I would have been like
But somehow, the time has come. I’m more than ready to dive in. And if this blog post seems a little ridiculous to you–like it’s some far-fetched joke that struggles to be funny, but no one really gets–well, that’s exactly how I feel about the concept of Digital Blackface through reaction GIFs.
Believe it or not, the term Digital Blackface is not new to me: in fact, I was hearing about this ‘issue’ about the time this Fall Semester began, although not through Teen Vogue, but through BBC. So this is actually something that has been on my mind for months now.
I’m going to link a video by a man named Ethan Klein who explains the ridiculousness of the concept of Digital Blackface better than I ever could. Ethan is not by any means an academic individual, so if you do end up watching the video, keep that in mind. This is a piece of comedy, but also commentary: even though he looks ridiculous, he basically summarizes everything wrong with Digital Blackface.
I really wish I could have passed this one by, but as interesting as the technological and social history of the GIF is, the concept of Digital Blackface through GIFs is just too obnoxiously absurd to pass up. I mean, look at all the GIFs containing black people in this post.
Am I a racist because of this? I don’t think so, but apparently some people do. And yes, black facing is directly correlated with racist views in today’s society (and I’m certainly not saying that correlation is typically wrong): people have been fired, expelled, beaten, doxxed, etc. because of IRL black face behavior. So if I use GIFs in a manner such as I have in this post, am I deserving of the same outcome? Teen Vogue and BBC seem to think I do. Because despite what we would all like to think, there are no levels to racist behavior: there is simply racist, and not racist. If someone sees me using a GIF including a black person and perceives that as Digital Blackface, then I am perceived as racist. Regardless of intent. It’s preposterous and completely ridiculous in my eyes.
In the context of the history of the GIF, the thought of Digital Blackface through the medium of a GIF seems… unimportant. I mean sure, you could use this to argue that GIFs are increasing in societal prevalence, and even say that GIFs are now so important and influential, they can be politicized. But I counter-argue with the fact that everything is politicized in today’s world. Next week maybe the type of car I drive will determine whether I’m racist or not, who knows? People will always reach: they will attempt to find the offensive in the inoffensive, the controversial within the simple, the racism within the harmless interaction. The GIF isn’t special: it’s a casualty.
Wow, that got pretty political pretty fast. Here’s some more Ethan to lighten the mood.
Sources:
https://giphy.com/gifs/showtime-hbo-prime-puOukoEvH4uAw (Suspicious GIF)
https://tenor.com/view/snap-gif-4668507 (Oh Snap GIF)
http://forum.isthmus.com/viewtopic.php?t=63826 (Look Up GIF)
https://www.reddit.com/r/h3h3productions/comments/6y3ety/digital_jewface/ (Digital Jewface GIF)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11_-1_hvExU (BBC Introduces “Digital Blackface” Video)
