CNN has been lambasted over its “digital blackface” claims, where white people who use the meme of a black person to express a strong emotion are described as “play-acting at being black.”
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The analysis piece written by John Blake is titled “What’s ‘digital blackface?’ And why is it wrong when White people use it?”
Blake opined that white people who share memes featuring black people “may have inadvertently perpetuated one of the most insidious forms of contemporary racism.”
He referenced RuPaul’s “Guuuurl…”GIF, Michael Jordan’s crying face, comedian Holly Logan “hold my wig” meme and a Tyra Bank moment from America’s Next Top Model as examples of the usage.
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Blake defined the so-called digital blackface phenomenon as “a practice where White people co-opt online expressions of Black imagery, slang, catchphrases or culture to convey comic relief or express emotions,” and white people who do it are “play-acting at being Black.”
He cited an essay writer Lauren Michele Jackson penned for Teen Vogue in which she says the internet thrives on white people laughing at emotional displays of blackness — and, as a result, view black people as “walking hyberbole.”
Jackson wrote, “No matter how brief the performance or playful the intent, summoning black images to play types means pirouetting on over 150 years of American blackface tradition.”
“Blackface” refers to a form of entertainment that took hold prior to the Civil War in which white performers painted their faces black and exaggerated their features for minstrel shows.
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However Blake’s story was widely panned on Twitter as users accused CNN of “essentially calling for the segregation of memes.”
One person mused, “Next they’ll say you’re guilty of audio blackface for singing along to hits by black people…”
Another person added: “I’m Black and I been Black my whole life. I have never read something stupider than this ever.”
The consensus was that the news network can no longer be taken seriously.
“It’s CNN. What do you expect?” asked one user. “Total clown show.”
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