A couple of months ago some people I know were talking about the idea of whites on twitter using memes/reaction gifs of black folks — talking about how it felt appropriative and squicky, like white use of AAVE as a signal for “cool/realness”.
It rubbed me the wrong way at the time — they’re just GIFs, what if a GIF of a black person is just the perfect one, reaction gifs aren’t the same as identity, blah blah. Reflex pushback.
Since then I’ve been trying to be more thoughtful about it, not because I think it’s “bad” per se but because I take those folks’ perspectives seriously and wanted to give it a shot. It IS really easy for whites to reinforce “blackness as comic trope” regardless of the intention.
And after a few months it doesn’t feel forced or weird — but I’ve also been thinking a lot more about how much we associate blackness and whiteness with certain kinds of funny, certain signifiers of authenticity.
This isn’t some big Hot Take or (necessarily) a call for anyone to do the same thing, but I would absolutely encourage everybody who’s part of a “normative/centered” group or identity to chew on what broader cultural signifiers we reinforce with our casual comma here on Twitter.
It’s given me a lot to think about and I really appreciate the folks who were willing to bring it up.