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witter CEO Elon Musk reached his limit with CNN after the network posted an absurd article titled, ‘What’s ‘digital blackface?’ And why is it wrong when White people use it?’ The network added this caption on social media:
“If you’re White and you’ve posted a GIF or meme of a Black person to express a strong emotion, you may be guilty of wearing ‘digital blackface.’”
If you are confused what digital blackface is, CNN cites Lauren Michele Jackson’s article where she said it “includes displays of emotion stereotyped as excessive: so happy, so sassy, so ghetto, so loud… our dial is on 10 all the time — rarely are black characters afforded subtle traits or feelings.
“We are your sass, your nonchalance, your fury, your delight, your annoyance, your happy dance, your diva, your shade, your ‘yaas’ moments,” Jackson writes. “The weight of reaction GIFing, period, rests on our shoulders.
“But while these examples are particularly noteworthy for their malicious intent, digital blackface has softer counterparts, just like offline blackface.
“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 or black cool, too, involves playacting blackness in a minstrel-like tradition.
“This can be as elaborate as anon accounts like @ItsLaQueefa or as inadvertent as recruiting images of black queer men to throw shade at one’s enemies.
“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.
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— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 26, 2023
