The Feel of Life Reflection

While reading this weeks article by Herman Gray, I was instantly reminded of other "youtube sensations" like Sweet Brown (linked below), who became an internet sensation similar to Antoine Dodson. Sweet Browns news interview also went viral and became an autotuned song that became popular across the nation. The exploitative nature of both circumstances is almost eerily similar when you compare the literal structure of the video interviews. Both Dodson and Sweet Brown come from impoverished neighborhoods and seem to be talking with a strong sense of pathos as mentioned in Grays article. While yes, their vernacular and choice of language is comical the clear intent of their interviews was to simply explain an issue that happened within their community. However even the simple juxtaposition of their voices wth the news reporters creates such a clear and disturbing sense of the other thats hard to justify. I feel like I have an understanding and appreciation for their candid responses and can listen to the songs in a lighthearted sense because they don't affirm a stereotype of black people in my mind. As a member of the Black community I know that this obviously isn't a cut and dry representation of blackness because thats nonsensical and simplistic. However its hard to watch these videos and not wonder how a white person with little or no understanding of black culture will interpret it. Videos like this become increasingly dangerous when they turn black people into a joke, exploiting their circumstances for comical gain in the eyes of people who are already prejudiced.

As Gray notes in her article, this becomes even more of an issue when these videos are structured to "see." Or more specifically, when they're created around a "raced way of seeing," meaning that the videos pry on stereotypes as an example of a specific culture. Clearly in the past two examples this has been formatted as a misrepresentation of black culture by white people. But then I think of other youtube sensations like Danielle Bregoli who become "famous" by exploiting the stereotypes of "ghetto culture" for financial gain. She was also sensationalized and thus pushed into the category of the other. But rather for emulating what people equate with blackness.

I think her race plays an interesting role in this as her youtube persona also creates a space for radicalized seeing. Many people criticized her not for being disrespectful or ignorant, but for trying to act black. This is obviously problematic for a multitude of reasons, one being that negative traits are being associated with blackness while civility is associated with whiteness. Additionally, it mocks the actual truth behind the lives of black people who do speak in slang but aren't going to get a record deal from it. While she sits on top of Mercedes cars, counting cash, flaunting her wealth and getting paid to do so, black people are made into viral videos and then forgotten. Overall, I think that there's an immense double standard that the media creates between race and representation which needs to be recognized and called out.