For a network that claims the left’s woke ideology doesn’t exist, they sure seem to display it often. Maybe they should look in a mirror, or read their own website if they want to know what woke is. In one of the most absurd claims ever made on CNN (and there’s a lot of competition), CNN.com senior writer John Blake wrote an entire column explaining why posting memes with black people in them is considered “digital blackface.” Blake made clear that this only applies to white people. Apparently, Hispanics or other minorities are unable to commit digital blackface by posting memes of black people.
In the piece published Sunday titled “What’s ‘digital blackface?’ And why is it wrong when White people use it?” Blake starts off by listing possible examples that normal every day Americans online have presumably posted over the years:
Maybe you shared that viral video of Kimberly “Sweet Brown” Wilkins telling a reporter after narrowly escaping an apartment fire, “Ain’t nobody got time for that!”
Perhaps you posted that meme of supermodel Tyra Banks exploding in anger on “America’s Next Top Model” (“I was rooting for you! We were all rooting for you!”). Or maybe you’ve simply posted popular GIFs, such as the one of NBA great Michael Jordan crying, or of drag queen RuPaul declaring, “Guuuurl…”
According to Blake, “If you’re Black and you’ve shared such images online, you get a pass. But if you’re White, you may have inadvertently perpetuated one of the most insidious forms of contemporary racism. You may be wearing digital blackface.”
"Digital blackface is a practice where White people co-opt online expressions of Black imagery, slang, catchphrases or culture to convey comic relief or express emotions,” Blake ludicrously explains.
He then quotes from Lauren Michele Jackson, a cultural critic, and author who also bought into this latest made-up grievance from the radical left: “Many white people choose images of black people when it comes to expressing exaggerated emotions on social media – a burden that black people didn’t ask for.”
Anticipating the well-deserved mockery he would receive from this absurd piece, he explains why the made-up term “digital blackface” is wrong:
Critics say digital blackface is wrong because it’s a modern-day repackaging of minstrel shows, a racist form of entertainment popular in the 19th century. That’s when white actors, faces darkened with burnt cork, entertained audiences by playing black characters as bumbling, happy-go-lucky simpletons. That practice continued in the 20th century on hit radio shows such as “Amos ‘n’ Andy."
Despite deciding to write an entire article lecturing his readers, Blake himself apparently has a hard time defining “digital blackface.”
“In trying to define digital blackface, it depends on who you talk to. The standard for some is comparable to what one Supreme Court Justice once said when asked his test for pornography: 'I know it when I see it',” Blake explains.
“This guidance might help: If a white person shares an image online that perpetuates stereotypes of black people as loud, dumb, hyperviolent or hypersexual, they’ve entered digital blackface territory.”
One example he uses is of a woman named “Sweet Brown” who was a victim of this supposed “digital blackface” when she was turned into a meme after a television interview. But you can’t make up the term digital blackface without also coining the term digital whiteface.
After all, there are plenty of white people who have been turned into viral memes as well. Many of which are embarrassing situations for those involved. That’s apparently not a problem for John Blake or CNN.
This is your brain on CNN. Don't let your children watch it. They will end up just as deranged as John Blake.
