Recently Amandla Stenberg released a very controversial YouTube video titled “Don’t Cash Crop On My Cornrows.” The video was met with the usual reactions. Most black people agreed with her as well as many white people. Then you had the segment of “De-railers.”
De-railers are people who bring up the same tired defensive arguments whenever you mention something even slightly negative about the relationship whites have with blacks in America. Here are a few examples from the YouTube comments,
What makes racism so dangerous isn’t that it’s always blatant. It’s the exact opposite. It’s usually in the form of well-intended “microagressions,” which are small unintended slights made against another person.The people who are the worst offenders always say they have “black friends”, and they probably feel comfortable making jokes and comments about their culture. This is coming from a former “token black friend” of many white kids. For many whites, black culture is trendy and fun. The story and struggle behind the culture isn’t as important as the “let’s walk on the wild side” feeling they get when they engage in black culture.
And while many artists and celebrities enjoy “walking on the wild side,” they don’t necessarily like getting involved and taking a stand on racial issues. You see the examples of Miley Cyrus twerking and Taylor Swift who likes to “shake it off shake it off.” ?Many of the same celebrities you see using black culture in order to profit also expertly avoids upsetting their white audience by taking any kind of a stand on controversial racial subjects. The artist Macklemore even wrote a song addressing this issue head on, and I give him all the credit in the world for doing so.
So many white people are willing to buy the clothes, wear the hairstyles, talk “ghetto,” and buy the music. But those same whites will usually stay quiet or even agree with other whites when they disparage or criticize blacks. Very few whites who love black culture are willing to take a stand against racial injustice. But then again maybe I’m being too sensitive? Maybe I should “shake it off shake it off”? You can watch the video below.
