Justice

The "Dear Fat People" YouTuber Just Made "Dear Black People"

November 5th 2015

A few months ago, YouTuber Nicole Arbour made a widely criticized viral video called “Dear Fat People.” Now, Arbour has a new audience she wants to address: Black people. This time around, people are unhappy again.

Arbour opens “Dear Black People” by rapping a parody of Biggie Small’s “Juicy,” and then starts to discuss cultural appropriation.

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“I see y’all using pickles at your barbecues, on your hamburgers. Yeah. That’s appropriating Polish culture.”

What is cultural appropriation?

As ATTN: has reported before, cultural appropriation occurs when a person adopts parts of a culture that isn’t their own. This usually happens when a dominant majority group takes elements of culture from a minority group without comprehension of the appropriated culture’s background, life experience, or traditions.

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This is not the same as a cultural exchange, Everyday Feminism points out, in which people mutually share elements of culture.

Arbour's perspective

"Dear Black People" ScreenshotNicole Arbour/YouTube - youtube.com

In what she says is an attempt to start dialogue about the topic through humor, Arbour says that cultural appropriation occurs because “Black people’s shit is just cooler.”

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“Can we talk about your nails for a second? I’m not trying to “appropriate” and “steal,” Arbour says, using air quotes. “I just really fucking like it.” Then leaning in, she says: “When your nails are this big, how do you wipe your ass?”

Arbour invites a Black friend to join her on the video as well.

“To act as my insurance policy on this video — I mean, to join me on this video — my friend, LaToya.”

"Dear Black People" ScreenshotNicole Arbour/YouTube - youtube.com

Arbour says that she makes jokes and pokes fun at these issues because she wants to make people laugh and start conversation.

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“I am fucking sick of hearing that I don’t know the struggle, because you’re right. I don’t. And I’d really like you to explain it to me so I can help,” she says. “I’m making jokes and making light right now because that’s what I do in awkward situations, but I find what I see happening to the Black population disgusting. I don’t even know how to pretend slavery doesn’t still exist because it does.”

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