Buzzfeed Made a Video for Black People and They Hate It
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Buzzfeed is facing some harsh backlash for its video posing "27 Questions" to the black community, which critics say validate racist misperceptions.
The Buzzfeed video features Black people asking questions to the entire race.
Yikes.
Here's how Black people are responding.
The immediate comments on the video's Youtube page had some harsh criticisms. Commenters said they didn't find questions like "Do you really believe that 'Black is Beautiful' or is that just something you say because it sounds cool?" to be relatable. There were also complaints that the questions weren't helpful, because there were no answers provided.
Youtube/BuzzfeedVideo - youtube.com
Youtube/BuzzfeedVideo - youtube.com
Youtube/BuzzfeedVideo - youtube.com
But this was just a warm up for what Twitter had in store. Using the hashtags #BlackTwitter and #BuzzFeedVideoQuestions, Twitter users decimated the video.
Other Twitter users came up with their own hilarious #BuzzFeedVideoQuestions, to mock the original video's shortcomings.
Here's the why people are offended.
The questions in the Buzzfeed video seemingly accuse the Black community of being fully responsible for its own problems, an approach is commonly used by comedian Bill Cosby.
AP Photo/Mel Evans - apimages.com
In his infamous 2004 "Poundcake" speech Cosby blamed poverty and crime in the Black community on a lack of moral values, and supported the idea that police officers should be able to kill Black people for minor crimes.
Looking at the incarcerated, these are not political criminals. These are people going around stealing Coca-Cola. People getting shot in the back of the head over a piece of pound cake! Then we all run out and are outraged, ‘The cops shouldn’t have shot him.’ What the hell was he doing with the pound cake in his hand?”
In 2008, writer Ta-Nehisi Coates addressed the problem with prominent Black celebrities, like Cosby, placing the full burden of the problems in the Black community on the personal failings of Black People.
As Cosby sees it, the antidote to racism is not rallies, protests, or pleas, but strong families and communities. Instead of focusing on some abstract notion of equality, he argues, blacks need to cleanse their culture, embrace personal responsibility, and reclaim the traditions that fortified them in the past. — Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic
Gary Curtis, one of the actors in the video responded to the backlash on Facebook.
Facebook/Gary Curtis - facebook.com
Curtis seemed to stress that the video didn't intend to validate the questions posed in the video, but to make people aware that they exist. "Though a question may not be one you have, it doesn't mean another black person doesn't have that question." Curtis wrote in a Facebook post. "Do I agree with every question? No. Do I know some of the answers? Yes. But that doesn't make anyone's question less valid."
