Last Updated on March 30, 2023
A CNN “analysis” piece titled “What’s ‘digital blackface’ and why is it wrong when white people use it?” accuses white meme posters of “wearing digital blackface,” and lectures white internet users on the “minstrel show” racism of sharing memes, gifs, or other images that feature black people online.
After rattling off a list of famous and widely-used internet memes that include gifs or photographs of a black person, CNN “analyst” John Blake claimed in the write-up that if you’re white and have ever posted one of them, “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,” claims Blake. “These expressions, what one commentator calls racialized reactions, are mainstays in Twitter feeds, TikTok videos, and Instagram reels, and are among the most popular Internet memes.”
Expanding on his definition of “digital blackface,” Blake took inspiration from Teen Vogue story-writer and “cultural critic” Lauren Michele Jackson, citing her when he claimed that white people posting memes is indicative of an internal desire to be black, surmising that “digital blackface involves White people play-acting at being Black.”
“Jackson says the Internet thrives on White people laughing at exaggerated displays of Blackness,” wrote Blake. “Reflecting a tendency among some to see ‘Black people as walking hyperbole.’”
“Digital blackface is wrong because it’s a modern-day repackaging of minstrel shows, a racist form of entertainment popular in the 19th century,” Blake went on to claim as his CNN write-up turned into a lecturing of white internet users, calling on them to “refrain” from using any “black memes,” in an apparent endorsement internet/meme-posting Jim Crow rules.
Read the bizarre CNN “digital blackface” article HERE
Related: BLM Activist Calls Dragonball-Z ‘Racist’ Due to Mr. Popo’s Alleged Blackface
Interestingly enough, though CNN and other left-wing media outlets have an apparent obsession with accusing white people, especially white Christians and conservatives, of racism, virtually the only people caught wearing actual painted-on blackface in the 21st and late 20th century are now prominent Democrat politicians.
In an infamous story broken by National File’s Patrick Howley, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam was caught wearing blackface in a medical school yearbook photograph. At a press conference held to address the blackface yearbook photo, Northam admitted to further wearing of blackface, telling the press that he once painted himself black to imitate Michael Jackson in a dance competition.
After the Northam blackface revelation came to light, his administration’s Democrat Attorney General, Mark Herring, also admitted to wearing blackface.
Much like the two Virginia Democrats, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs has had a blackface and racism scandal of her own, organizing a spirit week at her high school that featured a “slave day” among other things.
Read More: Blackface & Servitude: Katie Hobbs Organized ‘Slave Day’ for Her Catholic High School