COMIC: Avoiding Accountability with culturally insensitive propaganda 101
Folks continue to make shit up about Africans and other Indigenous people to push whatever flavor of unaccountability was popular that week.
COMIC: Avoiding Accountability with culturally insensitive propaganda 101
by JeCorey Holder
Children gather ’round and listen to a tale. This curvey ol’ swamp witch, ageless as the sea and just as capricious, is about to take you all the way back to the distant days of the mid-2000’s. The Hallowed Towers of Tumblr were at their blue peak, bustling with fandom discourse and back-seat Egalitarians. The nigh unstoppable monster that is the k-pop trend was in its Black-Culture-stealing prime.
It was around the year of 2014 when a little thing called The Ferguson Riots began. And oh did people ever have *opinions* on how Black people were acting. It was a lot of back and forth. A lot of “mask-off” moments among friends. Typical ride for a little social upheaval. As a fairly young millennial I am used to it. Anyway…
Among the mentally exhausting din of dog-whistle racism, I’ve noticed an uptick of scheming from the Positivity Cult. You know the type. Grown-ass adults who think “Good Vibes Only” is a worthy personality trait. They are keen on derailing any sort of uncomfortable socio-political discourse with some wonky attempt to “Let’s just remember The Golden Rule”. Sad. Don’t trust any kool-aid they give you, I’m just saying.
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Now, there are particularly insidious brands of memes masquerading as facts about fictionalized Black and Indigenous tribes.
It wasn’t until some time later that I recognized the lies.. Which made me, still processing the grief of America’s boiling racial turmoil, wonder why and how many more? How long have these tales been presented as truth?
RELATED: Why we need to stop excluding Black populations from ideas of who is “Indigenous”
Folks continue to make shit up about Africans and other Indigenous people to push whatever flavor of unaccountability was popular that week. All while our people were suffering. Absolutely ghoulish.
How many more of these culturally insensitive fictions from “Tribes™” have I encountered and blithely accepted? I can’t lie, I still feel dirty.
Good thing folks grew out of that, right? …Right??
Gamer, geek, and social activist. JeCorey Holder has been weaving tapestries of shade and fury since the early 2000’s. Pro-LGBTQ, pro-black, and pro intersectional feminism, he is full of feelings and opinions that try to call out and tear down the oppressive status quo.