#why be racist and bring down poc creators who are just trying to find joy in their own features

[crowrelli]

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[joshnekuu]

I’ve been thinking about this the past couple days and I’m not sure how much it is my place to say this, but I feel like Black people and other POC shouldn’t have to be the only ones talking about this stuff. And if this is out of line, I’ll take it down. I want to talk about how people, and by people I do mean white people, have been handling the recent events with youtubers Jenna Marbles and Shane Dawson bringing up racist things they did in the past and apologizing for them, and how a lot of the responses to this have been focused more on the feelings of these youtubers and their own feelings about them leaving or being called out, rather than the feelings of the people who were hurt or offended by their content, and why that isn’t a great way to be handling this sort of thing.

So I don’t follow a whole lot of YouTubers, but in the recent spurt of YouTubers getting called out for racist (among other problematic, to say the last) things they did in the past, Jenna Marbles is the only one who I actually followed, I have never watched anything by Shane Dawson. But I’m not going to talk about my personal feelings on any of these people, because the point of this post is that They Don’t Matter.

I am white. When another white person does something racist, I do not have the power or the right to forgive them for it. Because their actions did not target and hurt me. Even if it was something they did a long time ago, even if they have genuinely grown as a person, even if they have owned up to it and apologized for their actions and have put in effort to improve themselves. It is not my place to forgive them or absolve them of their actions, NOR is any individual from a group who was targeted required to forgive them and accept their apology. It is up to them to decide whether they want to forgive that person or not, and if they don’t forgive them, then that really is not anyone else’s business.

It’s important to allow space for people to grow and improve as human beings, but even as we grow and improve, there is never a guarantee that the people we hurt will forgive us for hurting them, and that forgiveness is never owed. Part of becoming a more mature person is accepting that, even if it may be hard.

Right now, it is important to support Black people. And doing that means listening to what the say. It means not questioning their judgements or demanding they forgive celebrities for racist shit they said or did, regardless of context or when it happened. You’re allowed to have complicated feelings about whatever YouTuber, and you’re allowed to feel sad about losing a content creator who brought you joy, but right now is not a time for making things about ourselves and our feelings about whether it’s Fair or not.

Because before you ask if it’s fair for multiple youtubers to be called out on racist things they said or did as ‘jokes’ years ago, maybe we should be asking why these types of ‘jokes’ were so normalized. Why these people felt so comfortable making these jokes, wearing blackface, using racial slurs. Why it’s only now that enough people are saying something about it that they’ve felt any pressure to talk about it and apologize for it.

And you know what is unfair? The fact that people had to take to the streets, protest and riot, before the officers who murdered George Floyd were held fully accountable. The fact that the officer who broke into Breonna Taylor’s house and murdered her has not been charged, and was only fired at the start of June, despite a law being passed that would have anyone who repeated his actions charged. The fact that there can be full on video footage of police officers brutalizing Black people while arresting them, footage of them KILLING them, and it still doesn’t get these people arrested, or even fired in a lot of cases.

It’s unfair for any white person to expect Black people to quietly and respectfully sit back while we cry more over our favorite youtuber leaving youtube than over the senseless murders of any of the Black individuals since George Floyd, since Michael Brown, since Forever.

I know that it probably doesn’t seem like it, but I’m really not trying to invalidate people’s feelings. I understand that everyone goes through things differently. Everyone has different limits. There is a lot of awful shit happening in the world right now, and a lot of us feel helpless, even as we make efforts to help in whatever ways we can. And it’s important to avoid burning yourself out, so that you can continue to help in the long run. And having things that help you cope and avoid burning out are good.

But when we make such a big deal out of these youtubers we are sending an incredibly invalidating message to Black people! We are essentially saying that the popularity of these people and what their content gives us is more important than their feelings.

If someone said something cruel to you, if someone hurt you, and then everyone around you expected you to forgive them just because it was a long time ago, wouldn’t that make you feel uncomfortable? Wouldn’t it seem like they were invalidating your feelings?

It doesn’t matter whether that’s our intent or not, it doesn’t matter if you are not consciously thinking that, if it never even occurred to you that that might be the message you’re sending- because the message is still being sent. It has already been sent. We are saying “I know that these people hurt you, I know they made light of your struggles, of your personhood, but they made me happy, so I don’t care, and neither should you.” We are saying “This is what is important to me right now, more important than the violence this country is threatening and enacting against you.” We are saying “I only care about the things that affect me directly.”

Again. I am not saying that for everyone, this is a conscious thought process! But again, the intent of your actions and your words does not change the fact that these are the sorts of messages those actions and words are sending. If you want to be sad, be sad, but at the moment, it’s a good time to keep it to yourself. Talk about it with some close friends, and try to find peace and move on. Because there’s a lot of horrid things happening in the world right now, and we need to be supporting each other. If your youtubers have really changed, good for them, but remember that it is not your place to give them forgiveness, and it is not your place to demand forgiveness from Black people.

I would like to say that this sort of mentality applies to any marginalized group, but right now I think it especially needs to be said in regards to Black people (considering blackface is a connecting theme here). Just know that I believe the same applies to any specific type of racism, to homophobia, to transphobia, to anyone targeted by insensitive and hurtful humor or statements. You are not required to forgive someone for being racist/homophobic/transphobic/sexist, and the person apologizing should not be motivated solely by seeking forgiveness- they should want to be a better person and not repeat the harmful things they’ve done.

And before anyone jumps in to argue whether Jenna Marbles or Shane Dawson HAVE truly grown and aren’t just seeking forgiveness, that’s not what this post is about. I’m not here to weigh in on that, because ultimately, the genuineness of their sentiments it is not the point of this discussion. I’m not making this post to argue or debate people.

The bottom line is, listen to Black people. Don’t tell them how to feel or react. Don’t take it personally and get upset if not everyone wants to accept apologies for racist things someone did. Don’t take it personally and get upset when people get frustrated or angry with others for defending them! Understand how your reactions affect others, and do your best to be conscientious. That is all.