Non-black people should not distribute Oprah Winfrey memes from the interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle – because that supports “ digital blackface, ” complains a nonprofit.
The Slow Factory Foundation, which is committed to social and environmental justice, issued the warning on its Instagram page on Tuesday, saying that “digital blackface” is an “online phenomenon” where white and non-black people share images of black people to express emotions. to express.
Oprah Winfrey’s various facial responses during the interview resulted in a ton of viral memes.
“While seemingly harmless, the problem with digital blackface is that it often reinforces negative stereotypes about black people, such as being aggressive, boisterous, cheeky, and just here for your consumption and entertainment,” the message reads.
The organization added, “Conducting blackness, whether IRL or online, is not an acceptable form of response or dissatisfaction, especially in exchange for likes and retweets.”
“Since the #MeghanandHarry interview on Oprah, we’ve seen a lot of digital blackface breaches with some of Oprah’s reaction GIFs and images going viral, but that doesn’t mean you should be using them,” the Slow Factory continued.
A popular Oprah meme features the media mogul with a shocked expression on her face after Markle revealed to her that someone in the royal family was concerned about baby Archie’s skin color once he was born.
Some people on social media praised the organization for raising awareness of ‘digital blackface’.
Thank you for explaining this so clearly. Very useful, ”wrote one Instagram user.
“Thank you very much for this – this was something I hadn’t realized and I will certainly think a lot more about the gifs I choose and why,” wrote another user.
Meanwhile, others felt that the Slow Factory’s coverage was going too far.
“Blackface is a violent and harmful depiction of black people rooted in violence. Using a poison from Oprah is NOT a blackface, ”one person wrote.
“Response pictures / gifs and memes are universal and are certainly not part of” digital black face, “said another person.” I feel like that is extremely divisive. People use reaction photos of those of a different race all the time and I don’t see how harmful that is. ”
The term “digital blackface” has been around for years, but writer Lauren Michele Jackson popularized it in a 2017 essay for Teen Vogue.