a pleasant surprise

(Source: crocodileblackpelvis, via special-snowflake-hall-of-fame)

thepeoplesrecord:

The troubling viral trend of the “hilarious” Black poor person
May 7, 2013

Charles Ramsey, the man who helped rescue three Cleveland women presumed dead after going missing a decade ago, has become an instant Internet meme. It’s hardly surprising—the interviews he gave yesterday provide plenty of fodder for a viral video, including memorable soundbites (“I was eatin’ my McDonald’s”) and lots of enthusiastic gestures. But as Miles Klee and Connor Simpson have noted, Ramsey’s heroism is quickly being overshadowed by the public’s desire to laugh at and autotune his story, and that’s a shame. Ramsey has become the latest in a fairly recent trend of “hilarious” black neighbors, unwitting Internet celebrities whose appeal seems rooted in a “colorful” style that is always immediately recognizable as poor or working-class.

Before Ramsey, there was Antoine Dodson, who saved his younger sister from an intruder, only to wind up famous for his flamboyant recounting of the story to a reporter. Since Dodson’s rise to fame, there have been others: Sweet Brown, a woman who barely escaped her apartment complex during a fire last year, and Michelle Clarke, who couldn’t fathom the hailstorm that rained down in her hometown of Houston, and in turn became “the next Sweet Brown.”

Granted, the buzzworthy tactic of reporters interviewing the most loquacious witnesses to a crime or other event is nothing new, and YouTube has countless examples of people of all ethnicities saying ridiculous things. One woman, for instance, saw fit to casually mention her breasts while discussing a local accident, while another man described a car crash with theatrical flair. Earlier this year, a “hatchet-wielding hitchhiker” named Kai matched Dodson’s fame with his astonishing account of rescuing a woman from a racist attacker. But none of those people have been subjected to quite the same level of derisive memeification as Brown, Clark, and now, perhaps, Ramsey—the inescapable echoes of “Hide yo’ kids, hide yo’ wife!” and “Kabooyaw,” the tens of millions of YouTube hits and cameos in other viral videos, even commercials.

It’s difficult to watch these videos and not sense that their popularity has something to do with a persistent, if unconscious, desire to see black people perform. Even before the genuinely heroic Ramsey came along, some viewers had expressed concern that the laughter directed at people like Sweet Brown plays into the most basic stereotyping of blacks as simple-minded ramblers living in the “ghetto,” socially out of step with the rest of educated America. Black or white, seeing Clark and Dodson merely as funny instances of random poor people talking nonsense is disrespectful at best. And shushing away the question of race seems like wishful thinking.

Ramsey is particularly striking in this regard, since, for a moment at least, he put the issue of race front and center himself. Describing the rescue of Amanda Berry and her fellow captives, he says, “I knew something was wrong when a little pretty white girl ran into a black man’s arms. Something is wrong here. Dead giveaway!”

The candid statement seems to catch the reporter off guard; he ends the interview shortly afterward. And it’s notable that among the many memorable things Ramsey said on camera, this one has gotten less meme-attention than most. Those who are simply having fun with the footage of Ramsey might pause for a second to actually listen to the man. He clearly knows a thing or two about the way racism prevents us from seeing each other as people.

Source

Now that you know this is a thing, please stop sharing these memes. Poor Black people speaking candidly about various serious incidents isn’t a hilarious joke.

“It’s difficult to watch these videos and not sense that their popularity has something to do with a persistent, if unconscious, desire to see black people perform. ”

oh that’s easy it’s because you’re a fucking idiot

zone3:

brostep & trap all night!!!!! come out and party

i swear to fuck this is every fucking asshole who sends an invite to anything in atlanta

forlackofabettercomic:

If your Privilege stat is above 20, you are forced to roll a Privilege Check before each conversation.

7nights:

This is the Sorceress from Vanillaware’s Dragon’s Crown. Lately, this character has been getting a lot of heat, becoming the new icon of sexism in video games. Are you offended by this character? Do you find it sexist? Well guess what, it’s not.

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boogiemouse:

why is there a Trinidad but no trinimom. pAtriarchy

(via thisisprivilegeblogprivilege)

anoncentral:

Say WHAT?! The Boston Globe reported 2 hours beforehand that a “controlled explosion” would go off in the exact location where 19 year old pot-smoker Tsarnaev is supposed to have detonated the first bomb… things that make you go ‘HMMM!…’Although the gruesome sight of mangled body parts is an everyday reality in countries occupied or bombed by the U.S. military, the ‘double-tap’ bombing in downtown Boston on ‘Tax Day’, Monday 15th April, was the first terror attack on U.S. soil in 12 years. Anyone with a couple of neurons firing will have noticed by now that the official story is riddled with inconsistencies. In fact, it makes absolutely no sense at all. In fact, there is no ‘official story’; U.S. authorities have clearly just been making stuff up as they go along, hoping that the emotional trauma of a terrorist attack will suffice to ‘win the hearts and minds of the American people’. So far it appears to be working, but when we discussed this on a recent SOTT Talk Radio show, we had a few callers who were completely exasperated with the contradictory, incomplete, and simply unbelievable accounts of last week’s events in Boston. 

It was a strange week in more ways than one. It was the 20th anniversary of the Waco Massacre. It was the 18th anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing. It was the 14th anniversary of the Columbine School Massacre. And the bombings happened on the 238th anniversary of the opening shots in the American Revolutionary War. Coincidences? Or by design? 

holy shit you fucking idiots, that’s pacific time zone where that tweet was captured, can you be any more fucking retarded.  hey i got a news flash for you, you’re goddamned stupid.  source:  the internet

strictlyselfers:

smokin-hot-girls:

submitted by Katelyn

So sexy! What a cutie! Xoxo

strictlyselfers:

smokin-hot-girls:

submitted by Katelyn

Another xoxo

dastardlydave:

And the butterfly overcome with love for the rose and heedless of thorns and other dangers passes by the daisies and lillys. Drawn by the heady aroma and the madness it causes, rushes headlong into destruction or salvation and pauses not a moment to ponder.

bon-cross:

You know what’s cute is when pretentious little sociology/gender studies majors on tumblr try to argue that sex and gender is a social construct. Here’s why I think that is incredibly misguided.

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blameaspartame:

new Hunger Games poster

good as shit

capcom kid (from Captured Souls)

abobo_poster_large (from Captured Souls)

those-guy-are-pussies (from Captured Souls)