People who aren’t black shouldn’t spread Oprah Winfrey’s memes from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s interview, because that supports the “black face,” one nonprofit organization complains.
The Slow Factory Foundation, dedicated to social and environmental justice, issued the warning on its Instagram page on Tuesday, saying that “the black face” is an “online phenomenon” where white and non-black people share. images of black people to express emotions.
Oprah Winfrey’s variety of facial reactions during the interview have resulted in a lot of viral memes.
“While it may seem harmless, the problem with the digital black face is that it often reinforces negative stereotypes about black people such as being aggressive, strong, cheeky, and simply here for your consumption and entertainment,” the post reads.
The organization added: “Performing Blackness, either IRL or online, is not an acceptable way to express reactions or dissatisfaction, especially not in exchange for likes and retweets.”
“Since the #MeghanandHarry interview with Oprah, we’ve seen a lot of digital black face infractions with some of the GIFs and images of Oprah’s reaction going viral, but that doesn’t mean you have to use them,” he continued. Slow Factory.
A popular Oprah meme shows the media mogul with a shocked expression on his face after Markle revealed to him that someone in the royal family raised concerns about the skin color of baby Archie once he was born.
Some people on social media praised the organization for publicizing the “black black face.”
“Thank you for explaining it so clearly. Very useful, “one Instagram user wrote.
“Thank you so much for this – this is something I hadn’t noticed and I will definitely be much more thoughtful about the gifs I have and why,” another user wrote.
Meanwhile, others felt that the messages from the slow factory were going too far.
“Blackface is a violent and harmful representation of black people rooted in violence. Using an Oprah gif is NOT a black face, ”one person wrote.
“Images / gifs and reaction memes are universal and certainly not part of the ‘digital black face,'” said another person. “I feel extremely divisive. People use reaction images from other races of ‘another way and I don’t see how harmful it is’.
The term “black face” has been around for years, but writer Lauren Michele Jackson popularized it in a 2017 essay for Teen Vogue.