November 10, 2010 | 3:01 PM | By

“On the Internet, society’s most intractable issues with race and class are increasingly prominent.”

FILED UNDER: Media, Race and Class, Racial Divide, Social Media, That's racist.

antoinedodson24

A still from Antoine Dodson's YouTube Q + A

I love what Cord Jefferson has written about Antoine Dodson and other viral videos starring people of color:

…15 million is how many times just one of the many YouTube videos of Dodson has been viewed. In other words, Internet users around the world have tuned in 15 million times to stare and laugh at a black man angry because his sister was nearly raped.

…What is interesting, however, is how common and accepted such biases have become on the Web. In the comfort and solitude of one’s bedroom, laughing at a troubled, poverty-stricken person of color is far more socially acceptable than doing the same on a busy street corner. What’s more, the disposable immediacy of the Internet means it isn’t always conducive to critical thought. Users take in hundreds of images and videos per day — and thousands of lines of text — and rarely pause to analyze what they’ve seen or why they click…

What we’re left with is an Internet community that feeds us, in the isolation of our homes or desks, distasteful videos by the truckload while rarely asking us to stop and absorb what we’re seeing. The Antoine Dodson video isn’t just insidious because we’re laughing at a low-income black man’s frustrations. It’s insidious because the Internet allows us to ignore why we’re laughing.

About the author

DCentric was created to examine the ways race and class interact in Washington, D.C., a city with a vibrant mix of cultures and neighborhoods. Your guides to the changing district are reporters Anna John and Elahe Izadi. View all posts by Anna →

  • http://twitter.com/SaheliDatta Saheli Datta

    I was told about this meme by a white friend who stumbled upon it somewhat randomly. He was at first intensely uncomfortable at the idea that people were laughing at this man during a serious situation, basically because of his dialect and hair—i.e. because he’s black. And of course all the people doing the making fun of him came off as hipster whites and (let’s face it) Asians. He assumed that the reason that neither of us or anyone else he talked to had been sent the meme directly is b/c it’s in pretty poor taste. But as he did some investigation (looking for exactly this kind of critical analysis) he read about how much Antoine has rode the wave: benefitting from a Gregory Brothers’ autotune version selling on iTunes, appearing with one of the Gregory Brothers at the BET hip hop awards to ‘reprise’ the performance, and even creating a website to sell t-shirts and costumes from. We both agreed that while its unfortunate people wanted to laugh at him, it’s pretty admirable and somewhat lucky that he had the determination and talent to take advantage of the situation, and that this might lead to more reasonable opportunities for him. He seems like one cool dude, who has a lot of pride in himself. Sometimes, the mockers face away and the essence shines through.

  • Yofi

    I hear your comment Saheli, but here is what I see, and what I’ve noticed. Everyone is talking about what Antoine Dodson has done and money he has made for his family, but Antoine is not the subject here, his sister Kelly is the subject. The first question should be, how do we help a young women who has been raped and exploited?

    I think people have used Antoine Dodson’s behavior to excuse the fact that rape is not a serious issue in the U.S., despite the horrendous fact that according to the Dept. of Justice, a female gets raped every 2 minutes in the U.S. THAT IS AN EPIDEMIC!!! Regardless of how popular this case has gotten, the investigation into who did this has stalled, if it ever took off in the first place. Even Antoine said that the police have gotten nowhere and are not returning the familys’ calls. Meanwhile, Kelly Dodson is not only trying to regain a sense of comfort in her everyday life, but she has to do that for her 2 year old daughter who witnessed the entire incident! What does any of this have to do with Antoine Dodson???

    Finally, what also needs to be asked is, what kind of sick people do the Gregory Brothers have to be, to see an interview of a woman getting raped and decide they want to make a comedic song about it? Evan Gregory has a wife…if she was raped, do you think it would be cool if someone called him and said, “Hey man, I saw your interview about the rape of your wife and I have a fat beat I would like to put behind that to make it an instant classic! What do you think?” That is SICK! And how his wife thought that was alright makes her sick and callous as well, along with all the other agents and lawyers who wanted to exploit Antoine.

    I am sorry for the rant, but I am an African male, and I think black people are dehumanized either by others or by ourselves to the point if no one says anything, there will be a generation of Black people soon who will believe we are subhuman. I’m won’t stand for that.