Daring to break stereotypes

Yes! Finally! A celebration of what it means to be an individual.

On the same day as black history month Buzzfeed Video, a popular social news and entertainment company, released the 'I'm black but I'm not…' video. I'm sure most of us have seen it circling around Facebook some few months ago. In that time we had been learning in class various concepts that help us make sense of the racism we see in the media. The concepts that this video addresses include 'burden of representation' and 'racial profiling'; it is through strategic essentialism that Buzzfeed takes a shot at the negative stereotypes that have been used as a means of discrimination against black people.

Dourish's concept of strategic essentialism is defined as "the ways in which subordinate or marginalized social groups may temporarily put aside local differences in order to forge a sense of collective identity through which they band together in political movements".  Here we see a marginalized group throw stereotypes and presumptions out the window by embracing their individualism and the fact they are not what we would 'typically' expect from a black person. But that's the whole point- there shouldn’t be an expectation or presumption about  who a person is or what they are like. To treat people as individuals and not categorize them based on representations in the media. Often people of color are depicted one dimensionally in media, if shown at all.

The positive reinforcement we see in this video targets the controversial topic of social identity. A celebration, uplifting those who have been hammered into self hate due to negative stereotypes and discrimination. Inevitably there was a bit of negative backlash from viewers confusing this display of acceptance with an underlying intention to oppress people of other cultures. The message is not one of segregation or enforcing barriers between races, but rather inclusion. On the flipside, the positive attention it gained was enormous. There's something about these people embracing their individuality, embracing the fact that they don't fit the universal stereotype of how a black person should be that is empowering. It gives off a 'we're people and we're awesome' type of vibe which I appreciate. Furthermore the video gives viewers that don't identify themselves as 'black' an opportunity to be happy for a race outside of their own and lift them up. This creates an inclusive atmosphere where we can be happy for each other.