‘If Black People Said the Stuff White People say’, deals with stereotypes by reversing ‘the norm’. Let’s take the comment ‘Your name is so easy to spell and pronounce. Was it like really easy to get a job?’ Regarding the spelling and pronunciation of names, I feel as though this topic is sort of taboo, like an ‘unspoken thought’. Although it’s wrong to do so, it is something that we may think, but never speak about. However, I wouldn’t necessarily apply it to this topic because this video is dealing with race by taking typical things white people say to black people, but just the other way around. I think it’s wrong to associate this with black people because it applies to many other people as well, for example, Eastern European names and even british names - particularly for people with foreign ancestry and the introduction of all the ‘hipster’ baby names. I would associate names with culture rather than race. For example, we may have trouble pronouncing or spelling African or Polish names because it’s not part of our culture, likewise, they may have trouble pronouncing or spelling our names. It’s to do with culture rather than race and is applicable to everyone.
Looking at the job comment, I feel like this is still an issue in society, but that it is improving. Typically, especially if we look at 20-30 years ago, a black person would have found it much harder to get a job than a white person. Although times have changed, I sometimes still feel that the notions of this still apply to society today. For example, in TV or pictures in leaflets, you often find that the majority of the people will be white, with only one black person featured, so that its ‘not racist’, but I think this shows that there is still racism within society.
With the second video: ‘Who Wants to be a Volunteer?’ it’s portraying how white people are always the ‘saviour’ and Africa depends on us. The part with the selfie in particular, is very stereotypical of white people who volunteer in Africa, they always take a selfie with the children, again showing how white people are here to ‘save Africa’. Regarding the very beginning, where food is given to all the black people, the exaggeration is very clear. I think with this video, I do enjoy the humour, which has been created by exaggerating the volunteering experience and it works more successfully as a humorous video because it is stereotypical to white and black people which sort of cancels the racism out.
The video shows us that what white people would say as a ‘normal, everyday thing’ is still in fact incredibly stereotypical and racist but clearly it’s not something we notice until it’s switched the other way round. Therefore, there are still many issues that need tackling regarding racism.
Video: BuzzFeedYellow (2014) If Black People Said the Stuff White People Say Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1zLzWtULig (Accessed: 28 November 2014).
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