In the world of online video sharing, the victors are dictated purely by the amount of views each videos receives. Yes, there are ways of rating each piece, likes and dislike measurements, but in reality the networks thrive off popularity.
Here I am thinking about not how popular each video is, but the underlying implications of each, and the possible reasons for their mass popularity.
Shit Black guys/ White girls/ White guys etc. Say
This is sort of cheating when I put it in the ranking. Alone, each of these videos regardless of their variant on ‘shit (insert race)(insert gender) says’ is facile, stillborn and built for the lowest common denominator, but combined, they start to serve some sort of purpose.
It works like any blue joke, once enough people laugh at it, you stop covering your mouth and hold your belly. Everybody clearly has at least some typical expectations in terms of race and behaviour, and like any comedy, honesty is peeled away by the majority when, in this case, the joke goes viral.
Most Racist Moment On a Game Show/Epic Racist Moment on Game Show.
“Looks like he’s native Texas and, being from Texas, I would have to support that.”
This racism is potent because of it’s source. A man from one minority group disliking another minority group. The image illustrated by the black victim of himself and the Polynesian racist driving to the show together is no doubt hilarious, but ‘whether we rode in together’ or not, the man is unflinching.
‘My Tram Experience’
‘Hatred’ as is the term this behaviour often comes under, is rarely seen this explicitly, candid in the way only hidden camera footage can be.
As a UK video producer in particular it’s interesting to here ‘You ain’t English’ being spat out by a local tongue.
The video cuts straight into what could either be halfway through, or at the beginning of a middle aged woman’s racist rant at black and Asian passengers on a London train.
‘You ain’t British, you’re black’, and going back to everybody’s own country is the general theme, none of the points are eloquent, nor are they the most worrying theme of the video. Perhaps the most shocking element of this particular video is the toddler that sits in the woman’s lap as she screams abuse at the other passengers. You can almost see the direct and future impact of having such hatred as your primary guardian.
Racism in the elevator
A black guy gets into an elevator with a white woman, and explains that she’s terrified of him and this angers him because he’s harmless. At the end he turns and yells at her, this is the big laugh, and the view count implies it’s a payoff.
Fighting fire with fire is notoriously difficult to pull off well, in this case, racism being countered with racism. Reckless Tortuga (producer) is obviously infuriated with polite society, and it is effective to point out things explicitly without raising your voice.
Kramer’s Racist Rant
The big, obvious one. Michael Richard’s of Seinfeld goes off on a heckler, shouting screaming nigger repeatedly, all caught on a phone.
The shock factor comes half from the racism,half from the fact Richards plays Kramer in America’s favourite sitcom of all time. The aftermath was an interesting mix of outrage from bloggers and black celebrities, but even more fascinating was the response from comedians.
Richards gained some sympathy from his fellow stand-ups on the grounds that the heckler ‘had it coming’ in some way. The empathy, however, is too far out of reach for mass media, and press, and so Kramer is forever tainted with controversy. Seinfeld box set sales went through the roof.
