Candace Owens Inducted to the Uncle Ruckus Hall of Shame
If you are not yet familiar with Uncle Ruckus this post is not for you. But you are welcome supplement your pop culture education before reading further.
After Lil Nas X broke the internet yet again this week, I stumbled upon a Twitter response from Candace Owens that teaches a valuable lesson.
I must have missed the memo from the last black people meeting where we elected Cardi B and Lil Nas X as our national representatives. I'm not going to waste any more time explaining why George Floyd's character has no bearing on the excessive lethal force that ended his life. It's a better use of time and energy to concentrate on the implications Candace Owens makes by criticizing black pop stars in one breath and refusing to acknowledge the effects of white supremacy in the next.
As exemplified by Uncle Ruckus in the 21st century and Uncle Tom in the 19th, there is a phenomenon in black culture where certain black persons internalize the rhetoric of racism so deeply that they begin to hate all black people, themselves included. This self hatred is most often manifest in excessive adulation of white culture contrasted against excessive criticism of black culture.
This is not to say that black persons should not engage in healthy introspection like everyone else, but criticism crosses the line from healthy observation to racism when character flaws are immediately attributed to race. In her Twitter post Owens calls George Floyd's character into question while minimizing a blatant act of police brutality. This flawed logic is perfectly analogous to the argument against prostitutes who are raped. Criminal activity does not defacto nullify constitutional rights in America. The critiques of George Floyd are bad enough but those against Cardi B and Lil Nas X are even more telling.
W.E.B. DuBois was one of the first social scientists to observe that white persons in America enjoy the luxury of not representing their whole race. There are countless white celebrities whose foolishness has never been attributed to white culture as a collective. Marilyn Manson exploited fascination with the occult and no one ever attributed his follies to his race. Miley Cyrus morphed from Disney's traditional Hannah Montana to a pansexual sex icon and no one has accused her of igniting the hypersexualization of white females. Pop stars are eccentric artists whose incomes are directly proportional to their shock factor. To use Cardi B and Lil Nas X as the measuring stick to collect data about black America is to employ the classic double standard.
Furthermore for a black social media influencer to use ridiculous pop stars to publicly deny the reality of white supremacy is shameful.
I wholeheartedly agree with your perspective. It’s disheartening to see character flaws attributed to race, as seen in the case of George Floyd and others. As I order my dissertation online, I’m reminded of the importance of understanding and empathy in our society. Let’s not let the actions of a few define the many. We must stand against such flawed logic and strive for justice and equality.
I wholeheartedly agree with your perspective. It’s as if someone handed me a Someone to write your dissertation. The focus should indeed be on the systemic issues at hand, not on the character of individuals like George Floyd or pop stars. Let’s continue to shed light on the real issues.