What’s ‘Digital Whiteface?’
And why is it wrong when non-White people use it?
Note: This article was originally posted on Medium, on April 1st, 2023. It was written as a spoof of this thing.
Maybe you shared that viral video of David ‘After Dentist’ DeVore under the influence of anaesthesia asking his father, “Is this real life?”
Perhaps you posted that meme of protester Jessica Starr exploding in anger when Donald J. Trump was elected President of the United States (a guttural “Nooooooo!”). Or maybe you’ve simply posted popular GIFs, such as the one of Woke icon ‘Trigglypuff’ throwing a tantrum, or of actor Gene Wilder characterized as Willy Wonka declaring condescendingly, “So, tell me about…”
If you’re White and you’ve shared such images online, you get a pass. But if you’re not, you may have inadvertently perpetuated one of the most insidious forms of contemporary racism.
You may be wearing ‘digital Whiteface.’
What is Digital Whiteface?
Digital Whiteface is a practice where non-White people co-opt online expressions of White imagery, slang, catchphrases, or culture to convey comic relief or express emotions.
Digital Whiteface involves non-White people play-acting at being White, says Nathanial Hornblower, an author, cultural critic, and psychoonanism enthusiast, in an essay for the renowned academic journal Teen Vogue. Hornblower says the Internet thrives on non-White people laughing at exaggerated displays of Whiteness, reflecting a tendency among some to see “White people as walking hyperbole.”
If you’re still not sure how to define digital Whiteface, Hornblower offers a guide. He says it “includes displays of emotion stereotyped as excessive: so happy, so privileged, so suburban, so loud… our dial is on 10 all the time — rarely are White characters afforded subtle traits or feelings.”
Many non-White people choose images of White people when it comes to expressing exaggerated emotions on social media — a burden that White people didn’t ask for, he says.
“We are your Karens, your rickrolling, your quick escalation, your facepalm, your distracted boyfriend, your DiCaprio dating younger chicks, your scumbag Steve, your first world problems, your ‘how do you do, fellow kids?’ moments,” Hornblower writes. “The weight of reaction GIFing, period, rests on our shoulders.”
Why Digital Whiteface is Wrong
Some may say posting a video or meme of a White person is harmless fun. Why overthink it? Why give people yet another excuse for labeling non-White people racists for the most innocuous behaviours?
But critics say digital Whiteface is problematic because it perpetuates a modern-day form of linguistic colonisation that has affected White people since the dawn of Mankind, reminiscent of popular expressions that you might use every day without realising their insidious and harmful connotations.
I’m talking about racist expressions such as “pales in comparison,” which implies that the whiter someone is, the less important they become, and “am I speaking Greek?” which suggests that languages spoken by White people are unintelligible gibberish.
What can be said of the use of “White flag” to suggest that White people are cowards, or “Trojan horse” to culturally appropriate a myth sacred to the indigenous, native peoples of southern Europe and imply that White people should never be trusted?
Murphy’s Law (not Chang’s Law, Traore’s Law, or Sitting Bull’s Law) is used to imply the colonialist view that White Irish people can conjure curses. Let’s all laugh at the “paddywagon” and the history of mass incarceration of Irish people!
The concept of a “Whitelist” involves adding items that are effectively neutered, the technological eunuchs, inferior agents which warrant no concern. Conversely, the “Blacklist” consists of the real forces to be reckoned with, to which the greatest and most urgent importance should be assigned.
“White label” is used to refer to a generic product, while “Black label” typically represents some of the most expensive whisky or exclusive credit cards. Funny, no? But what’s not funny is the use of the expression “White-collar crimes,” which falsely implies that only White people commit fraud.
“White noise” is a nonsensical, chaotic sound. I suppose “non-White noise” is the sound of things that are pristine, orderly, and in perfect harmony. Perhaps this is why, even though the actor who plays Darth Vader is White, a non-White actor’s voice was chosen for the character. Despite the availability of many talented White voice actors, such as Gilbert Gottfried.
It is very disturbing that another racist expression, “White lies,” exists to describe the obligation for White people to pretend to believe in the most absurd progressive trends that they know to be untrue, just to conform to society’s expectations.
Defining Digital Whiteface Isn’t Easy
In trying to define digital Whiteface, it depends on who you talk to. The standard for some is comparable to what one Supreme Court Justice once said when asked his test for pornography: “I know it when I see it.”
This guidance might help: If a non-White person shares an image online that perpetuates stereotypes of White people as loud, dumb, hyperviolent or hypersexual, they’ve entered digital Whiteface territory.
And yet even with that definition, it’s hard to figure out exactly what is and isn’t digital Whiteface.
This is the challenge that Phlydia Featherbottom faces.
“I’ve engaged in digital Whiteface,” Featherbottom acknowledges. “I’ve posted the meme of the White girl smiling while a suburban house burns in the background, I laughed at White people facing horrifying crime and disaster and loss. I’ve appropriated White trauma as punchlines and peeled their faces off to put on my own and say what I can’t say, to make you laugh, or just because it went viral.”
But that wasn’t her first offense. Featherbottom, a housekeeper, wrote an apologetic essay in 2020 about how she made a Facebook post calling a group of kids who vandalised her property “Vandals.” Far from being urban gangs who thrive at vandalising other people’s properties, the Vandals were a Germanic people who first inhabited what is now southern Poland.
Featherbottom told CNN she was bothered that she overlooked the context of the Vandals’ actions. Times were hard back then, and they were just trying to make a living against Roman oppression.
But the Vandals are not alone. Entire groups of traditional White ethnicities have become stereotypes, from the ‘brutal’ and ‘savage’ Barbarians to the ‘enslaved’ Slavs.
In the sports world, it is even worse. While the Florida State Seminoles are represented by a strong and dignified Native American warrior, the Minnesota Vikings are represented by what essentially amounts to a cartoonish version of Hulk Hogan wearing a historically inaccurate funny hat.
Why aren’t the Notre Dame Fighting Irish called the Notre Dame Peaceful Persons? Hornblower, in his Teen Vogue essay, acknowledges it can be hard to know where to draw the line.
“Now, I’m not suggesting that non-White people refrain from ever circulating a White person’s image for amusement or otherwise…” he writes. “There’s no prescriptive or proscriptive step-by-step rulebook to follow, nobody’s coming to take GIFs away.”
But no digital behaviour exists in a deracialised vacuum, he says. A non-White person can spread digital Whiteface without malicious intent. For example, by using the seemingly harmless hair straighteners of today or the ‘ridiculous’ white powder and wigs that were popular among White men and women in the 18th century.
We also cannot ignore the deeply ingrained anti-White aspect of mass consumption capitalism. While Mad Magazine’s spokesman is Alfred E. Neumann — the epitome of “trailer trash” — Old Spice’s African-American spokesman is the epitome of masculine prowess. And let’s not even get started on the fact that toilet paper only comes in one colour, White…
Never Gonna Give You Up
In a world where we are constantly running out of things to victimise ourselves with, it baffles me that we may be sitting on a gold mine and haven’t realised it yet. But let’s be clear, this is not about creating phony reasons to win medals at the Victimhood Olympics or manufacturing faux outrage.
According to the CDC, more than 2 million White persons die every year in the US alone. And that will only get worse with Climate ChangeTM, which is also racist. Don’t believe me? Ask yourself why the ice caps are melting primarily in the north, where most White people live, rather than around the equator, where the majority is non-White. Also, why does sun exposure disproportionately harm the skin of White people?
Making things even more challenging for White people, The Washington Post reports that COVID is also racist against Whites.
But not only White people are affected by bigotry, Heterosexuals are too. Take the heterophobic expression “scared straight” which implies that straightness is the result of crippling psychological trauma, when everybody knows that “gay” means happy, joyful, gently overflowing with bliss.
Misandry is also on the rise, with constant calls to eliminate the “middleman” serving as a not-so-subtle dog whistle that implies men are inefficient and must be eliminated whenever possible.
Now, if this situation makes you sad, don’t worry. Remember that not all heroes wear capes, and there are people out there fighting the good fight for all the oppressed, soy-infused, thin-skinned ‘victims’ everywhere: