So, some of your faves (and faves to hate) have been cutting up on all of the internets and the platforms lately (looking at you YesJulz, JessHilarious, and Daniel Caesar), so I thought it would be helpful to review why saying nothing when you know nothing can really go far. I'm gonna do things a bit differently this week. I'm assessing each situation separately to make sure they get their just due. That way, we as a culture can rip them, put them in time out (or cancel if that's your thing), and assess what we can learn from this so we can get back to laughing at memes on social media and gagging over Jordan Peele's Us (don't worry, this will always be a spoiler-free zone, but stay tuned for more to come on this one). So, let's let the dragging commence, shall we?
1. YesJulz
A couple weeks back, self-proclaimed rapper and rising influencer Julieanna Goddard (aka YesJulz), of caucasian decent (remember this for later), walked on as a guest of a platform called the "Easily Offended" podcast (that should tell you all you need to know right there), and popped off at the mouth for sport. In a room with male cohosts—two Black, one white (pay attention)—YesJulz, in all of her whiteness, *tried* to justify her reasons for tweeting a picture of a shirt with the n-word on it (she deleted the tweet, but here's a screenshot of what she said), all while the Black male cohosts excused her behavior, taking it upon themselves to speak for all Black people when expressing that they didn't care if she says the n-word or not. Of course, they skated around correcting her behavior and proceeded to gas her up and laugh a bit too hard at her jokes—you know, the things some Black folks do when they wanna separate themselves from *other* Blacks (usually done while trying to impress a white person) to show that they're different or edgy or not the *regular* kind of Black . All the while, the white cohost is looking around as if to say, 'is this real life?', and is confused as to why his Black cohosts would allow such behavior. He's flabbergasted, and he should be . Because none of the above makes sense over here, either. To top it off, YesJulz proceeded to call out Karen Civil and Scottie Beam, two Black women in the music industry who have dedicated their decades-old platforms to helping Black folks—especially Black women—climb the ladder in their careers. Apparently, YesJulz is angry that these women called her a culture vulture (which she is) and trashed them for not supporting her. Yet again, the Black men in the room said nothing to refute her rhetoric. Put a pin in that...
2. JessHilarious
Known as an internet "comedian" on social media, and the role she plays as Lil Rel Howery's best friend on his new show Rel, JessHilarious has been on a consistent problematic binge over the past year. From using slurs to address LGBTQ+ folks, to questioning sexual assault survivors who wait to report abuse, Jess' mouth has been a complete dumpster fire (and those are just the things we have time to talk about today). Her newest antics, however, take the cake for sure. Just hours after last week's devastating terror attack in Christchurch, New Zealand that left 50 Muslim folks gunned down in mosques as the worshipped, JessHilarious proudly posted this video online (WARNING: offensive language, xenophobia, Islamophobia, obscene gestures). As implied, Jess' Black behind (that's important, too) saw four Sikh men boarding her airplane while wearing turbans and felt "threatened" because she thought they were Muslim (Islamophobia). She later bragged about how the Sikh gentlemen (of whom she didn't know were Sikh at the time) had been escorted off the plane, and many believed she was implying that she had them kicked off, though she later stated otherwise. Either way, she chose to publicly rejoice at their misfortune, (because that's clearly gone well for everyone else who's done that before). So, not only did she tape the interaction without consent, embarrass the Sikh folks who were escorted away feeling puzzled and upset I presume, and brag about it online—she did so on a day where the global Muslim community was hurting the most, and added insult to injury by confusing Sikh folks for Muslim folks while being equally offensive. She claims she didn't know about the terror attack beforehand. Not knowing—dare I say, 'ignorance'—seems to be a recurring theme for her. Put a pin in this one too...
3. Daniel Caesar
He's a Black, Canadian, R&B frontrunner for those of us who hold the genre dear, and for that he will always have my heart. But, he broke it with this week's antics that seemed to come out of left field. Again, we have an instance where someone gets online to spew ignorance and exude trash vibes, but this time, the trash comes from a familiar place. Daniel Caesar took to his Instagram Live with some choice words (he now claims he was drunk at the time, but good luck getting me to believe that), and, surrounded by supposed friends, began to defend YesJulz (see above) from all of the backlash she's received. Aside from claiming that we (as in "The Blacks") were too hard on her, Daniel continued his rant with sentiments that reek of many underlying issues, such as the ole 'Black people need to stop being mean to white people and learn to take a joke' and 'Black people need to stop playing victim' lines (paraphrasing) that white people usually say when trying to avoid talking about race. Essentially, he placed the responsibility of "bridging the gap" on Black people—a disenfranchised group—instead of white people—a privileged group. And, while he claims his message comes from a place of love, Daniel spoke from a very ignorant perspective on a platform that wasn't created to have these kinds of nuanced conversations in a responsible way. Oh, and he also literally told people to "cancel" him if they didn't agree. So when that money stops coming in, we'll see how he feels then.
All three of these instances have one thing in common: they cause harm.
YesJulz tweeting the n-word to get a rise out of someone, then speaking ill of respected Black women in her industry, all while being backed by Black men, is harmful. It hurts Black people, especially Black women, and contributes to the silencing of our voices through scrutiny, ignorance, and an unwillingness to be educated on the matter (SUPER disappointed in the Black men in that room who passed up a golden opportunity to educate her instead of egging her on).
JessHilarious' ignorant ass publicly rejoicing that the Sikh men got kicked off her flight with no remorse, is harmful. And then to claim she only did it because she thought they were Muslim was even grosser. An entire population of people are scared and mourning, and things like this do harm; things like this add up and slowly chip away at a person's being. But it was more important to go viral than to respect the space and autonomy of others, right?
Daniel Caesar berating Black folks for how we receive and react to racism, culture vultures like YesJulz, and attacks against our community, is harmful. I realize he's Canadian and race relations are different in other countries, but I know FOR A FACT that there are Black people living in that white-majority country, and therefore racism is alive and well up there. That's why his comments hurt. He knows what it's like to exist in a Black body in a world that despises you, yet he said what he said anyway. Telling any group of people that they are responsible for the harm done to them by the majority is yet another blow to the body of our existence; it further illegitimizes our sentiments to the nay-sayers and makes us more susceptible to their violence.
HARM. That's what you do when you get on the internet and speak on things you don't know or don't have the range to discuss. That's what happens when you let your pride speak for you instead of your peace. It's not just about you looking like an idiot in a viral tweet or having to save face once you realize the Black dollar walks just as much as the Black dollar talks. It's about knowing when you don't know enough, and choosing to do the responsible thing by shutting the hell up.
It's okay to be wrong. It's okay to not know. It's okay to learn and grow and expand and evolve. It's part of the human experience, and no one should be faulted for that. What's not okay is relying on others to be your source of intelligence. It shouldn't take a massive negative response for you to take a step back, decide to choose empathy, and walk away with your mouth closed. It could save you the grief of the backlash (see JessHilarious' 'apology' video), but most importantly, refraining means you don't cause further damage to someone struggling to live in this cruel world because of their unaccepted identities. You inflame people who are "'bout it" with the trash you spew, and it only truly hurts the people who have to sift through said trash daily just to get through work or travel or the countless other things made harder by people who see you as less than human. We all mess up eventually. Maybe not this badly, but everyone's said something ignorant or hurtful, even unintentionally. When you mess up like this, some people will correct you, come at you, cancel you, or cut you off, and that's fine, because they're just reclaiming their peace which you disrupted. The great thing about it is, even after that, you get to keep growing, without them. It's only fitting, because you more than likely weren't being considerate of them when you said things that inflicted harm.
Look. Just be mindful of what you say to others and how you say it. Remember that if you have to question it, you probably shouldn't say it. Take a moment to reflect before you act or respond. It's also good to surround yourself with people who are willing to stop you from saying something stupid or inflammatory when they see you poppin' off (if they'll sit there and let you look stupid in front of everyone without trying to intervene, assess your friendships and act accordingly). Most importantly, keeping it to yourself will save you a world of trouble, and save others a world of hurt. Silence is golden, after all.
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