Soft Serve Racism & The Cowardice of the Hood Prank
Twitter leads you to terrible things. Some of the most racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, and homophobic thoughts find themselves in its ethereal pool of consciousness.
Still, I found myself taken aback by one in particular. This video known as Nerd Raps In The Hood.
The reason why it even caught my eye is due to the fact I noticed the familiar background. I watched the video and realized the prankster shot this on the corner of Vermont and Exposition, near The University of Southern California. This is about three blocks from where I live.
What’s so spectacularly disingenuous about the entire fiasco is the fact the prankster has the audacity to call it “Nerd Raps In The Hood.”
If you look at a few screenshots (especially for my people from Los Angeles) you’ll notice that’s USC in the background.
Regardless of what you view as “the hood” the prankster was a one minute walk from USC, a college university. He was situated at a train, transit corner where blacks, latinos, asians, and whites congregate.
He’s a minute walk from the USC dorms, the USC police station, Engineering School, and Law School. In no way, was he in the “hood.”
I called him out on it on twitter.
His response:
I then called him out for saying that he shot in Compton:
His Response:
I’m not even going to get into how many things are just downright problematic about his last statement, but that’s another discussion.
The biggest issue here was the deceit, and the use of black bodies as modes of profit. There are some far more racist, “hood prank” videos on the internet, but at least those kids actually go into the hood. It’s stupid, it’s dangerous, but at least it’s authentic.
As for BigDawsTV, he took a relatively peaceful, well-known part of our USC neighborhood, a part that is right next to the campus, is heavily guarded, with security cameras, a transit station, and pretended that he did his prank in the hood.
This is even more problematic when you realize the people in his video are probably not aware of his actions, and the fact he’s profiting from their reactions in a video where he mischaracterizes their surroundings as the hood.
It’s soft-serve racism, and he’s gaining notoriety from it. I have nothing against this child, but I have to point this out. He had named it “Rap Nerd Rapping To Black People” or even “Nerd Raps in the Streets” this might not be (as) problematic, but he blatantly lies for views, while denigrating an entire section of people.
Earlier, I know I asked you not to watch the video, BUT if you’re from Los Angeles, and you know any of those people in the video please reach out to me. I have no legal standing to ask this video to be taken down, but these guys probably don’t ask their victims to sign release forms.
If so, all we need is one person from the video to point out their rights are being infringed since they did not sign a release form, and we have a case to take to youtube.
So once, again, if you know ANYONE in that video, please reach out to me.
I’m not down for soft-serve racism. You shouldn’t be either.
Original Article HERE.
