Franchseca Ramsey, "Sh*t White Girls Say to Black Girls". Photo credit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylPUzxpIBe0
It’s the latest in a string of viral videos inspired by the “sh*t” girls say, but this one is aiming just a bit deeper – and, judging by the more than 1.5 million views it’s gotten, it’s hitting its mark.
Entitled “Sh*t White Girls Say… to Black Girls”, the video features a African American videoblogger Franchesca Ramsey wearing a blonde wig and uttering, in a tone verging on Valley Girl speak, some of the things that white girls have said to her over the years. “Why isn’t there a White Entertainment Television?”… “Is it like, bad to do black face?”… “Jews were slaves too, but you don’t hear us complaining about it all the time”… and, on touching a black woman’s hair, “It feels like Cheetos!”
The background: This video is a take-off of the now viral “Sh*t Girls Say” video, the work of two New York comedians, Kyle Humphrey and Graydon Sheppard, acting out things they’ve heard girls say (“Twinsies!”). “Sh*t Black Girls Say”, “Sh*t Southern Gay Guys Say”, among others, soon followed.
Ramsey, a 28-year-old graphic designer living in New York, told ABCNews that writing material for the video was easy – with the exception of “My grandmother hates collards… wait, is that racist?”, she heard every one of those lines, growing up as the “token” black girl among her upper middle class white friends in West Palm Beach.
“I wanted to make people laugh but also make them think,” Ramsey told ABCNews.com.
So, has she?
Best commentary about racism in pop culture in months. Ramsey has taken some flak for the video, which some critics claim was itself racist. The title may be, Cord Jefferson at BET.com agreed, but the substance of the video is not. “In fact, it’s one of the best pieces of commentary about racism to come out of pop culture in months. In fact, it may be even better — and funnier — than the original video that spawned it.”
“Over the years I’ve found that dealing with white people faux pas can be tricky. If I get upset, I could quickly be labeled the ‘angry black girl.’ But if I don’t say anything or react too passively, I risk giving friends and acquaintances permission to continue crossing the line,” wrote Ramsey at Huffington Post, on why she made the video.
Who says that? The video is, judged Erin Gloria Ryan at feminist blog site Jezebel, “alternately hilarious and cringey”, but, she added, “it mostly makes me wonder: who are these idiots going around asking people if they can touch their hair? Why do people who start sentences with ‘not to sound racist, but…’ have any friends at all, much less friends of other races?”
The video in question:
White girls learning their lesson. Ramsey’s video “valiantly subverts the meme” and, noted Amanda Hess at Good, it seems that some white girls have gotten the message. Cheers for that.
It’s racism. Not everyone has been as taken with Ramsey’s video: Some viewers left comments on the video complaining that if a white person were to make a similar video, she’d be called racist. “[B]ut i bet if i made a video talking about how blacks act. i would be called a racist nazi.._ f*cking dubble standards.. whites r conditioned to accept this [sic],” wrote “Spartan1991LA”. Comments like that, however, tended to be shot down pretty quickly by others viewers who noted that people like “Spartan” are “idiots”.