The Slow Factory Foundation is warning non-Black individuals that sharing memes or GIF’s of Black individuals on social media may be inadvertently committing “digital blackface”.
First discussed in an op-ed in 2017 for Teen Vogue, Lauren Michele Jackson discusses how blackface activity can pervade the cyberworld stating, “when nonblack users flock to these images, they are playacting within those stereotypes in a manner reminiscent of an unsavory American tradition.”
As this week saw the debut of multiple memes of Oprah, obtained during an interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Slow Factory Foundation, a 501c3 public service organization combating racism, reminded social media users that those images should not be used.
On their Instagram they state, “Performing Blackness, be it IRL or online, is not an acceptable form of expressing reaction or dissatisfaction, especially not in exchange for likes and retweets.”
This is a developing story…..
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Daliah Wachs, MD, FAAFP is a nationally syndicated radio personality on GCN Network, KDWN, and iHeart Radio.
Dr. Daliah 
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