Indeed. This guy seems to be an idiot who perhaps was trying to make a valid point about the treatment of black people and how people didn't and still don't care about that by swapping the races and surprise, people suddenly care, but nonetheless went too far and was a bit too much of a edgelord in the process and thus is rightly being investigated and if he indeed gets charged, I can't have any particular problem with that really and it's on him for being stupid and going too far and not handling the subject with the tact it deserves.
That all said, nonetheless it's very hard for me to disagree with this or what people like RedMercury have been bringing up in this thread, and I agree with this, 100% of the way for sure.
As a crystal clear example of the underlined in particular, I believe it was you (and apologize if it wasn't), but either way someone brought up the example of James Gunn and how that's treated versus how this has been treated. That's indeed a fine example. However, something else can't help to occur to me.
What that something is, is that even if this guy is indeed completely racist against white people, which I don't deny as a possibility and if that's indeed the case and what the investigation turns up (and in which case he deserves what he gets 100%), even in that situation it's nonetheless ALSO true that this nonetheless serves as a crystal clear example of white privilege (yeah, I'm going there, and stick with me for a 'sec 'cause this will all make sense in a moment even if doesn't now) in how people definitively, right off the bad, assume
this nobody rapper is being completely 100% serious, completely 100% racist through and through right off the bat, and there's pages and pages to that effect and people being shocked that anyone could think anything other than the possibility that he's racist and the possibility that he's just angling for satire and just sucks at it and messed it up by being too much of an edgelord is taken off the table...
But yet when some, say, certain YouTuber makes a certain video about having a dog do Nazi salutes and responding to commands such as "gas the jews" suddenly right off the bat, it's completely different and the default assumption is apparently that Count Dancula was just tellin' jokes and shit and why should we take him serious and why does it matter anyway, since it's all just jokes, obviously. Like, even if this rapper guy is indeed a racist (and I don't deny that possibility--it's just not the only one and not one I'm going to jump to right off the bat here), I can't think of a better example of white privilege than when a white person makes a video about a dog being taught Nazi salutes/responding to commands like "gas the Jews" people just default to "oh, he's obviously just joking and what's the big deal and this is why the UK's hate speech laws are terrible and pointless, etc, etc, etc" but yet, but yet, when something like this happens when a nobody black rapper, that's when he's suddenly definitively serious and people are ready to lock him up and throw away the key already and don't give him anywhere near the same benefit of the doubt they gave to people like Count Danclua? That can't help but occur to me as I'm reading the thread and regardless of what is or isn't true about this guy, I still can't think of a better demonstration of white privilege than the discrepancy between these two threads all the same.
Of course, I forget myself and people might not be aware of what the Count Danclua/Nazi Dog video is about, since that was a bit ago now. For them, if that describes you, I direct you to threads such as this on that very subject that we had on this very site:
Man who taught dog Nazi salute found guilty of hate crime
Now, if you have the time, please take the time to read through that thread. Please take time to consider the tone of the responses and how most people are reacting to Dancula and their assumptions about him. Just look at how many people give him benefit of the doubt, how many people going with some variant of how he's clearly just joking or wondering what the big deal is, how many people in that thread talking about stuff like how terrible hate speech laws are or how that was proof that the UK is just wasting resources and wasting time. Then compare it to this one. Look at how many people here are definitively assuming this guy is racist, right off the bat, without allowing for even the slightest consideration of any other possibilities, whatsoever. Lots of possibilities were allowed to be considered for the Count Dankula thread. Where are those same ones here? Where's the difference? And why does that difference exist? Regardless of whether this particular man is a racist, that can't help but me by takeaway from comparing these threads: the different starting assumptions people seem to have about these two individuals and who's allowed to have benefit of the doubt, and who isn't. White privilege in action.
Like, if people still don't get what I'm talking about, I normally wouldn't do this, and I don't do this to call this particular poster out and apologize for any misgivings this may cause as that's not my intent (but I don't blame you if you don't believe me, but either way) but this is indeed a complex discussion where it can get very confusing about what people are or aren't saying, and it helps to have visual aids to get the point across. So that being the case, here are some posts from the Count Danclua thread linked above:
Now, same exact person, in this thread...
Now, like I said, I did not do this to call this particular poster out and hope people don't jump on that and can be respectful, but rather I did so to just point out the discrepancies between. Count Danclua's, while he was indeed a "dick" apparently nonetheless his stuff was clearly "just jokes" and it was a "sad day for the courts" and it should be the people that decide and all that in that case, whereas this, in this particular situation, this clearly ain't satire, this clearly ain't "jokes" but apparently this "is racism. Plain and simple" while "gassing the jews" is just jokes and fun and games apparently? Those kind of discrepancies can't help but stand out to be between these two threads and regardless of whether this guy is or is not a racist, he's also a nobody and whatever's going to happen to him and going to happen to him and nobody will care one way or the other at that point, so that being the case, that demonstration of white privilege shaping how people respond to these respective threads, in addition to stuff like what
DigitalOp and
RedMercury have brought up in this thread can't help but be my personal takeaways here.
Why did Count Danclua get so much benefit of the doubt? Why was his stuff just seen as jokes, right off the bat? Why is this guy immediately seen as racist? Why is even the slightest possibility that this guy's stuff is just satire, and that's he just terrible at it or whatever, equivalent to the logic used to defend Count Danclua so quickly dismissed with the same fervor people argued in favor of Danclua in that thread? Why is antisemitism seen as "just jokes" but when it's against white people, suddenly, definitively, it's racist right off the bat with no room for other possibilities whatsoever? It should surely be either both or neither, either way, people should at least be consistent in both cases right, so why the lack of consistency? Can't help but stick out to me.
So yeah, if people never have before, and have the time, I'd personally recommend to read both the Danclua thread and that one and think about such things and why people jump to the conclusions they do in each thread, who they give the benefit of the doubt and who they don't, because yeah, going through this one, I just couldn't help but have the threads on Danclua immediately pop up in my mind and the differences between the two topics and how they're treated is definitely enlightening to me personally, and unfortunately not in any positive ways at all.
