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A White Journalist Who Did Blackface For His Book, And More Of This Week's 'One Main Character'

Darcy Jimenez
Darcy Jimenez
A White Journalist Who Did Blackface For His Book, And More Of This Week's 'One Main Character'
People who need a refresher course on using the internet.
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Every day, somebody says or does something that earns them the scorn of the internet. Here at Digg, as part of our mission to curate what the internet is talking about right now, we rounded up the main characters on X from this past week and held them accountable for their actions.



This week, we've got Jerry Seinfeld (again), an AI guy's bleak take on the future and a white writer who did "disguised" himself as Black for his book about racism.


Wednesday

Jonathan Ross

The character: Jonathan Ross, misc. AI guy, enjoyer of a very healthy relationship with human interaction

The plot: According to his X profile, Ross is the "CEO & Founder, Groq®™" — yet another large language model company. Why does it have two separate trademark symbols? That's none of your business.

But regardless of his belt-and-suspenders take on trademarks, Ross has the kind of wince-inducing AI hot-take that you'd expect from someone in this industry. He doesn't seem to have a very good read on why people do what they do in the real world, and his big claims about AI's societal impact evoke a "NFT guy telling you how ape JPEGs are going to revolutionize art" vibe.


The repercussion: Ross got clowned on by people like us, just as you'd expect — but it's worth noting that even some true AI believers couldn't bring themselves to agree with this terrible prediction.


Grant Brunner



Tuesday

Jerry Seinfeld & Israel's X account

The characters: The X account for the state of Israel, comedian Jerry Seinfeld

The plot: Jerry Seinfeld must be determined to feature in each one of our main character lists, because he's back again with another embarrassing online moment — but this time, he's sharing his spot with the state of Israel.

As Israel continues its brutal assault on Palestinians in Gaza, the country's official X account is busy posting celebrity endorsements, and the latest is a clip from Jerry Seinfeld's interview with journalist Bari Weiss.

I use the term "interview" loosely, because all we see in the 51-second video is Seinfeld being asked questions and responding with a largely vague, incomprehensible smattering of words.


The repercussion: It's not clear why Israel's social media person chose to post "thank you" alongside a clip in which Seinfeld says close to nothing of meaning or value, but people on X were bemused by the decision.

(And, of course, no dunk on Seinfeld would be complete without someone reminding us all that he dated a 17-year-old when he was 38.)


Darcy Jimenez


Tuesday

Sam Forster

The character: Sam Forster, writer, maker of truly awful decisions

The plot: Okay, strap in people, because this is one of the wildest, most mind-boggling main characters we've ever had the displeasure of featuring.

On Tuesday, journalist Sam Forster took to X to announce the upcoming release of his new book, "Seven Shoulders" — in which he, a white man, "disguised" himself as a Black man to "document how racism persists in American society."

An article by The Independent, who accessed a copy of the book, confirmed that it is as horribly offensive as it sounds: Forster's disguise consisted, according to the newspaper, of a "synthetic Afro wig, colored contact lenses" and lots of "Mocha"-shade Maybelline foundation. Yikes.

As if that's not bad enough, the self-written Amazon page for Forster's self-published book describes it as "the most important book on American race relations that has ever been written." That's one bold, ridiculous claim.


The repercussion: People on X were astonished not only by how casually Forster admits to doing blackface, but by his suggestion that this deeply offensive practice is the only way to truly understand the experience of Black Americans as a white person. The ignorance is truly astounding, especially given that the book claims to be a groundbreaking examination of racism in the US.


Darcy Jimenez



Read the previous edition of our One Main Character column, which featured celebrities calling for Kevin Spacey's return, Rudy Giuliani's patriotic coffee beans and a husband disrupting his wife's big moment.

Comments

  1. Shawn 7 hours ago

    of course the one comment on the entire page about the white guy doing blackface is a CLEARLY white person who tells black people to stop b*tching so much about blackface.....BE QUITE KAREN you dont get to speak about matters that you have no business talking about!!!!!!

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