Nicole Arbour Has A New Rage-Bait Video Called ‘Dear Black People’. It’s Terrible, So Don’t Watch It.
The woman behind 'Dear Fat People' is back. :|
Don’t get me wrong; comedian/commentator Nicole Arbour seems smart and funny, and she has occasionally made some good points. In her widely-shared YouTube clips, she has called attention to the exploitation of women on social media (which can end up devaluing the modelling and pornography industry), and some of the logical inconsistencies of the pro-life movement.
But she couches it all in so many lazy tropes, stereotypes and blatant misunderstandings that any good is overtaken by the bad. And also, she’s responsible for disseminating a whole lot of garbage for clicks.
This came to a head earlier this year when her clip ‘Dear Fat People‘ — a crude, out-dated and ill-informed fat-shaming screed — caused a torrent of online outrage, which resulted in its brief censorship from YouTube. In The Guardian, commentator Lindy West called it “six minutes of tired cruelty filed under ‘entertainment’“, and Lindsey Averill, producer of Fattitude, called it outright “hate speech”.
It’s tough being a woman in comedy, sure. But it’s especially tough if you’re mean-spirited, entitled, and bad at jokes.
“Keyboard warriors are trying to murder comedy!” Arbour lamented in a clip posted two days after ‘Dear Fat People’ — and she’s not the first to critique the chilling effect that online outrage culture has had on comedy. But when watching her latest video ‘Dear Black People’, which was uploaded last week but picked up traction overnight (and which is exactly as nuanced and sophisticated as it sounds), it becomes even clearer that Arbour’s not against so-called ‘keyboard warriors’ at all. In fact, she’s trying to court them.
“I see you all [black people] in Starbucks. That’s appropriating everything that’s white, and nobody makes fun of you,” she says — failing to understand that appropriation is more damaging when it targets marginalised groups.
“You all like to pick and choose which stereotypes you want to keep!” she laments, as if people of colour shouldn’t be allowed to say whatever they want about their race.
“When I do the exact same job as a man I get paid less money, but I don’t know anything about inequality?” she notes, with complete disregard for the fact that gender inequality is way more harmful when it intersects with racism.
And if you’re going to feature a black woman to legitimise your video about race, maybe let her say more than just “penis” and “white people” over and over again.
So actually, on second thoughts, let’s not watch that clip. Let’s watch this one from fellow YouTuber Kat Blaque instead:
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