...And Other Forms of Racist Foolishness

**Trigger alert**: YouTube videos contain violent images (oh… and cursing.)

           

In American Apartheid, Massy and Denton put up a very different argument than Wilson in The Truly Disadvantaged, however, there is no need to pick sides. While Wilson presents a strong argument about how class is a strong contributor to the construction of impoverished neighborhoods, Massy and Denton reminds us how race cannot be completely discounted as a major, if not the chief, factor in the conditions of neighborhoods and their resulting social isolation. In their second chapter, “The Construction of the Ghetto”, they show how meticulous and deliberate racially segregating neighborhoods were created by government officials and realtors. They state:

“The methods that realtors used to open up neighborhoods to black entry and to reap profits during the transition came to be known as ‘blockbusting’… agents would select a promising area for racial turnover, most often an area adjacent to the ghetto that contained older housing, poorer families, aging households, and some apartments in the area, and rent or sell them to carefully chosen black families…. They often selected ostentatiously lower-class blacks to be the first settlers in the neighborhood in order to heighten fears and encourage panic; at times, these ‘settlers’ were actually confederates of the realtor” (Massey and Denton, 1993: 38)

I purposely skipped over quoting the sentences that discussed realtors going door to door to warn white people about the coming invasion for no other reason than they are disgusting. This process is termed redlining and, as the picture displays, it is built from arbitrary lines drawn to concentrate poverty. To outsiders, this poverty is to be viewed, poked at and even targeted for harmful stereotypes. 

Flashing forward, a popular trend on Youtube disgustingly targets the same types of areas for the same underlying theme of profit, but in a different way. From zombies, killer clowns, stolen wallets, phone grabs and even the use of sniper attacks, the sensationalization of provoked black violence is mesmerizing to YouTube followers interested in prank videos. The premise is built off of the same stereotypes as any of the racial issues the internet reflects back to us. In this case, people living in impoverished neighborhoods, usually black or other ethnic minorities, are more violent so prank videos will be more interesting. They are call “Hood Pranks”, where suburban, usually white, groups get together with a videographer (loosely termed) and organize a prank they have designed to scare people in the hood. When their prank envokes a violent response from their targets the video is renamed by the original poster, or by someone copying their video, as “Hood Pranks Gone Wrong” like this 2014 compilation (part 1, because, of course). These pranks at their “best” illicit sheer panic on their targets, get a laugh, or even receive praise. At their “worse”, the targets respond with some type of physical response or even threaten the prankster's life with a weapon of some kind.

            This leaves the watchers of the videos to able to comment of the material with usual stereotypes about black people and how violent they are or how this proves that there is something engrained within black people to always have a violent response. Putting this nonsense to the test, YouTuber Riceman takes to the streets of Birmingham, Alabama to ask is he can give people a punch to test this theory. As he reminds the viewers of this video, there’s no way in telling how many of these videos are edited to particular responses. There are no violent responses in his video and he claims to have posted each of his attempts. An even better response to the idiocy of this trend is The Second City Network post Hood Pranks in Da Burbs, where two guys satirically demonstrate what happens when the racial and regional aspects are reverse. You’re welcome.

            More important than the overall point of rather or not we should be arguing with the stereotype of black violence and how that is portrayed through these videos, is the underlying theme of these neighborhoods being specifically targeted for these types of reactions.  If you are going to make a pranks in the hood because you think people in the hood are violent, and you receive a violent response, that in no way means that people in the hood are more violent than anyone anywhere else you would have pranked. 

If I may, for a second, speak directly to these “harmless” pranksters: why do you think this is

funny? Please stop. People in the hood have enough ways they have to deal with your privilege.

links yo

American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass