EOTO Presentations

One thing I learned from the EOTO presentations was that people get famous for the most dumbest things sometimes. Like I remember during the pandemic a lot of people got famous on Tik Tok for stealing african american trends, or mannerisms (AAVE) and getting tons of likes and followers while black creators were being “Shadowbanned” on the app. Now since Tik Tok personalizes the content you see of course they are going to also have a say in what content they want you to see. Shadowbanning is when they specifically neglect to push your content to your followers and sometimes even “force” your followers to unfollow you. Like one of the examples in the presentation was Jeffree Star. Jeffree Star is a beauty influencer who makes his own cosmetics. Now when he would review beauty products he seemed like a strong advocate for diversity in the industry and trying to have more variety of skin tones. However Jeffree Star has a very racist past. He even called a black beauty influencer a “gorilla” In a timeline of his past it includes him: Threatening to pour acid on a black person, saying the N-word multiple times, and even establishing a brand called Lipstick Nazi”. 

AAVE Is Not "Internet Culture"

The "Blaccent": Nonblack Creators' Key to Fame

So of course he got canceled and every time he gives a very half ass apology and promises he’s a changed man but then proceeds to get into another “scandal”. Overall sometimes people on the internet are too trusting and not every white person is going to be the holy savior for african americans. Advocacy can be very preformative.