Black Self Hatred: Minstrels and Uncle Toms on #YouTube

"When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions...You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go there without being told." Dr. Carter G. Woodson

This week, I read a shocking and disturbing article in The Guardian. The controversial article was cited on the Root and several other news sources. In his sickening piece of trash entitled Why I Hate Being A Black Man, Orville Douglass writes:

I can honestly say I hate being a black male. Although black people like to wax poetic about loving their label I hate "being black". I just don't fit into a neat category of the stereotypical views people have of black men. In popular culture black men are recognized in three areas: sports, crime, and entertainment. I hate rap music, I hate most sports, and I like listening to rock music such as PJ Harvey, Morrissey, and Tracy Chapman. I have nothing in common with the archetypes about the black male.

There is so much negativity and criminal suspicion associated with being a black male in Toronto. Yet, I don't have a criminal record, and I certainly don't associate with criminals. In fact, I abhor violence, and I resent being compared to young black males (or young people of any race) who are lazy, not disciplined, or delinquent. Usually, when black male youth are discussed in Toronto, it is about something going wrong.

Honestly, who would want to be black? Who would want people to be terrified of you and not want to sit next to you on public transportation?

Who would want to have this dark skin, broad nose, large thick lips, and wake up in the morning being despised by the rest of the world?

Unfortunately, black self hatred is not rare. Sadly, it is a worldwide and pervasive phenomena. It is a part of the continuing legacy of colonialism, slavery, Jim Crow, Apartheid and other manifestations of white supremacy and racism.

No where is such black self hatred more manifest and apparent than on YouTube.  On YouTube, there are plenty of self hating black people who enthusiastically embrace the roles of modern day minstrel and Uncle Tom. All they need is some black shoe polish to paint their faces.

The minstrel is the one who loves to laugh, tell jokes and clown around at black people's expense.  They are like the characters Mantan and Sleep n Eat from Spike Lee's classic film Bamboozled.  A prime example of the YouTube minstrel is Tommy Sotomayor.  Then, there is the Uncle Tom. He is the one who projects his self hatred by denigrating and demeaning his own black people. Examples of YouTube Uncle Toms are 5723Michael/David Carroll and Painlessrisen.

The minstrel and Uncle Tom have transformed black pathology and black misogyny into an industry. Those fools are Klansmen in black face. In fact, one of those Uncle Toms has a YouTube video explaining why he respects the KKK. Those Uncle Toms and minstrels make hours and hours of YouTube videos describing and depicting black people as lazy, stupid, criminal, immoral and violent. 5723Michael/David Carroll loves to call his own people coons, apes, monkeys, savages, etc. 

Those minstrels and Uncle Toms make hours and hours of videos insulting black women, calling them nappy headed bitches, hoes and beasties.  Minstrel Tommy loves to condemn them for wearing wigs and weaves. He also enjoys dogging dark skinned African American women, even though he is dark skinned himself. Those minstrels and Toms love to talk about how black women "ain't shit". They love to present most black women as fighting, yelling, money hungry, conniving, twerking whores. While these simpletons trash their own black sisters, they drool over white women. While they humiliate and denigrate black women, they elevate and celebrate white women.

Like the African kings who sold their own people to the white man, YouTube minstrels and Uncle Toms do the bidding of white supremacists.  It is no coincidence that their material finds its way to racist, white supremacist websites and channels like TruTube and Stormfront.  Shout out to Tyrone Thompson for exposing Tommy Sotomayor.  

While the masses are outraged about the killings of Renisha McBride, Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis and Jonathan Ferrell, YouTube Uncle Toms demonize the black victims and defend the white killers.  In the words of brother Malcolm X, they love their white master more than the master loves himself.  Those Toms would gladly give their lives to save their master.  For instance, Uncle Painlessrisen has countless videos defending his boyfriend, George Zimmerman. Also, that imbecile, Painlessrisen, recently created a video blaming Renisha McBride for her own tragic death.

When black people cry out for justice, these Uncle Toms desperately try to divert attention to the irrelevant topic of so-called "black on black" violence. They do not raise the topic of urban violence out of a genuine concern for the plight of black people. Rather, they do so because it fuels their stereotypical narrative of black pathology.

Enough is enough. Those fools matter because they have dozens of channels and thousands of subscribers. YouTube constantly promotes their demented channels. Our elders and ancestors demonstrated and spoke out against racists films and programming like Birth of A Nation. In that brave tradition, I will continue to speak out against sellouts, minstrels and Uncle Toms on YouTube and elsewhere.  Every nation has a way to deal with its traitors.  It is time for us to deal with ours.