Buzzfeed finally (and formally) addressed a video that had Black folk deep in their feelings last week…and not in a good way.
The online giant made, and released, a video intending to be funny. That video, which you can find yourself if you so choose, featured Black folk on camera throwing out “questions” for other Black people.
Reaction was swift and severe.
Awesomely Luvvie discussed said mistake in a takedown column that was actually funny. Normally Buzz offers good content, but this time they lost their minds, she says summarily. And over at NPR, Leah Donella wrote that several questions “rest on seriously flawed premises…” and that “Many of the questions seem to presuppose that blackness exists in a vacuum, and that the actions, beliefs and perceptions of black people haven’t been shaped by, say, housing segregation, mass incarceration, poverty, underfunded schools and the like.”
Black Twitter as a whole exploded with hashtags such as #RealBlackPeopleQuestions and #BuzzFeedVideoQuestions as tweet pundits reamed the tone-deaf content.
Welp. The Buzzers have finally offered an apology. Kinda. Yesterday, they tweeted: “We’ve heard your concerns about last week’s video. We made a mistake, and want to get better at earning the trust of our Black audience.”
Meanwhile, that video can still be found on Buzzfeed’s website and on Youtube.
