vox--2020-01-22--Why are Asian Americans still the butt of the joke in pop culture?

Part of Issue # 10 of The Highlight , our home for ambitious stories that explain our world .
Rosie O ’ Donnell apologized if there were any Indian people in the room during a standup set in Provincetown , Massachusetts , this past July .
Sitting far to one side of the stage , I felt my stomach lurch .
I was the only Indian person in the beachside club , and O ’ Donnell couldn ’ t see me as she launched into a story about her 2012 heart attack and recovery .
A doctor she described as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she proceeded to tell the joke using a caricatured Indian accent .
The near-death experience she described wasn ’ t funny ; it was her performance of the doctor ’ s voice that got the room laughing .
The friends I ’ d come with , who were white , looked at me with uncertainty .
I took a big sip of cheap Sauvignon Blanc and felt my forehead beading with sweat .
I laughed despite myself .
When the bit was over , heat drained from my cheeks and my body flooded @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hadn ’ t said anything overtly derogatory ; in fact , she used the doctor as a foil for self-deprecation .
But O ’ Donnell had made his ethnic difference — and mine — the butt of the joke .
Later , I expressed my discomfort on Twitter , pointing out the blind spot that even someone as progressive as O ’ Donnell can have when it comes to race .
I ’ d imagined myself in an especially liberal and accepting space , given O ’ Donnell ’ s politics and Provincetown @ @ @ @ @ @ @ queer travelers , and it was jarring to be proven otherwise .
O ’ Donnell replied on Twitter a few days later , claiming she ’ d performed many accents that night ( if she had , I couldn ’ t recall the others ) .
“ That doctor was from Bombay - if u were offended - my apologies , ” she later added .
Fans of O ’ Donnell came to her defense on Twitter , piling on .
“ It ’ s comedy … grow up , ” was a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In this new liberal progressive PC world nothing is a joke anymore , ” one user wrote .
But that ’ s the thing .
Even in the most liberal environments , comedy at the expense of Asian Americans feels socially permissible .
When SNL hired then quickly fired Shane Gillis in September over homophobic statements and racist remarks about Asians , a 2016 interview surfaced in which the comedian discussed testing new material in small clubs .
“ You throw stuff out there and you get to see them react to things @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s funny and what ’ s not , ” Gillis said .
“ You can be racist to Asians .
That ’ s what we ’ re finding out.
” In response to his dismissal , Gillis called himself “ a comedian who pushes boundaries , ” as though floating racist jokes were groundbreaking instead of outdated .
Using an accent as the butt of a joke is nowhere near as egregious as the remarks that led to Gillis ’ s firing .
But it illustrates how Asian Americans still occupy a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have more forcefully sought to vacate .
Take O ’ Donnell ’ s bit : She positioned her doctor as a model minority .
Because it didn ’ t seem as though she were punching down — how could she be , from a hospital bed ?
— making a joke of his accent felt like fair game .
Maybe she was emboldened by the makeup of the club that night , or her perception of it .
I was the only non-white person in attendance as far as I could tell , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ She apologized , knowing she ’ d likely offend someone like me while letting her audience know that it didn ’ t matter .
The casting of Asian Americans as model minorities , along with the impression that we ’ re insignificant in numbers — disinclined to band together or to speak up — are some of the factors that perpetuate humor at our expense .
But in fact , Asian Americans are the most rapidly growing minority group in the US , and income inequality is rising faster among Asian Americans than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We are also a vastly diverse population , with critical voting power politicians are increasingly taking into account .
Though Asian American representation in Hollywood has grown slightly more varied in recent years , casual and overt racism at our expense has long resisted taboo .
Examples of odd and exaggerated Asian movie and TV characters abound .
Mickey Rooney played as Holly Golightly ’ s Japanese landlord in Breakfast at Tiffany ’ s ( 1961 ) , Peter Sellers painted his face brown and adopted an accent to play an Indian-born actor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Alex Bornstein donned less literal yellowface as Ms. Swan on MADtv in the 1990s .
Favorite movies and shows for many kids of my generation were peppered with outrageous Asian caricatures , such as Sixteen Candles ’ Long Duk Dong and of The Simpsons ’ Apu Nahasapeemapetilon , voiced by Hank Azaria .
“ American culture has a long history of denigrating and casting Asians , or what people used to call ‘ Orientals , ’ as entirely different than white Americans , ” says Ellen D. Wu , director of Asian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ When these differences weren ’ t thought to be threatening , another framing was that [ Asian Americans ] were considered comically strange.
” “ It has such a big impact , ” comedian Hari Kondabolu said of The Simpsons ’ three-decade run , speaking to Emily VanDerWerff on the Vox podcast I Think You ’ re Interesting .
Kondabolu ’ s 2017 documentary The Problem With Apu brings together a chorus of perspectives from South Asian actors and comedians on the cartoon convenience store owner who speaks with a heavy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and whose catchphrase is “ Thank you , come again.
” I remember watching Apu on TV and wondering if that was how other kids imagined my parents .
Or if customers considered my uncle , who owned a Subway restaurant and worked hard to support his family , as comic relief .
Apu is just one of The Simpsons ’ several ethnically stereotyped characters , including Scottish groundskeeper Willy .
But he was one of very few , and certainly among the most prominent , representations of Indian Americans on TV when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s why , Kondabolu told Vox , “ There ’ s a little bit of the poison of racism ” in Apu .
( At a TCA panel this month , Azaria announced that he would no longer voice the character , though it remains unclear whether The Simpsons will retire the Apu character . )
Comedy , particularly American comedy , has a long history of mining racial and ethnic differences for laughs .
The emancipation of black slaves and successive waves of immigration from around the world have brought minority @ @ @ @ @ @ @ whose whiteness came to be defined by differences .
Othering humor still lingers today ; just last year , a series of scandals surfaced involving old photos of politicians including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Virginia Gov .
Ralph Northam wearing blackface , seemingly as a joke .
But the general reception toward ugly , racist humor is changing , sure enough .
“ There ’ s been a raising of consciousness about what we laugh at , ” says Shilpa Davé , assistant professor of media studies at the University of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Brown Voice and Racial Performance in American Television and Film .
“ Humor reveals something about institutionalized inequality and prejudice and discrimination — racism , sexism , and classism — that ’ s ingrained in our culture.
” And , as Jeet Heer pointed out in his response to The Problem with Apu for the New Republic , caricatures of other minority groups have historically faced concerted pushback as those groups gained cultural and political power .
Asian Americans have approached a similar turning point only in recent years .
“ You ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to objectify ” minority groups , Davé says .
“ But can you drown out that objectification with new visions of what we see as funny , and also who we see as comics ?
I think we ’ re there , ” she says .
“ We just don ’ t have the numbers necessarily yet.
” Standing in the way , perhaps , is that “ We don ’ t have a lot of power in American society , and then we can ’ t even agree among ourselves , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not one cohesive block.
” The term “ Asian American ” was coined in 1968 by activist and historian Yuji Ichioka , who saw the potential of uniting around shared identity in the wake of the Black Power movement .
But sustained solidarity has been elusive : With origins in nearly 20 different countries , Asian Americans don ’ t share a common language , culture , or civic agenda .
Even now , I wonder if it ’ s presumptuous of me to make an argument on behalf of such a broad @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more readily identify as desi , or South Asian , I recognize the utility of banding together as Asian Americans in contexts like this , as well as the limitations .
In addition to gaining political voice , Irish and African Americans , to use Heer ’ s examples , also grew in affluence and became consumer markets to which products — including pop culture — could be sold .
“ When people in power have an idea of their market share , it must be that they don ’ t really think @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ That calculation of comedy as a business has to be part of the nexus of factors.
” Asian Americans currently make up 6 percent of the population , just less than half the number of African Americans , according to US census data .
An increase in Asian American visibility in public life is turning the tide Asian American representation in comedy and pop culture , and our power as both consumers and voters , has grown significantly , even in the past few years alone .
The commercial success of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the box-office appeal of Asian American actors and stories ; its romantic lead , Henry Golding , has even moved into headlining mainstream rom-coms like Last Christmas .
Riz Ahmed and Kumail Nanjiani have propelled from small-screen roles into two of Hollywood ’ s biggest fantasy franchises , Star Wars and the Marvel Universe .
SNL hired this season ’ s breakout MVP Bowen Yang in the same round as Gillis .
Ali Wong has released two smash Netflix specials and a movie , and comedian Hasan Minhaj has his own show , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ episode to the rising significance of the Asian American electorate in 2020 .
Andrew Yang , a Democratic presidential candidate , remains in the race , polling at 3 percent .
Yang ’ s strategy around his identity has included embracing Asian American stereotypes with a knowing wink , by wearing campaign gear that simply reads “ Math , ” or remarking on the debate stage , “ I am Asian , so I know a lot of doctors.
” On the one hand , Asian American demographics , as they have been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ resemblance to popular assumptions .
On the other hand , “ Especially for people who might not have a lot of daily contact with Asian Americans , the information they ’ re getting ” — as to who we are or could be — “ is mediated through popular culture , ” Wu says .
In other words , Yang is likely reinforcing the stereotypes he plays into rather than indicating their limitations .
While I can understand his wanting to get out in front of them , watching Yang lend credence to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not least because I wish by now they were too cliché to seem funny .
But the idea of a model minority suggests its opposite , and stereotypes like those he embraces do ideological work to perpetuate a system of racism that places black people at the bottom .
As Brando Simeo Starkey put it at The Undefeated , “ the model minority stereotype is a myth that white supremacy devised partly to defend American society from the charges of racism leveled by Black folk .
… The notion that one racial minority @ @ @ @ @ @ @ minding their own business , and not complaining about the system was a rhetorical tactic for those who sought to justify their inaction on civil rights.
” The work of demanding more is on successive generations Being the target of model minority stereotypes is conflicting .
When someone assumes I ’ m good at math , my impulse is to roll my eyes , not punch them in the teeth ( then confess that I ’ m terrible at math ) .
I recognize it ’ s nowhere near being on the receiving @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ People tend to say , ‘ Oh , what ’ s wrong with the model minority stereotype ?
Why wouldn ’ t you want to be thought of as smart and successful ?
’ ” Wu says .
“ So you can make a joke about something like that because it sounds positive and , oh sure , everybody ’ s got their Indian doctor.
” As I mentioned in my reply to O ’ Donnell , everyone in my family is a doctor except for me .
It would be no @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from Bombay .
But oddly enough , when O ’ Donnell recounted that same story in her 2015 HBO documentary Rosie O ’ Donnell : A Heartfelt Stand Up , she didn ’ t give the doctor any particular accent .
Maybe her recollection of him has since improved , or maybe she thought the bit might be funnier if he sounded Indian .
If it had been one of my parents she were up there imitating , I would have been furious .
So when I visited my family over the holidays @ @ @ @ @ @ @ set and asked how it might have made them feel .
“ Comedy is just comedy , ” my dad said .
“ They ’ re making fun ; it ’ s all fine.
” Patients have actually confessed to him that they were specifically looking for an Indian doctor because of his presumed competence .
“ I don ’ t feel like an oppressed minority group , we ’ ve already proven [ ourselves ] .
” He ’ s right ; they have .
My parents emigrated to America in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ medical degrees , and are both comfortably retired .
But doesn ’ t a room full of people laughing at the way they talk mock or , at the very least , minimize their achievements ?
“ It doesn ’ t make me feel good , ” my mom replied .
“ But you know what ?
There are 40 Indian accents in the country , ” she pointed out , and people from different regions of India might have a laugh at one another ’ s .
“ If that ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t make fun of it , ” like with exaggerated facial expressions or body language , “ then that ’ s okay , ” she said .
One difference between my parents ’ mindset as first-generation immigrants and my own is they ’ ve never expected to see themselves reflected back in their adopted culture .
An occasional glimpse of an engineer or taxi driver with a thick accent , played by a brown actor on TV or voiced by a white comedian behind the mic , may have felt like enough @ @ @ @ @ @ @ should I just lighten up ?
Why had O ’ Donnell doing that accent gotten under my skin ?
I asked Davé .
“ Because you were highly aware of the environment she was using it in , when there was no one else around , and why she was using it , ” Davé told me .
“ In the moment that we ’ re in , especially as Asian Americans and for people who are doing comparative race studies , that laziness of just going back to a particular stereotype is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ things forward.
” Continuing to push forward sure feels like the goal for me and millions of Asian Americans and other minorities who were born here but are consistently othered by comedy , whether offensive or lazy , and the first-generation immigrants who will continue to arrive here and be marked as foreign by how they look and talk .
“ The question is not so much what would make Asians stop [ seeming ] foreign , ” Davé says .
“ But instead , what ’ s become the political controversy and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ does America look like ?
” The answer has grown increasingly clear : It looks like Awkwafina .
It looks like a growing class of South Asian comics coming up online and in standup clubs .
It looks like six seasons of Fresh Off the Boat , Netflix rom-com queen Lana Condor , and yes , Keanu Reeves .
It looks like a generation of artists and comedians remaking the culture in their image .
And viewers seated front and center , not content with crumbs but demanding and expecting more .
Naveen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lifestyle for outlets including them.us , Vice , the New York Times , and Towleroad , where he serves as theater critic .

Part of Issue #10 of The Highlight, our home for ambitious stories that explain our world.
Rosie O’Donnell apologized if there were any Indian people in the room during a standup set in Provincetown, Massachusetts, this past July. Sitting far to one side of the stage, I felt my stomach lurch. I was the only Indian person in the beachside club, and O’Donnell couldn’t see me as she launched into a story about her 2012 heart attack and recovery.
A doctor she described as Indian played a central role, and she proceeded to tell the joke using a caricatured Indian accent. The near-death experience she described wasn’t funny; it was her performance of the doctor’s voice that got the room laughing.
The friends I’d come with, who were white, looked at me with uncertainty. I took a big sip of cheap Sauvignon Blanc and felt my forehead beading with sweat. I laughed despite myself. When the bit was over, heat drained from my cheeks and my body flooded with post-adrenaline relief.
O’Donnell hadn’t said anything overtly derogatory; in fact, she used the doctor as a foil for self-deprecation. But O’Donnell had made his ethnic difference — and mine — the butt of the joke.
Later, I expressed my discomfort on Twitter, pointing out the blind spot that even someone as progressive as O’Donnell can have when it comes to race. I’d imagined myself in an especially liberal and accepting space, given O’Donnell’s politics and Provincetown’s history as a haven for queer travelers, and it was jarring to be proven otherwise. O’Donnell replied on Twitter a few days later, claiming she’d performed many accents that night (if she had, I couldn’t recall the others). “That doctor was from Bombay - if u were offended - my apologies,” she later added.
he was not the doctor who saved my life - he was one of many who came in to see how i survived - he brought me a fruit basket - i ate and went into shock - that dr was from bombay - if u were offended - my apologies — ROSIE (@Rosie) July 8, 2019
Fans of O’Donnell came to her defense on Twitter, piling on. “It’s comedy … grow up,” was a common refrain in my replies. “In this new liberal progressive PC world nothing is a joke anymore,” one user wrote. But that’s the thing. Even in the most liberal environments, comedy at the expense of Asian Americans feels socially permissible.
When SNL hired then quickly fired Shane Gillis in September over homophobic statements and racist remarks about Asians, a 2016 interview surfaced in which the comedian discussed testing new material in small clubs.
“You throw stuff out there and you get to see them react to things, like yea or nay, what’s funny and what’s not,” Gillis said. “You can be racist to Asians. That’s what we’re finding out.” In response to his dismissal, Gillis called himself “a comedian who pushes boundaries,” as though floating racist jokes were groundbreaking instead of outdated. Using an accent as the butt of a joke is nowhere near as egregious as the remarks that led to Gillis’s firing. But it illustrates how Asian Americans still occupy a position as punchlines, which other minorities have more forcefully sought to vacate.
Take O’Donnell’s bit: She positioned her doctor as a model minority. Because it didn’t seem as though she were punching down — how could she be, from a hospital bed? — making a joke of his accent felt like fair game. Maybe she was emboldened by the makeup of the club that night, or her perception of it. I was the only non-white person in attendance as far as I could tell, and obviously the only Asian American. She apologized, knowing she’d likely offend someone like me while letting her audience know that it didn’t matter.
The casting of Asian Americans as model minorities, along with the impression that we’re insignificant in numbers — disinclined to band together or to speak up — are some of the factors that perpetuate humor at our expense. But in fact, Asian Americans are the most rapidly growing minority group in the US, and income inequality is rising faster among Asian Americans than among other racial or ethnic groups. We are also a vastly diverse population, with critical voting power politicians are increasingly taking into account. Though Asian American representation in Hollywood has grown slightly more varied in recent years, casual and overt racism at our expense has long resisted taboo.
Why hasn’t pop culture caught up?
Deep roots of racism in pop culture
Examples of odd and exaggerated Asian movie and TV characters abound. Mickey Rooney played as Holly Golightly’s Japanese landlord in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), Peter Sellers painted his face brown and adopted an accent to play an Indian-born actor for The Party (1968), and Alex Bornstein donned less literal yellowface as Ms. Swan on MADtv in the 1990s. Favorite movies and shows for many kids of my generation were peppered with outrageous Asian caricatures, such as Sixteen Candles’ Long Duk Dong and of The Simpsons’ Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, voiced by Hank Azaria.
“American culture has a long history of denigrating and casting Asians, or what people used to call ‘Orientals,’ as entirely different than white Americans,” says Ellen D. Wu, director of Asian American Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington. “When these differences weren’t thought to be threatening, another framing was that [Asian Americans] were considered comically strange.”
“It has such a big impact,” comedian Hari Kondabolu said of The Simpsons’ three-decade run, speaking to Emily VanDerWerff on the Vox podcast I Think You’re Interesting. Kondabolu’s 2017 documentary The Problem With Apu brings together a chorus of perspectives from South Asian actors and comedians on the cartoon convenience store owner who speaks with a heavy Indian accent, has eight children, and whose catchphrase is “Thank you, come again.” I remember watching Apu on TV and wondering if that was how other kids imagined my parents. Or if customers considered my uncle, who owned a Subway restaurant and worked hard to support his family, as comic relief.
Apu is just one of The Simpsons’ several ethnically stereotyped characters, including Scottish groundskeeper Willy. But he was one of very few, and certainly among the most prominent, representations of Indian Americans on TV when the show premiered in 1989. That’s why, Kondabolu told Vox, “There’s a little bit of the poison of racism” in Apu. (At a TCA panel this month, Azaria announced that he would no longer voice the character, though it remains unclear whether The Simpsons will retire the Apu character.)
Comedy, particularly American comedy, has a long history of mining racial and ethnic differences for laughs. The emancipation of black slaves and successive waves of immigration from around the world have brought minority groups into conflict with a dominant culture whose whiteness came to be defined by differences. Othering humor still lingers today; just last year, a series of scandals surfaced involving old photos of politicians including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam wearing blackface, seemingly as a joke.
But the general reception toward ugly, racist humor is changing, sure enough. “There’s been a raising of consciousness about what we laugh at,” says Shilpa Davé, assistant professor of media studies at the University of Virginia and author of Indian Accents: Brown Voice and Racial Performance in American Television and Film. “Humor reveals something about institutionalized inequality and prejudice and discrimination — racism, sexism, and classism — that’s ingrained in our culture.”
And, as Jeet Heer pointed out in his response to The Problem with Apu for the New Republic, caricatures of other minority groups have historically faced concerted pushback as those groups gained cultural and political power.
Amos ‘n’ Andy and Happy Hooligan [popular minstrelsies of black and Irish Americans, respectively] became anachronistic because the communities they caricatured acculturated and found their political voice. Irish immigrants gave way to the American-born Irish, who had less tolerance for ethnic jokes and felt empowered to speak up. Amos ‘n’ Andy, meanwhile, was really a comedy about the first generation of African Americans who left the rural South for a life in the urban North. As those migrants settled in cities and became politically active, they too began to challenge how they were represented in pop culture.
Asian Americans have approached a similar turning point only in recent years. “You’ll always have people who are going to objectify” minority groups, Davé says. “But can you drown out that objectification with new visions of what we see as funny, and also who we see as comics? I think we’re there,” she says. “We just don’t have the numbers necessarily yet.”
Standing in the way, perhaps, is that “We don’t have a lot of power in American society, and then we can’t even agree among ourselves,” Wu says. “We’re not one cohesive block.” The term “Asian American” was coined in 1968 by activist and historian Yuji Ichioka, who saw the potential of uniting around shared identity in the wake of the Black Power movement.
But sustained solidarity has been elusive: With origins in nearly 20 different countries, Asian Americans don’t share a common language, culture, or civic agenda. Even now, I wonder if it’s presumptuous of me to make an argument on behalf of such a broad and disparate group. Though I might more readily identify as desi, or South Asian, I recognize the utility of banding together as Asian Americans in contexts like this, as well as the limitations.
In addition to gaining political voice, Irish and African Americans, to use Heer’s examples, also grew in affluence and became consumer markets to which products — including pop culture — could be sold. “When people in power have an idea of their market share, it must be that they don’t really think of Asian Americans,” Wu says. “That calculation of comedy as a business has to be part of the nexus of factors.” Asian Americans currently make up 6 percent of the population, just less than half the number of African Americans, according to US census data.
An increase in Asian American visibility in public life is turning the tide
Asian American representation in comedy and pop culture, and our power as both consumers and voters, has grown significantly, even in the past few years alone. The commercial success of Crazy Rich Asians in 2018 has proven the box-office appeal of Asian American actors and stories; its romantic lead, Henry Golding, has even moved into headlining mainstream rom-coms like Last Christmas.
Riz Ahmed and Kumail Nanjiani have propelled from small-screen roles into two of Hollywood’s biggest fantasy franchises, Star Wars and the Marvel Universe. SNL hired this season’s breakout MVP Bowen Yang in the same round as Gillis. Ali Wong has released two smash Netflix specials and a movie, and comedian Hasan Minhaj has his own show, Patriot Act, and dedicated a recent episode to the rising significance of the Asian American electorate in 2020. Andrew Yang, a Democratic presidential candidate, remains in the race, polling at 3 percent.
Yang’s strategy around his identity has included embracing Asian American stereotypes with a knowing wink, by wearing campaign gear that simply reads “Math,” or remarking on the debate stage, “I am Asian, so I know a lot of doctors.” On the one hand, Asian American demographics, as they have been shaped by American policy, bear some resemblance to popular assumptions.
On the other hand, “Especially for people who might not have a lot of daily contact with Asian Americans, the information they’re getting” — as to who we are or could be — “is mediated through popular culture,” Wu says. In other words, Yang is likely reinforcing the stereotypes he plays into rather than indicating their limitations. While I can understand his wanting to get out in front of them, watching Yang lend credence to stale jokes also makes me cringe — not least because I wish by now they were too cliché to seem funny.
But the idea of a model minority suggests its opposite, and stereotypes like those he embraces do ideological work to perpetuate a system of racism that places black people at the bottom.
As Brando Simeo Starkey put it at The Undefeated, “the model minority stereotype is a myth that white supremacy devised partly to defend American society from the charges of racism leveled by Black folk. … The notion that one racial minority group was advancing by working hard, minding their own business, and not complaining about the system was a rhetorical tactic for those who sought to justify their inaction on civil rights.”
The work of demanding more is on successive generations
Being the target of model minority stereotypes is conflicting. When someone assumes I’m good at math, my impulse is to roll my eyes, not punch them in the teeth (then confess that I’m terrible at math). I recognize it’s nowhere near being on the receiving end of a slur or worse. “People tend to say, ‘Oh, what’s wrong with the model minority stereotype? Why wouldn’t you want to be thought of as smart and successful?’” Wu says. “So you can make a joke about something like that because it sounds positive and, oh sure, everybody’s got their Indian doctor.”
As I mentioned in my reply to O’Donnell, everyone in my family is a doctor except for me. It would be no great surprise if her doctor really were from Bombay. But oddly enough, when O’Donnell recounted that same story in her 2015 HBO documentary Rosie O’Donnell: A Heartfelt Stand Up, she didn’t give the doctor any particular accent. Maybe her recollection of him has since improved, or maybe she thought the bit might be funnier if he sounded Indian.
If it had been one of my parents she were up there imitating, I would have been furious. So when I visited my family over the holidays, I described the moment in her set and asked how it might have made them feel.
“Comedy is just comedy,” my dad said. “They’re making fun; it’s all fine.” Patients have actually confessed to him that they were specifically looking for an Indian doctor because of his presumed competence. “I don’t feel like an oppressed minority group, we’ve already proven [ourselves].” He’s right; they have. My parents emigrated to America in the ’70s with very little but their medical degrees, and are both comfortably retired. But doesn’t a room full of people laughing at the way they talk mock or, at the very least, minimize their achievements?
“It doesn’t make me feel good,” my mom replied. “But you know what? There are 40 Indian accents in the country,” she pointed out, and people from different regions of India might have a laugh at one another’s. “If that’s all she did, and she didn’t make fun of it,” like with exaggerated facial expressions or body language, “then that’s okay,” she said.
One difference between my parents’ mindset as first-generation immigrants and my own is they’ve never expected to see themselves reflected back in their adopted culture. An occasional glimpse of an engineer or taxi driver with a thick accent, played by a brown actor on TV or voiced by a white comedian behind the mic, may have felt like enough, a novel thrill.
So, should I just lighten up? Why had O’Donnell doing that accent gotten under my skin? I asked Davé. “Because you were highly aware of the environment she was using it in, when there was no one else around, and why she was using it,” Davé told me. “In the moment that we’re in, especially as Asian Americans and for people who are doing comparative race studies, that laziness of just going back to a particular stereotype is reinforcing the status quo rather than moving things forward.”
Continuing to push forward sure feels like the goal for me and millions of Asian Americans and other minorities who were born here but are consistently othered by comedy, whether offensive or lazy, and the first-generation immigrants who will continue to arrive here and be marked as foreign by how they look and talk. “The question is not so much what would make Asians stop [seeming] foreign,” Davé says. “But instead, what’s become the political controversy and dialogue of our time is, what does America look like?”
The answer has grown increasingly clear: It looks like Awkwafina. It looks like a growing class of South Asian comics coming up online and in standup clubs. It looks like six seasons of Fresh Off the Boat, Netflix rom-com queen Lana Condor, and yes, Keanu Reeves.
It looks like a generation of artists and comedians remaking the culture in their image. And viewers seated front and center, not content with crumbs but demanding and expecting more.
Naveen Kumar covers entertainment, culture, and lifestyle for outlets including them.us, Vice, the New York Times, and Towleroad, where he serves as theater critic.


vox--2020-01-22--John Lewis and the beginning of an era

John Lewis and the beginning of an era

Part of Issue # 10 of The Highlight , our home for ambitious stories that explain our world .
In 1963 , John Lewis was , at 23 , the youngest person set to speak at the March on Washington .
The original version of his prepared remarks accused the Kennedy administration of conspiring with white supremacists .
He wanted to ask : “ Which side is the federal government on ?
” But the march ’ s leaders censored the speech he wanted to give , arguing that it was too radical .
The event leaders forced Lewis to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ down other provocations , including this call to action : They made him change that to : “ We will march through the South ... with the spirit of love and with the spirit of dignity we have shown here today.
” But the words Lewis didn ’ t speak are the ones America needs to hear right now .
More than 50 years later , history has clarified some things .
The quintessential American battle between racial justice and white supremacy is still unresolved , but we know which side the Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ love and dignity are going to change a damn thing .
Well , nobody except Cory Booker , and he just dropped out of the presidential race .
Lewis is now the long-serving Democratic Congress member from Atlanta .
His recent announcement that he is fighting stage 4 pancreatic cancer has inspired admiring appraisals of his integrity and service to the nation .
Known as the “ conscience of the Congress , ” Lewis has influenced almost every major rights movement of the past century , from voting rights to LGBTQ equality .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ a reckoning , not of his life , which is unquestionably heroic , but of the movement he symbolizes .
Lewis was one of the original Freedom Riders .
He is the only person who spoke at the March on Washington who is still alive .
Perhaps the civil rights movement ’ s central accomplishment was to stigmatize racism .
The moral force of Martin Luther King Jr. ’ s message shamed the nation , especially during the Cold War era , when the United States purported to be a beacon of human @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wants to be called a racist ; even white supremacists take pains to explain how they are not biased against black people .
Beyond the symbolic , the movement deserves huge credit for the Voting Rights Act , widely considered the most successful civil rights law in US history .
Violent protests helped garner support for the legislation , in particular Bloody Sunday , the 1965 protests in which the police used nightsticks , whips , horses and tear gas to terrorize a group of civil rights activists .
The group was marching @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Alabama , demonstrating for the right to vote .
A cop hit Lewis so hard , it fractured his skull .
Less than three weeks later , President Lyndon B. Johnson introduced the Voting Rights Act , and Congress passed it the same year .
The removal of discriminatory restrictions such as poll taxes and literacy tests allowed black people in the South meaningful access to the vote for the first time since Reconstruction .
In just two years , the percentage of African Americans registered to vote in the jurisdictions the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to more than 50 percent .
Black voter participation allowed meaningful access to democracy .
The year the law was enacted , there were six African American members of Congress .
After the 2018 election , there were 52 .
The blood of John Lewis , and the blood of other American heroes , helped accomplish this landmark achievement .
On the day Barack Obama was inaugurated as the first African American president , he inscribed a photo to Lewis with the words , “ Because of you , John.
” Here was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ US history paying homage to a man who was the son of sharecroppers , but whose activism — and more than 45 arrests — had made that success possible .
Yet sometimes I feel like the angry black man the good congressman has refused to be , because of what has not changed .
In 2020 , a large percentage of black , Latino , and white children attend segregated schools .
Black families have a median net worth of $ 17,061 , compared with $ 171,000 for white families .
Getting killed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of death for young black men .
The Voting Rights Act ?
In a case decided in 2013 , the Supreme Court gutted it , striking down the section that required oversight of all the places that had tried to deny folks the right to vote on account of race .
The civil rights movement was far from a failure , but if the goal was to meaningfully remove barriers to anti-black discrimination , it has not been a success .
Fifty years later , looking back at his March on Washington speech @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lines from his speech was “ the right thing to do.
” He told an interviewer that he had “ always tried to be a team player ” and that when civil rights icons King , A. Philip Randolph , and Roy Wilkins approached him and asked him to delete some of the most radical content , he couldn ’ t say no .
But as a country , would we be better off if we had heard — and heeded — these words that Lewis wanted to speak in August 1963 ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ can “ free ourselves of the chains of political and economic slavery ” within the existing legal structure of the United States .
Or was the poet Audre Lorde correct when she wrote that “ the master ’ s tools will never dismantle the master ’ s house ” ?
I don ’ t know .
But I hope President Obama was right .
In 2015 , on the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday , he traveled to Selma and marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge arm-in-arm with Lewis .
Obama said : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ start , but it wasn ’ t enough .
Well done , Congressman Lewis .
Hopefully with your blessing , a new generation will take it from here .
Paul Butler is the Albert Brick professor in law at Georgetown University and an MSNBC legal analyst .
A former federal prosecutor , he is the author of Chokehold : Policing Black Men .

The following article was published in January in The Highlight, before Rep. John Lewis’s death.
In 1963, John Lewis was, at 23, the youngest person set to speak at the March on Washington. The original version of his prepared remarks accused the Kennedy administration of conspiring with white supremacists. He wanted to ask: “Which side is the federal government on?”
But the march’s leaders censored the speech he wanted to give, arguing it was too radical. The event leaders forced Lewis to take out that question, and tone down other provocations, including this call to action:
We will march through the South, through the heart of Dixie, the way Sherman did. We shall pursue our own scorched earth policy and burn Jim Crow to the ground — nonviolently. We shall fragment the South into a thousand pieces and put them back together in the image of democracy.
They made him change that to: “We will march through the South ... with the spirit of love and with the spirit of dignity we have shown here today.” But the words Lewis didn’t speak are the ones America needs to hear right now.
More than 50 years later, history has clarified some things. The quintessential American battle between racial justice and white supremacy is still unresolved, but we know which side the Trump administration is on. And nobody thinks love and dignity are going to change a damn thing. Well, nobody except Cory Booker, and he just dropped out of the presidential race.
Lewis is now the long-serving Democratic Congress member from Atlanta. His recent announcement that he is fighting stage 4 pancreatic cancer has inspired admiring appraisals of his integrity and service to the nation. Known as the “conscience of the Congress,” Lewis has influenced almost every major rights movement of the past century, from voting rights to LGBTQ equality.
Lewis’s prognosis also calls for a reckoning, not of his life, which is unquestionably heroic, but of the movement he symbolizes. Lewis was one of the original Freedom Riders. He is the only person who spoke at the March on Washington who is still alive.
Perhaps the civil rights movement’s central accomplishment was to stigmatize racism. The moral force of Martin Luther King Jr.’s message shamed the nation, especially during the Cold War era, when the United States purported to be a beacon of human rights. Now, virtually no one wants to be called a racist; even white supremacists take pains to explain how they are not biased against black people.
Beyond the symbolic, the movement deserves huge credit for the Voting Rights Act, widely considered the most successful civil rights law in US history. Violent protests helped garner support for the legislation, in particular Bloody Sunday, the 1965 protest in which the police used nightsticks, whips, horses and tear gas to terrorize a group of civil rights activists. The group was marching across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, demonstrating for the right to vote. A cop hit Lewis so hard, the blow fractured his skull.
Less than three weeks later, President Lyndon B. Johnson introduced the Voting Rights Act, and Congress passed it the same year. The removal of discriminatory restrictions such as poll taxes and literacy tests allowed black people in the South meaningful access to the vote for the first time since Reconstruction.
In just two years, the percentage of African Americans registered to vote in the jurisdictions the act covered increased from less than one-third to more than 50 percent. Black voter participation allowed meaningful access to democracy. The year the law was enacted, there were six African American members of Congress. After the 2018 election, there were 52.
The blood of John Lewis, and the blood of other American heroes, helped accomplish this landmark achievement.
On the day Barack Obama was inaugurated as the first African American president, he inscribed a photo to Lewis with the words, “Because of you, John.” Here was possibly the most successful African American in US history paying homage to a man who was the son of sharecroppers, but whose activism — and more than 45 arrests — had made that success possible.
Yet sometimes I feel like the angry black man the good congressman has refused to be, because of what has not changed. In 2020, a large percentage of black, Latino, and white children attend segregated schools. Black families have a median net worth of $17,061, compared with $171,000 for white families. Getting killed by the police is a leading cause of death for young black men.
The Voting Rights Act? In a case decided in 2013, the Supreme Court gutted it, striking down the section that required oversight of all the places that had tried to deny folks the right to vote on account of race.
The civil rights movement was far from a failure, but if the goal was to meaningfully remove barriers to anti-black discrimination, it has not been a success.
Fifty years later, looking back at his March on Washington speech, Lewis said removing the more radical lines from his speech was “the right thing to do.” He told an interviewer that he had “always tried to be a team player” and that when civil rights icons King, A. Philip Randolph, and Roy Wilkins approached him and asked him to delete some of the most radical content, he couldn’t say no.
But as a country, would we be better off if we had heard — and heeded — these words that Lewis wanted to speak in August 1963?
The revolution is at hand, and we must free ourselves of the chains of political and economic slavery. The nonviolent revolution is saying, “We will not wait for the courts to act, for we have been waiting for hundreds of years. We will not wait for the President, the Justice Department, nor Congress, but we will take matters into our own hands and create a source of power, outside of any national structure, that could and would assure us a victory.
The question is whether people of color can “free ourselves of the chains of political and economic slavery” within the existing legal structure of the United States. Or was the poet Audre Lorde correct when she wrote that “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house”?
I don’t know. But I hope President Obama was right. In 2015, on the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, he traveled to Selma and marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge arm-in-arm with Lewis. Obama said:
What greater expression of faith in the American experiment than this; what greater form of patriotism is there; than the belief that America is not yet finished, that we are strong enough to be self-critical, that each successive generation can look upon our imperfections and decide that it is in our power to remake this nation to more closely align with our highest ideals?
The civil rights movement was a good start, but it wasn’t enough.
Well done, Congressman Lewis. Hopefully with your blessing, a new generation will take it from here.
Paul Butler is the Albert Brick professor in law at Georgetown University and an MSNBC legal analyst. A former federal prosecutor, he is the author of Chokehold: Policing Black Men.


vox--2020-01-22--6 reasons smaller companies want to break up Big Tech

Big Tech has a target on its back .
Right now in the US , there are multiple , simultaneous government investigations focused on the business practices of each of the four Big Tech giants — Amazon , Apple , Google , and Facebook — that could someday lead to the breakup of these companies or major changes in how they operate .
It ’ s easy to get lost in all the antitrust talk because of the complexity of antitrust laws in this country and the fact that most specific complaints about Big Tech companies happen behind closed doors @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from four smaller , competing companies — the wireless speaker company Sonos , the cellphone grip maker PopSockets , the gadget startup Tile , and the business software company Basecamp — laid out their complaints at a public hearing before the House of Representatives Antitrust Subcommittee .
These testimonies could provide guideposts for the ongoing investigations into the Big Four as regulators and lawmakers consider whether the tech giants have broken current laws or if the US ’ s antitrust laws need a modern makeover .
1 ) Tech giants use their power @ @ @ @ @ @ @ another Sonos CEO Patrick Spence accused companies like Google and Amazon of using their success in one industry ( for Google , internet search ; for Amazon , online commerce ) to dominate another : namely voice-controlled speakers .
The CEO ’ s accusation is that Google and Amazon are able to sell their Home and Echo speakers at artificially low prices — he used the term “ predatory pricing ” — because they make money in other ways , and so their goal isn ’ t to profit from the speakers .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ their speakers to collect consumer data that they make money off of through their other business lines .
And once these tech giants drive competitors who can ’ t match their prices out of business , “ prices are sure to go up , ” he claimed .
Sonos recently filed a lawsuit against Google for allegedly infringing on five of its patents , but its complaints obviously go beyond stealing technology .
A Google spokesperson said in a statement , “ Sonos has made misleading statements about our history of working together @ @ @ @ @ @ @ independently .
We deny their claims vigorously , and will be defending against them.
” An Amazon spokesperson did not immediately reply to Sonos ’ s claim about Amazon ’ s pricing strategy for its smart speakers .
2 ) Tech giants have so much power that fair business negotiations are impossible Spence described negotiations with tech giants as increasingly “ take it or leave it ” interactions .
In one case , he referenced Google ’ s unwillingness to allow Sonos speakers to let customers toggle between voice assistants — whether Google @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sonos speaker even though Sonos had built technology that supported the capability .
More than half of all online product searches in the US now happen on Amazon , so Google could be incentivized not to allow the same thing to happen when it comes to out-loud searches .
Spence claims that Google said it would cut off Google Assistant integrations with Sonos if Sonos allowed customers to toggle between different assistants .
And speaker makers increasingly need to support the voice assistant technologies from Amazon and Google to keep up with consumer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ offer that , which is , in my opinion , really reducing freedom of choice , ” he said .
A Google spokesperson referred Recode to its previous statement above about Sonos .
Likewise , PopSockets CEO David Barnett cited the “ power asymmetry ” that allows Amazon to still be successful while allegedly taking part in what he calls corporate “ bullying.
” He accused the giant of levying threats against his phone accessory company when making business demands that went above and beyond written contracts between the two companies .
Recode @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a year ago .
An Amazon spokesperson said in a statement , “ PopSockets has been a valued retail vendor at Amazon and also supplies its products directly to other major retailers .
We sought to continue working with PopSockets as a vendor to ensure that we could provide competitive prices , availability , broad selection and fast delivery for those products to our customers .
Like any brand , however , PopSockets is free to choose which retailers it supplies and chose to stop selling directly through Amazon.
” 3 ) Big @ @ @ @ @ @ @ patents today because they ’ ll control the market by the time they have to pay up tomorrow Sonos recently sued Google for allegedly violating five Sonos patents , and said it would have sued Amazon over similar issues but could not afford the risk of taking on both companies at once .
Spence accused the companies of knowingly violating patents — they do a “ cost benefit analysis , ” he claimed — because they expect to capture such a large part of the market before they might have to pay up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they ’ ll have to pay will be worth it .
Google denied the accusations and referred Recode to its statement above .
In a statement , Amazon said , “ The Echo family of devices and our multi-room music technology were developed independently by Amazon.
” 4 ) Big Tech companies prioritize “ monopoly rent ” over the best interest of business partners and consumers Monopoly rent , in this instance , is the idea that a company without competition can charge higher-than-market-rate prices or can charge extra fees simply because of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hansson , the co-founder and chief technology officer at the small business software company Basecamp , one complaint is the fact that Google allows Basecamp competitors to pay Google to appear as the first listing in search results when someone searches for “ Basecamp.
” Google has “ replaced that search engine with an ad engine instead , ” he said , and consumers “ are not being presented with what they ’ re actually looking for.
” A Google spokesperson provided Recode a statement that read : “ For trademarked terms like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ policy balances the interest of both users and advertisers .
Like other platforms , we allow competitors to bid on trademarked terms because it offers users more choice when they are searching .
However , if a trademark owner files a complaint , we will block competitors from using their business name in the actual ad text.
” In an episode of Vox Media ’ s Land of the Giants podcast titled “ Is Amazon Too Big ?
We Ask Its Sellers , ” a top executive from the luggage maker Samsonite articulated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ allows advertisers to buy top placement in query results on its site when a shopper searches for a competitor ’ s product .
That means if you search “ Samsonite luggage ” on Amazon , the first results you see could be for another brand ’ s luggage for sale on the site .
Hansson also criticized Apple for the 30 percent cut it levies on app makers who want to charge their customers through the app .
“ They have a 30 percent market advantage right from the get-go , ” he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ app makers closer to the 2 percent to 3 percent fees that payment processors do .
“ It ’ s completely outrageous.
” An Apple spokesperson sent Recode a statement , which read in part , “ [ W ] e created the App Store with two goals in mind : that it be a safe and trusted place for customers to discover and download apps , and a great business opportunity for all developers .
We continually work with developers and take their feedback on how to help protect user privacy while @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make the best app experiences.
” 5 ) Tech giants are both participants in and owners of their platforms , and so they tilt the playing field in their direction Tile is a startup that makes small Bluetooth trackers that can help users find things like a lost wallet , keys , or phone .
To work , the trackers need to be paired with an app on a smartphone or tablet .
But Tile ’ s general counsel , Kirsten Daru , argued at the hearing that Tile ’ s business has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to its own “ Find My ” tracking app .
Apple ’ s app comes preloaded on its gadgets , can ’ t be deleted , and asks for location-tracking permission during operating system setup , Daru said .
On the other hand , Tile customers who use Apple ’ s latest iOS version have to go into the settings on their phone to grant “ always on ” location tracking permission to the app .
“ Apple is acting as a gatekeeper ... in ways that favor its own interests , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a sports team that owns the ball , field , stadium , and league , and can change the rules at any point .
A statement from an Apple spokesperson read , in part : “ When setting up a new device users can choose to turn on Location Services to help find a lost or misplaced device with Find My iPhone , an app that users have come to rely on since 2010 .
Customers have control over their location data , including the location of their device .
If a user @ @ @ @ @ @ @ features , there ’ s a clear , easy to understand setting where they can choose exactly which location services they want enabled or disabled .
... We ’ re currently working with developers interested in enabling the ‘ Always Allow ’ functionality to enable that feature at the time of set up in a future software update.
” Amazon has also come under fire for both being a gatekeeper that makes the rules and that also operates the Amazon Marketplace , where it competes with other merchants selling their products on Amazon.com @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as a traditional retailer , by buying name-brand products wholesale and reselling them alongside those items from these third-party merchants ; and , in some cases , Amazon makes and sells its own products under its own brand names , and competes with other brands and sellers .
Barnett , of PopSockets , claimed to Congress members at the hearing that Amazon itself has been the seller of counterfeit PopSocket products .
He alleged that the problem went away only after PopSockets began spending more money on marketing on Amazon .
An Amazon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” the sale of counterfeit goods and denied that Amazon bases IP enforcement on payments of any kind , including spending on marketing .
6 ) The online dossiers that Facebook and Google have amassed on their users give them too much power According to a 2019 eMarketer report , Facebook and Google account for a combined 60 percent of the US online advertising market , thanks in large part to all the data they collect about how their users browse and search online .
Heinemeier Hansson , of Basecamp , argued that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this data collection ” if you want to use large swaths of the internet today .
His big proposal for balancing the playing field and restoring more consumer privacy online : He wants to ban advertising that is targeted to online users based on the dossiers that Facebook and Google build for marketers , which could simultaneously lower the tech giants ’ appetite for data collection while potentially improving competition in the advertising industry .
On one hand , it ’ s worth keeping in mind that all of the above accusations are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ones made from business leaders whose businesses might prosper more easily in a world where these giants were less powerful .
On the other hand , these allegations , made under oath and in front of members of Congress , mark an extraordinary turn of events for the tech giants who just a few years ago seemed invincible and unstoppable .
And perhaps most importantly , it appears that Congress will continue to take the claims seriously as they decide what recommendations to make to antitrust regulators and whether to attempt to remake @ @ @

Big Tech has a target on its back. Right now in the US, there are multiple, simultaneous government investigations focused on the business practices of each of the four Big Tech giants — Amazon, Apple, Google, and Facebook — that could someday lead to the breakup of these companies or major changes in how they operate.
It’s easy to get lost in all the antitrust talk because of the complexity of antitrust laws in this country and the fact that most specific complaints about Big Tech companies happen behind closed doors.
But last week, top executives from four smaller, competing companies — the wireless speaker company Sonos, the cellphone grip maker PopSockets, the gadget startup Tile, and the business software company Basecamp — laid out their complaints at a public hearing before the House of Representatives Antitrust Subcommittee.
These testimonies could provide guideposts for the ongoing investigations into the Big Four as regulators and lawmakers consider whether the tech giants have broken current laws or if the US’s antitrust laws need a modern makeover.
1) Tech giants use their power in one market to crush competitors in another
Sonos CEO Patrick Spence accused companies like Google and Amazon of using their success in one industry (for Google, internet search; for Amazon, online commerce) to dominate another: namely voice-controlled speakers.
The CEO’s accusation is that Google and Amazon are able to sell their Home and Echo speakers at artificially low prices — he used the term “predatory pricing” — because they make money in other ways, and so their goal isn’t to profit from the speakers. Instead, it’s to use their speakers to collect consumer data that they make money off of through their other business lines.
And once these tech giants drive competitors who can’t match their prices out of business, “prices are sure to go up,” he claimed. Sonos recently filed a lawsuit against Google for allegedly infringing on five of its patents, but its complaints obviously go beyond stealing technology.
A Google spokesperson said in a statement, “Sonos has made misleading statements about our history of working together. Our technology and devices were designed independently. We deny their claims vigorously, and will be defending against them.”
An Amazon spokesperson said, “Our focus is on building the best possible experience for our customers and partners building with Alexa. In fact, The Alexa flywheel is helping to generate billions of dollars for the Alexa developer and device maker community.”
2) Tech giants have so much power that fair business negotiations are impossible
Spence described negotiations with tech giants as increasingly “take it or leave it” interactions. In one case, he referenced Google’s unwillingness to allow Sonos speakers to let customers toggle between voice assistants — whether Google Assistant or Alexa — on a given Sonos speaker even though Sonos had built technology that supported the capability. More than half of all online product searches in the US now happen on Amazon, so Google could be incentivized not to allow the same thing to happen when it comes to out-loud searches.
Spence claims that Google said it would cut off Google Assistant integrations with Sonos if Sonos allowed customers to toggle between different assistants. And speaker makers increasingly need to support the voice assistant technologies from Amazon and Google to keep up with consumer expectations. “We can’t offer that, which is, in my opinion, really reducing freedom of choice,” he said.
A Google spokesperson referred Recode to its previous statement above about Sonos.
Likewise, PopSockets CEO David Barnett cited the “power asymmetry” that allows Amazon to still be successful while allegedly taking part in what he calls corporate “bullying.” He accused the giant of levying threats against his phone accessory company when making business demands that went above and beyond written contracts between the two companies. Recode covered the standoff between the two companies a year ago.
An Amazon spokesperson said in a statement, “PopSockets has been a valued retail vendor at Amazon and also supplies its products directly to other major retailers. We sought to continue working with PopSockets as a vendor to ensure that we could provide competitive prices, availability, broad selection and fast delivery for those products to our customers. Like any brand, however, PopSockets is free to choose which retailers it supplies and chose to stop selling directly through Amazon.”
3) Big Tech companies infringe on small competitors’ patents today because they’ll control the market by the time they have to pay up tomorrow
Sonos recently sued Google for allegedly violating five Sonos patents, and said it would have sued Amazon over similar issues but could not afford the risk of taking on both companies at once.
Spence accused the companies of knowingly violating patents — they do a “cost benefit analysis,” he claimed — because they expect to capture such a large part of the market before they might have to pay up in a lawsuit, that whatever costs they’ll have to pay will be worth it.
Google denied the accusations and referred Recode to its statement above. In a statement, Amazon said, “The Echo family of devices and our multi-room music technology were developed independently by Amazon.”
4) Big Tech companies prioritize “monopoly rent” over the best interest of business partners and consumers
Monopoly rent, in this instance, is the idea that a company without competition can charge higher-than-market-rate prices or can charge extra fees simply because of its unmatched position. For David Heinemeier Hansson, the co-founder and chief technology officer at the small business software company Basecamp, one complaint is the fact that Google allows Basecamp competitors to pay Google to appear as the first listing in search results when someone searches for “Basecamp.”
Google has “replaced that search engine with an ad engine instead,” he said, and consumers “are not being presented with what they’re actually looking for.”
“It’s a complete shakedown,” he added.
A Google spokesperson provided Recode a statement that read: “For trademarked terms like the name of a business, our policy balances the interest of both users and advertisers. Like other platforms, we allow competitors to bid on trademarked terms because it offers users more choice when they are searching. However, if a trademark owner files a complaint, we will block competitors from using their business name in the actual ad text.”
In an episode of Vox Media’s Land of the Giants podcast titled “Is Amazon Too Big? We Ask Its Sellers,” a top executive from the luggage maker Samsonite articulated a similar complaint about Amazon, which allows advertisers to buy top placement in query results on its site when a shopper searches for a competitor’s product. That means if you search “Samsonite luggage” on Amazon, the first results you see could be for another brand’s luggage for sale on the site.
Hansson also criticized Apple for the 30 percent cut it levies on app makers who want to charge their customers through the app.
“They have a 30 percent market advantage right from the get-go,” he said, insinuating that Apple should charge app makers closer to the 2 percent to 3 percent fees that payment processors do. “It’s completely outrageous.”
An Apple spokesperson sent Recode a statement, which read in part, “[W]e created the App Store with two goals in mind: that it be a safe and trusted place for customers to discover and download apps, and a great business opportunity for all developers. We continually work with developers and take their feedback on how to help protect user privacy while also providing the tools developers need to make the best app experiences.”
5) Tech giants are both participants in and owners of their platforms, and so they tilt the playing field in their direction
Tile is a startup that makes small Bluetooth trackers that can help users find things like a lost wallet, keys, or phone. To work, the trackers need to be paired with an app on a smartphone or tablet. But Tile’s general counsel, Kirsten Daru, argued at the hearing that Tile’s business has been hurt by Apple giving special treatment to its own “Find My” tracking app.
Apple’s app comes preloaded on its gadgets, can’t be deleted, and asks for location-tracking permission during operating system setup, Daru said. On the other hand, Tile customers who use Apple’s latest iOS version have to go into the settings on their phone to grant “always on” location tracking permission to the app.
“Apple is acting as a gatekeeper ... in ways that favor its own interests,” Daru alleged.
Daru compared Apple to a sports team that owns the ball, field, stadium, and league, and can change the rules at any point.
A statement from an Apple spokesperson read, in part: “When setting up a new device users can choose to turn on Location Services to help find a lost or misplaced device with Find My iPhone, an app that users have come to rely on since 2010. Customers have control over their location data, including the location of their device. If a user doesn’t want to enable these features, there’s a clear, easy to understand setting where they can choose exactly which location services they want enabled or disabled. ... We’re currently working with developers interested in enabling the ‘Always Allow’ functionality to enable that feature at the time of set up in a future software update.”
Amazon has also come under fire for both being a gatekeeper that makes the rules and that also operates the Amazon Marketplace, where it competes with other merchants selling their products on Amazon.com. Amazon competes in two ways: as a traditional retailer, by buying name-brand products wholesale and reselling them alongside those items from these third-party merchants; and, in some cases, Amazon makes and sells its own products under its own brand names, and competes with other brands and sellers.
Barnett, of PopSockets, claimed to Congress members at the hearing that Amazon itself has been the seller of counterfeit PopSocket products. He alleged that the problem went away only after PopSockets began spending more money on marketing on Amazon.
An Amazon spokesperson said that Amazon “strictly prohibits” the sale of counterfeit goods and denied that Amazon bases IP enforcement on payments of any kind, including spending on marketing.
6) The online dossiers that Facebook and Google have amassed on their users give them too much power
According to a 2019 eMarketer report, Facebook and Google account for a combined 60 percent of the US online advertising market, thanks in large part to all the data they collect about how their users browse and search online.
Heinemeier Hansson, of Basecamp, argued that “you cannot opt out of this data collection” if you want to use large swaths of the internet today. His big proposal for balancing the playing field and restoring more consumer privacy online: He wants to ban advertising that is targeted to online users based on the dossiers that Facebook and Google build for marketers, which could simultaneously lower the tech giants’ appetite for data collection while potentially improving competition in the advertising industry.
A Facebook spokesperson declined to comment.
An extraordinary turn of events
On one hand, it’s worth keeping in mind that all of the above accusations are still just that — accusations — and ones made from business leaders whose businesses might prosper more easily in a world where these giants were less powerful.
On the other hand, these allegations, made under oath and in front of members of Congress, mark an extraordinary turn of events for the tech giants who just a few years ago seemed invincible and unstoppable.
And perhaps most importantly, it appears that Congress will continue to take the claims seriously as they decide what recommendations to make to antitrust regulators and whether to attempt to remake antitrust law.


vox--2020-01-22--TikTok never wanted to be political. Too late.

As 24 million acres of Australia burned in record bushfires between September and January , Australian teens turned to TikTok .
Chloé Hayden , a 22-year-old motivational speaker and YouTuber based in Victoria , had barely used the video-sharing app , but her peers were flooding it with their frustration with Prime Minister Scott Morrison ’ s mishandling of the crisis and footage of the dense smoke as a way of raising awareness among a largely ignorant public .
Chloé ’ s video was a perfect encapsulation of the TikTok sensibility : She used a popular meme format to show @ @ @ @ @ @ @ attention by comparing it to the immediate outpouring of financial support after the Notre Dame fire .
It was equal parts funny and incisive , and ended up being viewed nearly 300,000 times .
“ I love that through the use of short comedy sketches , teens are getting a bigger point across than most lengthy , informative articles posted by some old bloke who we can ’ t relate to in the slightest , ” she explains .
“ It ’ s both parts a coping mechanism and an incredible way to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all equal , and I genuinely don ’ t think there ’ s any other platform that you can do that in a similar way.
” TikTok has , in its barely year and a half of existing , become the most effective way for a random person to spread a message to the widest possible audience in the shortest amount of time .
It takes the best of Twitter ( brevity , as videos can be a maximum of 60 seconds but most are much shorter ) and YouTube ( the ability @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they ’ re speaking to you ) and adds the ability to go viral with virtually zero followers .
That the app is populated largely by teens also means that so much of what happens on it participates in a brand of ironic internet comedy that complicates the idea of serious news-sharing .
TikTok videos on geopolitical events , from the Australian fires to the vague threat of World War III , can be viewed variously as awareness-spreading of underreported stories , coping mechanisms , exercises in nihilism , or goofy videos that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ analyzing .
Though it ’ s always tried to position itself as a joyful space for creating and viewing silly and inspiring content , TikTok has unintentionally become one of the best means of disseminating ideas on the internet .
It ’ s a power that ’ s being used for better or for worse , and largely by minors .
TikTok was never supposed to be political .
The app was expressly designed to discourage news-sharing — its home feed is non-chronological , and there are no visible timestamps for when a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ impossible to understand what happened when .
Political advertisements are not allowed , and until recently , TikTok had vague content guidelines that reportedly encouraged moderators to censor content sensitive to local governments .
Its slogan is “ Make your day , ” presumably by distracting you from *gestures widely at everything* .
TikTok was never supposed to be political , but of course it was always going to be .
During 2019 ’ s widespread climate strikes , TikTokers used jokes about e-girls to spread awareness about e-missions .
When Canadian Prime @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worn brownface , TikTok had fun brutally roasting him .
In November , a New Jersey teen posted a viral TikTok discussing the Chinese mass internment of Muslims ( and was subsequently locked out of her account ) .
Another teen used the app to organize a strike in solidarity with her school district ’ s teachers .
When adults on TikTok mocked teen climate activist Greta Thunberg , there was a flood of comments with just one phrase , sparking one of the year ’ s biggest memes : “ ok boomer.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ TikTok .
Police officers , soldiers , and the Israel Defense Forces are on TikTok .
Nazis and terrorists are , too .
Most importantly , millions of regular people are on TikTok , all of whom have at least some awareness of what happens in the world and who probably have opinions about it .
In the first week of 2020 , just a few days after memes about “ new year new me ” and leaving negativity in 2019 proliferated on the internet , the world seemed to explode : President @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , pushing the US and Iran to the brink of war .
Puerto Rico was hit by a series of massive earthquakes , cutting off power for nearly a million people and access to clean water for hundreds of thousands .
Bushfires , worsened by climate change , continued to rage across Australia , killing at least 28 people and an estimated 1 billion animals and destroying 2,000 homes .
The most powerful man in the world faced an impeachment trial .
World War III seemed imminent , but on TikTok it was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trenches doing my 10-step Korean skincare routine , ” read the caption on one video by 19-year-old Australian student Isaac Tuazon .
“ Gays when we get drafted into WW3 , ” read another in a video of TikToker Sir Carter voguing with Nerf guns .
“ Me after getting my first kill in WW3 , ” wrote one TikToker while doing a Fortnite dance .
“ I just thought the idea of bringing my entire skin care routine with me to the battlefield would be a little extra and would earn a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about his K-beauty WW3 TikTok .
He likes the app because it gives him a chance to see average kids , no matter their country of origin , ethnicity , or sexual orientation , having fun and laughing together .
It ’ s the same for Juana Isabelle Sarenas , an 18-year-old student in Hong Kong who recently posted a video about “ Cabin 6 , ” “ the theoretical cabin where all the cool TikTok kids will end up when Trump is impeached and President Mike Pence sends queer teens to conversion-therapy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there is huge , ” Sarenas says of TikTok .
The jokes “ don ’ t erase the tragic events — if anything , they use the memes to bring light to them in a humorous way .
I learned more about concentration camps and other horrifying current events from TikTok than I had any other platform.
” Cabin 6 memes , in general , are a pretty joyous way to react to the reality that the US vice president once advocated for allocating federal dollars to conversion therapy groups instead of HIV/AIDS @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reference , conservative boomers sending a bunch of queer kids to a summer camp together seems like a great way to encourage the very sexuality those people find so repugnant .
“ We all know that if [ Pence ] tried to force people to go to camps , it would never be passed as a law , ” one 16-year-old told Mel Magazine .
“ I just find it funny to joke about that — like summer camp with the fellow gays.
” Like the rest of the internet , as much @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nihilism — kids self-deprecating about how ugly they are , or begging for Harry Styles to run them over — it ’ s also proved to be a great way of getting other people to listen .
On TikTok , users don ’ t have to follow anyone to see videos the app thinks they might like .
As on Reddit , information can come from anywhere , as long as enough people favorite it .
That ’ s how Gem Nwanne , a 24-year-old grad student , data analyst , and activist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ posting a video about the city ’ s crackdown on subway fare evasion using the same meme format as Chloé ’ s .
Nwanne was used to the kind of discourse that takes place in activist and academic circles on Twitter and Instagram , with long threads and jargon-y paragraphs .
“ It ’ s a little difficult to engage on Twitter because if you ask the wrong question to the wrong person ... there will be a pile-on .
You ’ ll get kicked the shit kicked out of you , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But with a platform like TikTok , it ’ s way more accessible .
I ’ m dancing .
It ’ s a joke .
It ’ s a lot easier to teach or to spread an idea when people are laughing.
” The subway fare video helped Nwanne gain 10,000 followers in a month on TikTok , where they continue to post videos about race , queer identity , capitalism , and leftist politics .
“ I think TikTok as a tool for education can be so revolutionary , and I would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my side of the political spectrum using it , moving away from these academic Twitter threads .
Let ’ s meet the people where they are.
” It ’ s much easier to see the humanity of someone whose ideas you ’ re hearing when you can actually see them .
The dominant TikTok aesthetic is a person in their own home , alone , speaking to the camera without knowing who will end up seeing their face on their screen .
It ’ s like YouTube — one of the most effective @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or for worse — but TikToks take even less effort to produce .
TikTok is “ younger , and so they don ’ t know to be pretentious douchebags yet ” “ Conversations are difficult to have on Twitter or Instagram because of how reactive everybody is on those apps , ” Nwanne says .
“ Comments on a video about the Australian fires were like , folks asking questions and people answering them .
On Twitter or Instagram they ’ d be like , ‘ How dare you ask the question ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ chiller , and I do think it ’ s because they ’ re younger , and so they don ’ t know to be pretentious douchebags yet.
” “ I always compare TikTok to all of the rhymes and hand games that we played in middle school , ” says Sophie Dickinson , an associate editor at Know Your Meme who covers TikTok .
“ The bushfires , other things that are happening now , it ’ s all the same jokes over and over and over again .
It has to do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It could be dangerous , but it ’ s also nice for kids to be coming together over something that might be very difficult and challenging to wrap their heads around.
” It would be easy to make TikTok out to be a utopian Gen Z playground , where authenticity sells and love wins and the rest is mostly just dancing , but that ’ s not the whole story .
Nwanne , for instance , doesn ’ t read their comments because they say the platform is often quite conservative — “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on TikTok seems to have nearly as many earnest Trump supporters as it does people poking fun at the president using a popular Camila Cabello song .
TikTok has some of the same political pitfalls as YouTube — ironic memes and jokes can seduce people into believing harmful ideologies — and its mysterious algorithm makes it such that the TikTok I see , the one with hilarious and well-meaning teens goofing off in their bedrooms , is not the same one that someone else sees .
That certain songs and sounds , dances @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and fast , also ends up with many people using those memes to spread false or extremist information .
Nurse Holly , a nurse on TikTok with nearly 2 million followers , recently received major backlash when she used a popular song and video format to post a video that said the best way to prevent STDs was by waiting for sex until marriage .
Even mostly harmless jokes about getting drafted for WW3 led at least some college kids to briefly panic over the idea of being forced to join the Army @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t had a draft since 1973 .
Bad stuff has been happening in the world forever , and the internet has always been full of very funny and very sad people to make jokes out of it .
TikTok is now a crucial part of that machine , one that can set the discourse in practically zero time .
Whatever comes of it , Nwanne knows one thing is certain : “ We ’ re gon na set some shit on fire on TikTok.
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As 24 million acres of Australia burned in record bushfires between September and January, Australian teens turned to TikTok. Chloé Hayden, a 22-year-old motivational speaker and YouTuber based in Victoria, had barely used the video-sharing app, but her peers were flooding it with their frustration with Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s mishandling of the crisis and footage of the dense smoke as a way of raising awareness among a largely ignorant public.
Chloé’s video was a perfect encapsulation of the TikTok sensibility: She used a popular meme format to show the hypocrisy of the lack of media attention by comparing it to the immediate outpouring of financial support after the Notre Dame fire. It was equal parts funny and incisive, and ended up being viewed nearly 300,000 times.
“I love that through the use of short comedy sketches, teens are getting a bigger point across than most lengthy, informative articles posted by some old bloke who we can’t relate to in the slightest,” she explains. “It’s both parts a coping mechanism and an incredible way to speak our minds where we’re all equal, and I genuinely don’t think there’s any other platform that you can do that in a similar way.”
TikTok has, in its barely year and a half of existing, become the most effective way for a random person to spread a message to the widest possible audience in the shortest amount of time. It takes the best of Twitter (brevity, as videos can be a maximum of 60 seconds but most are much shorter) and YouTube (the ability to see someone’s face as they’re speaking to you) and adds the ability to go viral with virtually zero followers.
That the app is populated largely by teens also means that so much of what happens on it participates in a brand of ironic internet comedy that complicates the idea of serious news-sharing. TikTok videos on geopolitical events, from the Australian fires to the vague threat of World War III, can be viewed variously as awareness-spreading of underreported stories, coping mechanisms, exercises in nihilism, or goofy videos that no one should spend too much time analyzing.
Though it’s always tried to position itself as a joyful space for creating and viewing silly and inspiring content, TikTok has unintentionally become one of the best means of disseminating ideas on the internet. It’s a power that’s being used for better or for worse, and largely by minors.
Related Coping with war and crisis through memes
TikTok was never supposed to be political. The app was expressly designed to discourage news-sharing — its home feed is non-chronological, and there are no visible timestamps for when a video is posted, making it nearly impossible to understand what happened when. Political advertisements are not allowed, and until recently, TikTok had vague content guidelines that reportedly encouraged moderators to censor content sensitive to local governments. Its slogan is “Make your day,” presumably by distracting you from *gestures widely at everything*.
TikTok was never supposed to be political, but of course it was always going to be. During 2019’s widespread climate strikes, TikTokers used jokes about e-girls to spread awareness about e-missions. When Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was revealed to have worn brownface, TikTok had fun brutally roasting him. In November, a New Jersey teen posted a viral TikTok discussing the Chinese mass internment of Muslims (and was subsequently locked out of her account). Another teen used the app to organize a strike in solidarity with her school district’s teachers. When adults on TikTok mocked teen climate activist Greta Thunberg, there was a flood of comments with just one phrase, sparking one of the year’s biggest memes: “ok boomer.” US Democratic presidential candidates are on TikTok. Police officers, soldiers, and the Israel Defense Forces are on TikTok. Nazis and terrorists are, too.
Most importantly, millions of regular people are on TikTok, all of whom have at least some awareness of what happens in the world and who probably have opinions about it. In the first week of 2020, just a few days after memes about “new year new me” and leaving negativity in 2019 proliferated on the internet, the world seemed to explode: President Trump ordered the assassination of Quassem Soleimani, pushing the US and Iran to the brink of war. Puerto Rico was hit by a series of massive earthquakes, cutting off power for nearly a million people and access to clean water for hundreds of thousands. Bushfires, worsened by climate change, continued to rage across Australia, killing at least 28 people and an estimated 1 billion animals and destroying 2,000 homes. The most powerful man in the world faced an impeachment trial.
World War III seemed imminent, but on TikTok it was already raging. “Me in the trenches doing my 10-step Korean skincare routine,” read the caption on one video by 19-year-old Australian student Isaac Tuazon. “Gays when we get drafted into WW3,” read another in a video of TikToker Sir Carter voguing with Nerf guns. “Me after getting my first kill in WW3,” wrote one TikToker while doing a Fortnite dance.
“I just thought the idea of bringing my entire skin care routine with me to the battlefield would be a little extra and would earn a few laughs,” Tuazon tells me about his K-beauty WW3 TikTok. He likes the app because it gives him a chance to see average kids, no matter their country of origin, ethnicity, or sexual orientation, having fun and laughing together.
It’s the same for Juana Isabelle Sarenas, an 18-year-old student in Hong Kong who recently posted a video about “Cabin 6,” “the theoretical cabin where all the cool TikTok kids will end up when Trump is impeached and President Mike Pence sends queer teens to conversion-therapy summer camp.”
“The LGBT community there is huge,” Sarenas says of TikTok. The jokes “don’t erase the tragic events — if anything, they use the memes to bring light to them in a humorous way. I learned more about concentration camps and other horrifying current events from TikTok than I had any other platform.”
Cabin 6 memes, in general, are a pretty joyous way to react to the reality that the US vice president once advocated for allocating federal dollars to conversion therapy groups instead of HIV/AIDS patients. As many of the memes reference, conservative boomers sending a bunch of queer kids to a summer camp together seems like a great way to encourage the very sexuality those people find so repugnant. “We all know that if [Pence] tried to force people to go to camps, it would never be passed as a law,” one 16-year-old told Mel Magazine. “I just find it funny to joke about that — like summer camp with the fellow gays.”
Like the rest of the internet, as much as TikTok is a place for blasé nihilism — kids self-deprecating about how ugly they are, or begging for Harry Styles to run them over — it’s also proved to be a great way of getting other people to listen. On TikTok, users don’t have to follow anyone to see videos the app thinks they might like. As on Reddit, information can come from anywhere, as long as enough people favorite it. That’s how Gem Nwanne, a 24-year-old grad student, data analyst, and activist in New York, went viral after posting a video about the city’s crackdown on subway fare evasion using the same meme format as Chloé’s.
Nwanne was used to the kind of discourse that takes place in activist and academic circles on Twitter and Instagram, with long threads and jargon-y paragraphs. “It’s a little difficult to engage on Twitter because if you ask the wrong question to the wrong person ... there will be a pile-on. You’ll get kicked the shit kicked out of you,” Nwanne says with a laugh. “But with a platform like TikTok, it’s way more accessible. I’m dancing. It’s a joke. It’s a lot easier to teach or to spread an idea when people are laughing.”
The subway fare video helped Nwanne gain 10,000 followers in a month on TikTok, where they continue to post videos about race, queer identity, capitalism, and leftist politics. “I think TikTok as a tool for education can be so revolutionary, and I would really love to see more people on my side of the political spectrum using it, moving away from these academic Twitter threads. Let’s meet the people where they are.”
It’s much easier to see the humanity of someone whose ideas you’re hearing when you can actually see them. The dominant TikTok aesthetic is a person in their own home, alone, speaking to the camera without knowing who will end up seeing their face on their screen. It’s like YouTube — one of the most effective platforms for sharing ideas, for better or for worse — but TikToks take even less effort to produce.
TikTok is “younger, and so they don’t know to be pretentious douchebags yet”
“Conversations are difficult to have on Twitter or Instagram because of how reactive everybody is on those apps,” Nwanne says. “Comments on a video about the Australian fires were like, folks asking questions and people answering them. On Twitter or Instagram they’d be like, ‘How dare you ask the question?’ The community’s a lot chiller, and I do think it’s because they’re younger, and so they don’t know to be pretentious douchebags yet.”
“I always compare TikTok to all of the rhymes and hand games that we played in middle school,” says Sophie Dickinson, an associate editor at Know Your Meme who covers TikTok. “The bushfires, other things that are happening now, it’s all the same jokes over and over and over again. It has to do with whatever the popular opinion is. It could be dangerous, but it’s also nice for kids to be coming together over something that might be very difficult and challenging to wrap their heads around.”
It would be easy to make TikTok out to be a utopian Gen Z playground, where authenticity sells and love wins and the rest is mostly just dancing, but that’s not the whole story. Nwanne, for instance, doesn’t read their comments because they say the platform is often quite conservative — “like Facebook-lite.” The #impeachment hashtag on TikTok seems to have nearly as many earnest Trump supporters as it does people poking fun at the president using a popular Camila Cabello song.
TikTok has some of the same political pitfalls as YouTube — ironic memes and jokes can seduce people into believing harmful ideologies — and its mysterious algorithm makes it such that the TikTok I see, the one with hilarious and well-meaning teens goofing off in their bedrooms, is not the same one that someone else sees. That certain songs and sounds, dances, and memes go hugely viral, and fast, also ends up with many people using those memes to spread false or extremist information. Nurse Holly, a nurse on TikTok with nearly 2 million followers, recently received major backlash when she used a popular song and video format to post a video that said the best way to prevent STDs was by waiting for sex until marriage. Even mostly harmless jokes about getting drafted for WW3 led at least some college kids to briefly panic over the idea of being forced to join the Army, even though the US hasn’t had a draft since 1973.
Bad stuff has been happening in the world forever, and the internet has always been full of very funny and very sad people to make jokes out of it. TikTok is now a crucial part of that machine, one that can set the discourse in practically zero time. Whatever comes of it, Nwanne knows one thing is certain: “We’re gonna set some shit on fire on TikTok.”
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