Buzzfeed’s “27 Questions Black People Have for Black People” Video Backfires

Buzzfeed ran into an issue that a lot of digital media companies have these days: in our rush to come up with new ideas for content that’s both click-baity and thought-provoking, sometimes we royally screw it up.

Their latest list-style video, “27 Questions Black People Have For Black People,” features a group of black actors posing challenging questions to their community. The problem is, a lot of these questions sound like something your vaguely racist white uncle might post on Facebook.

“If my dab is on fleek, am I lit?”

“Why are we more likely to engage in the new dance trend than we are to get involved in politics or opening a business?”

“Why do we call each other the N word, but get vehemently upset when a white person uses the N word?”

“Why is my natural hair, the hair that grows out of my head, seen as a political statement?”

Black commentators and activists had plenty of responses to these questions — but probably not the responses Buzzfeed was hoping for.

Unfortunately, what was meant to be an honest and insightful discussion about black identity will likely end up as the go-to response for racist white people on the internet — people declaring “see, THESE black people agree with me!” when they’re called out about hurtful stereotypes. It’s basically “some of my best friends are black” in YouTube form.