A video entitled "Shit Black Women Say" has become a YouTube sensation while at the same time enraging many African-American women.
The video, directed by Brooklyn, N.Y., director Elijah Griffin, has already garnered close to a million views. But let's just say that those 1 million viewers may not all be fans of Griffin's video.
"While those images are funny to those of us who are well-educated, some young people don't know how to filter the message," Benita Miller, founder of the Brooklyn Young Mothers' Collective, told New York's Daily News.
"Young people don't know what is real or what is imagined," said Miller. "When you work with young women, they take on these characteristics."
Farah Tanis, executive director of Black Women's Blueprint in downtown Brooklyn, pointed out that you can't control your audience once you post something online.
"You put something on YouTube, the whole world is watching," Tanis told the Daily News. "I don't think it is a man's place to offer this type of representation of black women."
The video, which is a spoof of the popular video "Shit Girls Say," shows comedian Billy Sorrells dressed in drag snapping his fingers, patting his itchy weave and sounding like a mock version of Shenaenae from the popular '90s show Martin.
Griffin and Sorrell were surprised by the negative reaction to the video, which they just chalked up to being fun.
"We were just trying to amuse ourselves. We didn't expect it to be viral," said Sorrell to the Daily News. Sorrell describes his character, "Peaches," as "a cross between a woman and a gay man" sporting a goatee.
"People need to laugh. When we laugh, we see each other better," Sorrell said.
Whether this young man found this funny or not isn't the point. The point is that there are already enough negative stereotypical images of African-American women online and on TV, and this video does nothing to help crush those stereotypes.
Do you agree, or do you think the video is all in good fun and no more offensive than the "white" video it is spoofing? The video is below; judge for yourself and let us know what you think.
Read more at the Daily News.