Mark Abley of the Montreal Gazette addressed the inherent racism of using “gibberish” and other analogous words like “jabber” and “gibber”. You can be an idiot not realising you’re being an idiot and still be an idiot. Just because someone doesn’t know Rihanna is using patois in her lyrics, it doesn’t make mocking what they perceive to be “ slurring” any less stupid. ![]() Which, by the way, is not an excuse for casual racism. You wouldn’t do these things because they’re moronic and ignorant. Creating memes making a joke of Rihanna’s speech is like putting a picture of a Chinese person next to crudely white-interpreted Chinese words and laughing at it. The same can be said of other social media, where thousands of people have come out to call Rihanna’s lyrics “ gibberish”.Ĭalling the lyrics “gibberish” is like going to France and disdainfully saying everyone there was inconveniently indecipherable. Beneath the insensitive jokes are hundreds of comments saying “LOL”, “haha” or “this is accurate”. And it’s not just the posters of the memes that are at fault. It’s worth noting that accounts that post this sort of rubbish are just “meme generators” that mostly just steal their “jokes” anyway, but that takes me back to my point – if you’re going to steal a meme, at least know the importance of what you’re stealing. “Work” is nothing less than a jam, but it’s being co-opted by a white pop culture that has omitted to recognise the song’s dancehall roots (outside of music critics and genre fans, of course), essentially rejecting the cultural history on which “Work” is predicated.Īs memes essentially making fun of Ri’s patois have emerged, like the one Le Meme Blog posted of Rihanna’s singing interspersed with Iraqi character puppets from Team America or one posted by Fuck Jerry with the word “Work” typed and followed by a mashing of keyboard letters, it’s hard to not cringe at some people’s sense of humour. Over the past week people have – by criticising Rihanna’s Barbadian patois in “Work” as “gibberish” – once again proved why we can’t have nice things, and why a lot of us need to sit the fuck down. ![]() If you’re going to say something on the Internet, in a public forum, for anyone to see, it’s in your best interests to understand what you’re commenting on, so you don’t seem, at a loose best, willfully ignorant, or at worst, pretty racist.
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