Interview with Kendra '13
YaleLawTech: Let's start from the beginning. How did you get started making memes about yourself?
Kendra: It started last winter when I was at home and had a lot of time to think to myself. I spent time reflecting on my childhood experiences in my hometown, Mahopac, New York. Mahopac is a mostly white town, and I was one of maybe 10 black kids at my high school. I was thinking about making a video to express some of the racial issues that I had experienced, but the video "Shit White Girls Say...to Black Girls" came out the next day, not to mention I had never made a YouTube video before. The idea of communicating these racial issues continued to kick around in my head. One day when I was doing homework in my dorm room, I read a dumb post that somebody had made on Tumblr, and I thought about how unamused I was about the post. I took a picture of myself looking unamused, used memegenerator to add a caption to it, and posted it online. That was the first meme that I created centered around the theme of an unamused black girl.
YaleLawTech: How have you used Tumblr to share your memes?
Kendra: I have my own personal Tumblr blog, but once I started creating memes, I made a separate Tumblr blog called Unamused Black Girl. Tumblr is a kind of free-for-all community. People on Tumblr discuss race issues and participating in these discussions helped grow my interest about race issues. One of the good aspects about Tumblr is that anyone can make a blog post about their day and share their experiences.
YaleLawTech: When did your memes start gaining traction? I've noticed that some of your memes have as many as 20,000 shares.
Kendra: I started making memes around January of 2012, and they started gaining traction by the next month. It was a crazy feeling having people in the hallways approach me to talk about the memes. As for the number of shares, I don't keep track of it too much. I do share my memes on Facebook though, and my friends share the memes as well.
Kendra: It started last winter when I was at home and had a lot of time to think to myself. I spent time reflecting on my childhood experiences in my hometown, Mahopac, New York. Mahopac is a mostly white town, and I was one of maybe 10 black kids at my high school. I was thinking about making a video to express some of the racial issues that I had experienced, but the video "Shit White Girls Say...to Black Girls" came out the next day, not to mention I had never made a YouTube video before. The idea of communicating these racial issues continued to kick around in my head. One day when I was doing homework in my dorm room, I read a dumb post that somebody had made on Tumblr, and I thought about how unamused I was about the post. I took a picture of myself looking unamused, used memegenerator to add a caption to it, and posted it online. That was the first meme that I created centered around the theme of an unamused black girl.
YaleLawTech: How have you used Tumblr to share your memes?
Kendra: I have my own personal Tumblr blog, but once I started creating memes, I made a separate Tumblr blog called Unamused Black Girl. Tumblr is a kind of free-for-all community. People on Tumblr discuss race issues and participating in these discussions helped grow my interest about race issues. One of the good aspects about Tumblr is that anyone can make a blog post about their day and share their experiences.
YaleLawTech: When did your memes start gaining traction? I've noticed that some of your memes have as many as 20,000 shares.
Kendra: I started making memes around January of 2012, and they started gaining traction by the next month. It was a crazy feeling having people in the hallways approach me to talk about the memes. As for the number of shares, I don't keep track of it too much. I do share my memes on Facebook though, and my friends share the memes as well.
YaleLawTech: Where do you get the ideas for your memes?
Kendra: My memes are mostly about things that have happened to me and to people that I know. Some relate to memories that I have suppressed, while others are examples of accidental racism like people saying, "You don't sound black" or "Your kids would be cute if you slept with a white guy."
YaleLawTech: Why did you choose memes to communicate your ideas? What are your thoughts on the use of memes to poke fun at things as opposed to other forms of activism?
Kendra: I have used the internet since I was 8 and have become very familiar with it, which I guess is unique to our culture and generation. I guess that the structure of a meme was also naturally in my head: an image with a punchline at the bottom. I never really weighed the advantages of making memes as opposed to writing a post on Tumblr; it just sort of happened. It was an easy way for me to get my point across in a concise and snarky way.
YaleLawTech: What has been the response to your memes?
Kendra: Most people like them. A lot of black people have told me that they can identify with them. My friends think that they're funny. One friend even decided to make an Unamused White Girl meme that makes fun of similar problems. Sometimes people respond with racist jokes, which seems to prove the point that I'm trying to make through my memes. I've noticed that if I blog about hair, for example, it can lead people who read the Unamused Black Girl Tumblr to blog about hair as well. I guess that memes can have a way of taking on a life of their own in that way.
Kendra: My memes are mostly about things that have happened to me and to people that I know. Some relate to memories that I have suppressed, while others are examples of accidental racism like people saying, "You don't sound black" or "Your kids would be cute if you slept with a white guy."
YaleLawTech: Why did you choose memes to communicate your ideas? What are your thoughts on the use of memes to poke fun at things as opposed to other forms of activism?
Kendra: I have used the internet since I was 8 and have become very familiar with it, which I guess is unique to our culture and generation. I guess that the structure of a meme was also naturally in my head: an image with a punchline at the bottom. I never really weighed the advantages of making memes as opposed to writing a post on Tumblr; it just sort of happened. It was an easy way for me to get my point across in a concise and snarky way.
YaleLawTech: What has been the response to your memes?
Kendra: Most people like them. A lot of black people have told me that they can identify with them. My friends think that they're funny. One friend even decided to make an Unamused White Girl meme that makes fun of similar problems. Sometimes people respond with racist jokes, which seems to prove the point that I'm trying to make through my memes. I've noticed that if I blog about hair, for example, it can lead people who read the Unamused Black Girl Tumblr to blog about hair as well. I guess that memes can have a way of taking on a life of their own in that way.
YaleLawTech: What were the initial messages that you tried to convey through your memes? Have those changed at all?
Kendra: Initially, I wanted to talk back to the dumb comments that I’ve received. I didn't even realize that some of those comments bothered me when I was younger. Originally, the memes were an outlet for me to point out things that were stupid and why they were stupid. I have actually been running out of ideas lately because I think I’ve relayed many of the major aspects of the black woman experience, things like comments about your hair, your butt. At one point, I tried to make memes about other groups that experience racism like Arabs and Indians, but I had trouble thinking of relevant jokes. It would be weird to say these things as a non-Indian, Arab, or Jew. I'm in kind of a lull right now when it comes to making memes. It's hard to put some experiences into a meme format. I thought about putting race-related stories on my Tumblr, but they lack the quick punch of a meme.
YaleLawTech: How do you respond when someone makes a dumb or racist remark to one of your memes?
Kendra: A few times I have made a meme in response. One time, someone made a comment on my Unamused Black Girl Tumblr that the page should be called the "Angry Young Black Mom" Tumblr. In response, I posted a meme of me wearing glasses and looking down at the camera. Sometimes people's comments can be more subtle--like things that people wouldn’t commonly consider racist like “Your people are so good at dancing.” It's just annoying to hear these kinds of things day in and day out.
YaleLawTech: Have there been any inappropriate comments on your Tumblr?
Kendra: There was one comment where someone asked me if I agreed that blacks are less intelligent and that there’s no such thing as white privilege. Obviously, I did not agree with that comment, but I didn't want to give in because that person just wrote that comment to inflame me.
Kendra: Initially, I wanted to talk back to the dumb comments that I’ve received. I didn't even realize that some of those comments bothered me when I was younger. Originally, the memes were an outlet for me to point out things that were stupid and why they were stupid. I have actually been running out of ideas lately because I think I’ve relayed many of the major aspects of the black woman experience, things like comments about your hair, your butt. At one point, I tried to make memes about other groups that experience racism like Arabs and Indians, but I had trouble thinking of relevant jokes. It would be weird to say these things as a non-Indian, Arab, or Jew. I'm in kind of a lull right now when it comes to making memes. It's hard to put some experiences into a meme format. I thought about putting race-related stories on my Tumblr, but they lack the quick punch of a meme.
YaleLawTech: How do you respond when someone makes a dumb or racist remark to one of your memes?
Kendra: A few times I have made a meme in response. One time, someone made a comment on my Unamused Black Girl Tumblr that the page should be called the "Angry Young Black Mom" Tumblr. In response, I posted a meme of me wearing glasses and looking down at the camera. Sometimes people's comments can be more subtle--like things that people wouldn’t commonly consider racist like “Your people are so good at dancing.” It's just annoying to hear these kinds of things day in and day out.
YaleLawTech: Have there been any inappropriate comments on your Tumblr?
Kendra: There was one comment where someone asked me if I agreed that blacks are less intelligent and that there’s no such thing as white privilege. Obviously, I did not agree with that comment, but I didn't want to give in because that person just wrote that comment to inflame me.
YaleLawTech: You mentioned earlier that making memes is a way to express things that you maybe weren't able to express earlier in life. Are there things that you are able to say through your memes that you would feel uncomfortable saying in person?
Kendra: The great thing about memes is that you control both sides of the issue. You can frame the question and the response. If you’re having a conversation with someone, you cannot maximize the situation for laughs. With memes I am always trying to prove a point. Memes are a great way to put things out there and communicate some of the things that people really say. In real life you don’t always feel like getting into it with people. My friends are good about being aware of those sorts of things, but if I went back to my hometown and responded to all of the problematic things that I heard, it would be exhausting.
YaleLawTech: What do you think the impact of your memes has been?
Kendra: Hopefully my memes have had a general impact. A few people have made comments to me about them. I had no idea that the memes would become so popular and that I would get a ton of followers on Tumblr. I didn’t want to change the world; I just wanted to be snarky and to express some frustration.
YaleLawTech: Have you ever had a collision between your real life identity and your online identity as Unamused Black Girl?
Kendra: Yes, one day my boss told me that he had seen my meme. He said that he didn’t know that I was internet famous. It was fine when my friends knew about my online identity, but it is different when it comes to your boss. My boss had nothing but praise to say, but it was really weird to have someone who is an authority figure compliment me on my internet meme. It's also weird when anonymous people on Tumblr comment on knowing which places that I like to study at in real life.
YaleLawTech: What are some of your favorite memes?
Kendra: I have spent way too much time on the Internet as a young adult, and as a result I have seen a lot of memes. Rainbow Advice Dog and Bachelor/Bachelorette Frog have been two of my favorite memes. There have been thousands of different replications of each. I also really like memes for specific majors like the Gender Studies meme. I like the Average Muslim Man and the Successful Black Man memes, which both make plays off of stereotypes. Some people might think that they reinforce those stereotypes, but I’ve always seen it as more humanizing than anything else.
Kendra: The great thing about memes is that you control both sides of the issue. You can frame the question and the response. If you’re having a conversation with someone, you cannot maximize the situation for laughs. With memes I am always trying to prove a point. Memes are a great way to put things out there and communicate some of the things that people really say. In real life you don’t always feel like getting into it with people. My friends are good about being aware of those sorts of things, but if I went back to my hometown and responded to all of the problematic things that I heard, it would be exhausting.
YaleLawTech: What do you think the impact of your memes has been?
Kendra: Hopefully my memes have had a general impact. A few people have made comments to me about them. I had no idea that the memes would become so popular and that I would get a ton of followers on Tumblr. I didn’t want to change the world; I just wanted to be snarky and to express some frustration.
YaleLawTech: Have you ever had a collision between your real life identity and your online identity as Unamused Black Girl?
Kendra: Yes, one day my boss told me that he had seen my meme. He said that he didn’t know that I was internet famous. It was fine when my friends knew about my online identity, but it is different when it comes to your boss. My boss had nothing but praise to say, but it was really weird to have someone who is an authority figure compliment me on my internet meme. It's also weird when anonymous people on Tumblr comment on knowing which places that I like to study at in real life.
YaleLawTech: What are some of your favorite memes?
Kendra: I have spent way too much time on the Internet as a young adult, and as a result I have seen a lot of memes. Rainbow Advice Dog and Bachelor/Bachelorette Frog have been two of my favorite memes. There have been thousands of different replications of each. I also really like memes for specific majors like the Gender Studies meme. I like the Average Muslim Man and the Successful Black Man memes, which both make plays off of stereotypes. Some people might think that they reinforce those stereotypes, but I’ve always seen it as more humanizing than anything else.