Stop co-opting my struggle: How feminist struggles are NOT the same as Blackness struggles

It finally happened. This Is America, the video/ song starring Donald Glover that is causing so much buzz and creating dialogue around guns and violence towards the African American community, has been appropriated. And it couldn't have been appropriated by a more problematic woman.

Nicole Arbour, a relic of Youtube whose career virtually ended when she created a 'satire' video where she all but terrorizes an over-weight family just trying to enjoy their vacation somewhere, because God forbid anyone be out here having a good time with the opinions of the privileged.

Nicole is nothing but a scam queen, thriving off Youtube views of her cyber bullying with titles such as 'depression is all in your head', 'why you really got divorced' by people who most likely don't like her. Her other videos also include rants such as 'Dear Black People' and 'Dear Refugees', ones I can almost guarantee lean towards the MAGA hate group than into an actual dialogue.

She is nothing more than a pretty blonde troll making nasty comments on the internet that would rather direct her comedy at harming others than actually making people laugh or think. In fact, that is the reason why I have only included a still of the video and not the video itself. Plus, co-opted crap does not get reshared. There will be no additional views of this blatantly disrespectful piece coming from this site.

If you want to (hate) watch, feel free to look her up on Youtube, but don't say I didn't warn you.

I guess that is why her lated foray into attempting to create something positive completely bombed. Her latest video, This is America, Women's Edit, seeks to shadow the Childish Gambino video, This Is America, and probably take some of its shine as well. The Women's Edit also takes place in a warehouse, but that is pretty much where the similarities end. Instead of a poignant video brutally raising the discussion of gun violence and the African American experience, Nicole drenches the experience in vanilla blandness, completely draining the message of the original for her own benefit, also known as appropriation. Nicole literally has attempted to appropriate the visual struggle. Nicole dances around with other women throughout the video, trying to look like the feminist hero, but really she looks more like a drunken sorority girl who got lost on the wrong side of town.

The video literally shows a Black Woman being hauled off screen while Nicole does some form of singing “We just want to smile, get a mammy home”. Get a mammy home? Mammy, like the mammy trope who, during antebellum America practically raised white children (because White slave owners didn't even want to do that? Lazy.) The video then progresses into a discussion date rape drugs, ageism, (which are very valid discussion), and intellectual theft (which ironically this video itself is!) being all but swallowed up (pun intended) by scantily clad dancers and cheer leaders performing provocative moves while Nicole continues her bland as rice appropriated rap lyrics. The rare women of color are literally thrown to the background and the margins of this 'feminist' video while white women dominate the camera shots. The video ends with Nicole literally tap dancing (I am not making this crap up, I promise) just like her performative feminism before being rejoined by her sorority sisters for a white washing of that final famous running scene.

Dear God in heaven, it is trash. As a womanist, I am offended by this trash example of faux-feminism. The actually quality points Nicole is attempting to make are all invalidated by her privileged actions, such as having women of color dragged off the scene while holding their babies in their arms or pushed to the back of the visuals while the white girls get all the screen time. Isn't that exactly what was wrong with previous waves of feminism in the first place? Susan B. Anthony, every feminazi's fave, was very literally a racist. Second wave feminism only wanted the voices of women of color, but not enough to take on their concerns. And here we are, with an actual visual and musical representation of those omissions in Nicole's video. But all she wants is to bring a mammy home...

What Nicole obviously misses, which would have led her to leave the original This Is America alone, is one simple fact. She is a White Woman. As a white woman, she is still on a different end of the power spectrum than say, me, a Black Woman. While she's complaining about glass ceilings, I'm fighting against police brutality. While she's white tearing about equal pay, I'm trying to make sure the police aren't being called on me and mine for just living our lives. While she's venting about being called a bitch, I am trying to end gun violence in my own community. The two are not, in any way, shape or form the same.

Because at the end of the day, no one is screaming out White Women matter because society has already very much affirmed and confirmed that. But Black Lives Matter still has to be explained to be understood. Therefore, this dull as powder bastardization of This Is America is garbage. It is nothing more than attempt to get some views on Nicole's YouTube page in an attempt to feign feminism.

The truth is Nicole is merely an opportunist who saw the press surrounding Donald Glover's visuals and sought to capitalize on them herself. There is no room for body shaming or hate speech in feminism, a philosophy that is ultimately pushing for equality and inclusion. More proof that this spoof is garbage.

She is no more a feminist than Ann Coulter, Laura Ingram, Tami Lasagne (I refuse to use that spoiled brat's actual name here) or Candice Owens (if her wish was granted and she was finally allowed to be white). These women thrive off of the sound bite, video clip, tweet or post, playing into politically divisive and ultimately detrimental rhetoric full of stereotypes, thinly veiled hate speech, and bullying anyone who happens to have an opinion other than their own. These women are the perfect proof that just because you are born a female person, doesn't make you a feminist.

Maybe Nicole should just stick to cyber bullying.
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