When considering the most offensive language and discourse in our society, much of the rhetoric has origins in pejoratives. Racism is far from dead in our society, but the ways in which society addresses race have changed immensely. Although some wounds are still raw, comedians, televisions shows, music, and other media choose to make light of racial tensions by employing humor. Following my Honor course’s recent case study with social media and the age of instantaneous information reception, Twitter has become one of the spaces in which race and humor are most succinctly and blatantly intertwined. The creation of Twitter accounts such as Common White Girl, Common Black Girl, and Common Hispanic Girl have taken this network by storm, garnering 571,000, 228,000, and 57,900 followers respectively. In essence, nearly 1.4 million individuals worldwide are subscribing to accounts that specifically highlight racial stereotypes and characteristics in a humorous manner.
Having nearly 9,000 tweets between the three accounts, the “Common ___ Girl” Twitter accounts use images, hashtags, and succinct messages to gain “retweets” and “favorites” from their followers. After a closer look at the follower list for each account, it is evident that not every individual following fits the racial profile for that specific account nor do they all identify as “girls”. The question then lies in the reasoning as to why someone would follow such an account if they do not align with the account’s identifiers. Is it that racial stereotypes are proving true in our society or that humor indeed does make it possible to discuss sensitive issues in a lighthearted way?
A closer look into the content of the Twitter accounts reveal interesting themes within each feed. A survey of the ten most recent tweets from each respective account exposed a surprising absence of serious racial elements and a more generalized feed that relates to young girls in general, regardless of racial differences. After looking over the Common White Girl account, CWG tweets are most commonly about relationships with men/boys and physical appearance/weight. The tweets themselves did not contain any language that explicitly acknowledged whiteness, racial supremacy, or identifiers that would cause an individual to assume the account holder was white having not read the title. In the account’s images, all individuals pictured appear to be white and the account’s avatar is a white Disney Princess. The account does not shy away from explicit language or sexual content and implies that Ellen DeGeneres is an American hero thus dismissing traditional white stereotypes that it is impolite to use vulgar language and heterosexuality is the only acknowledged sexuality. What the account does explicitly imply is that the common white girl is fixated on male celebrities in popular culture and with obtaining a boyfriend/husband.
The Common Black Girl account, in contrast, features a wide variety of themes and images. The photos on the account reflect individuals of various races and ethnicities, including white, black, Asian, Latina etc. Furthermore, themes of tweets exceed a discussion of appearance and marital status by addressing more serious issues such as suicide, self-harm, academics, athletics, and more. The CBG account avatar is of the only African American Disney princess, Tiana, from The Princess and the Frog. Ironically enough, the Twitter header image is of Pocahontas, a Native American woman, thus immediately dismissing the notion that this account is founded on racial principles as the name implies. In general, this account does not explicitly employ stereotypes of the black community, but instead stereotypes of all teen girls.
The Common Hispanic Girl account is the only one of the three that utilizes explicit cultural stereotypes within tweets and imagery. Although Hispanic is an ethnicity rather than a race, this account uses the same strategies attempted by CWG and CBG to humorously discuss racial and ethnic tensions and stereotyped cultural practices. Common Hispanic Girl’s avatar features the late Hispanic singer/songwriter, Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, who was the epitome of beauty in Hispanic popular culture. The account’s Twitter header image is a collage of flags from Spanish-speaking nations. A survey of tweet content and images on the page exclusively feature individuals who appear to be of Hispanic descent. Themes of tweets appear to focus on traditional Hispanic food and curvy female body types. The rhetoric and diction of CHG tweets utilize the Spanish language and Spanglish to further emphasize stereotypes, an element absent in the other accounts. Nonetheless, the Common White, Black, and Hispanic Girl Twitter accounts represent a popular intersection of race and humor that initiates conversation in a way that relaxes tense race relations. By feeding stereotypes with such accounts, however, it remains to be seen if race relations are actually improved by such an intersection or if pejoratives and prejudices are simply reinforced within the less perceptive and media illiterate population.
