SH*T GIRLS SAY

It started with a YouTube video called "Shit Girls Say," which went memetic with various spin-offs. The format allowed for some playful satire poking fun at common expressions and experiences, but was of course laden with stereotypes! Then the NYC-based Black comedian and artist Chescaleigh came out with an incredible contribution to the meme that landed her on Anderson Cooper and helped bring the conversation about racism into the mainstream...

Colorlines covered the rise of Sh*it White Girls Say to Black Girls in an article, quoting Doyle Canning.

“There’s a flip [in the narrative], which is part of why I think it’s so effective and powerful,” says Doyle Canning, a strategist at SmartMeme, a progressive group that helps craft political messaging. “The framing of the story is from the perspective of the black girl. That’s rarely the case in popular culture. I think there’s an opportunity for racial justice activists to intervene in those stories, and contribute a kind of meaningful critique that’s riding the momentum of an existing meme in the popular culture.”

Here's the first Sh*t Girls Say video which inspired so many multiple layers of parody in 2012:

Doyle Canning