According to social-justice Internet, the reason why that Chewbacca Mom (of viral-video fame) has been rewarded with television time, gifts, and free college tuition is because she’s white — and that’s just not fair.
It’s true, free tuition is an oversized prize for such easily begotten fame,” Gillian Branstetter wrote in a piece for the Daily Dot. “Real rewards typically reaped for online success tend to heavily favor insta-celebrities who are white.”
Now, to be fair, the amount that Candace “Chewbacca Mom” Payne has been given for putting on a mask and laughing is almost unbelievable. Not only has she been rewarded with countless gifts and appearances on popular television shows, but she and her entire family were also recently given tuition-free scholarships to Southeastern University in Florida.
It’s definitely a lot for a little. But here’s the thing: So what? We really never know what’s going to “hit” on the Internet these days. To me, it seems as unpredictable as it is influential, and it’s becoming more and more evident that any random post has the power to either make or break a career. Personally, I’d say it’s a good thing that in this case, things turned out well for that family, and other than it being kind of annoying and hack, I fail to see a problem with any of it.
#share#But Branstetter insists that there’s a glaring problem. As evidence, she explains that a black girl named Kayla Newman, aka Peaches Monroee, never received any tangible rewards for popularizing the phrase “on fleek” in a Vine video in 2014.
As further evidence, she also links to several tweets from people who share her opinion:
https://twitter.com/crissles/status/738370980289073152
and
https://twitter.com/gringatears/status/738610291131318272
and
https://twitter.com/OrmondDerrick/status/738108620626333696
Honestly, this seems like a bit of a stretch of me, but perhaps that’s just my bias. After all, not only am I white, but I also had my own little Star Wars–related joke go viral last year, one that resulted in my being rewarded with literally countless death and rape threats, all over two sentences. No doubt, I too, received a lot for a little on the Internet – so perhaps I should just stop with my cynicism and be more grateful my privilege.