Content warning: racist and insensitive meme with caricatured text below.
Reality TV stars often have a bad reputation for being ignorant. While that’s not true for 100% of stars, the bad tends to make headlines, and audiences start to generalize.
And this week, it’s DonJuan Clark giving other reality stars a bad name. Known as Kandi Burruss’ right-hand man, the recurring Real Housewives of Atlanta guest seems mostly harmless. But it’s always the ones least expected.
On July 21, 2023, DonJuan posted a highly insensitive meme on his Instagram. It may have been unwitting, but that doesn’t excuse it. You can see a screenshot of the meme below, but I reissue a content warning. The meme in question is tone-deaf and xenophobic.
DonJuan’s xenophobic IG post
DonJuan posted a meme with the following text: “‘press one for English’ *1* ‘dank you Ford crawling eighty & T.’” Coupled with the text was a screengrab from the PBS cartoon Arthur featuring an annoyed Francine on the phone. DonJuan captioned his IG post with multiple laughing emojis and wrote, “I’m hanging up.”
For those who don’t understand, the meme is meant to caricature Indians, Pakistanis, and others who work at call centers whose native language isn’t English. Many companies set up customer service and call lines in Asia for cheap labor. Interestingly, no one on IG called out the post. But the original tweet garnered criticism.
As one user wrote, “Just remember these ppl are doing [what] they need to to put bread on the table and it’s not their fault they were hired to do this.” One reply argued, “It technically is their fault for doing it,” then added, “but they shouldn’t be faulted for it … no matter how annoying it can get.” Although, many people don’t have job options, just like here in the States.
And before anyone calls me a snowflake or says ‘It’s just a joke,’ remember that all comedy is based on truth. So, consider what the supposed truth is that’s being perpetuated by this meme. And consider if that “truth” is helpful or harmful to a certain group of people.
