You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more
In the piece I lay out boi's trajectory from the black community to Outkast's Big Boi to skateboarding to gay men to queer women to queer AFABS and then, after a long pause there to blackface accounts and racist memes, from which it made the jump over to mainstream meme culture.
The one consistent aspect of boi's use was that it had to do with atypical or countercultural masculinity. Black masculinity, skateboarders' masculinity, gay masculinity, or female masculinity. Well, it didn't just fall from there into the mainstream- it was pushed.
It was pushed by white racists using "digital blackface" to portray black people as negative stereotypes, with the hopes of turning white liberals against them.
And, it was pushed by white supremacists who fixated on a small controversy over whether the Dat Boi meme was culturally appropriative, seeing it as a challenge to take boi away from the communities where it was being used.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.
