Stay woke, y’all.
In a ReidOut Blog from a little over a year ago, I warned of a few blogs and gossip platforms that ostensibly serve Black audiences being used to spread right-wing propaganda.
At the time, I specifically mentioned The Shade Room, Media Take Out and WorldStarHipHop as examples of platforms I’ve found to have spread right-wing talking points meant to discourage Black people from voting, pushed bigoted claims about LGBTQ people, and spread misinformation about Covid-19.
Unfortunately, there are new reports underscoring my point.
Media Matters, the progressive media watchdog, published a report last month about the hip-hop and Black culture podcast “No Jumper” and its creator Adam Grandmaison (also known as Adam22).
Grandmaison, who is white, has built a platform that fuels misogyny and gang culture — usually involving Black youth — through crass interviews and coverage. (To be clear, this has long garnered Grandmaison criticism from Black people.)
But “No Jumper” has apparently taken a more explicitly racist turn.
According to Media Matters:
Over the past year, No Jumper has delved into platforming viral hate figures, including white nationalists, neo-Nazis, misogynists, and notorious antisemites. The show has a massive reach on social media, with over 4.5 million YouTube subscribers, 1.2 million Twitter followers, 3 million Instagram followers, and 2.1 million TikTok followers. Clips from the podcast are also available on Snapchat and the show has a large Discord following. Additionally, clips of viral hate figures’ appearances on the show have been posted on TikTok by various users. … Grandmaison, who is white, now invites white supremacists and racists onto a show that has many Black staff members and was born out of covering hip-hop and Black culture. This transitional period for the podcast comes at a time when Grandmaison faces criticism for reports of past predatory behavior.
You can read about some of that criticism here.
Some of the extremists who’ve appeared on the “No Jumper” platform include Nick Fuentes, the white nationalist invited to dine with Donald Trump late last year, as well as several Black guests and co-hosts who’ve spread antisemitic conspiracy theories.
Either The Shade Room is woefully ignorant, or it’s willfully piping right-wing conspiracy theories to its followers.
Along with the Media Matters report, I was also made aware of a post published by the gossip outlet The Shade Room this week that quotes right-wing lawmakers verbatim as they pushed unfounded claims similar to the racist “replacement theory.”
In The Shade Room post, the author quotes Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and other right-wingers referring to the “central bank digital currency” conspiracy theory, which essentially claims a global cabal is looking to establish digital currencies to patrol and control their citizens.
The theory plays on a common theme in right-wing disinformation: that a powerful group of nonwhite non-Americans, including Jewish elites, is seeking to undermine the American way of life.
The Shade Room also quoted Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Mike Braun of Indiana and Chuck Grassley of Iowa as they whined about the threat posed by the Biden administration’s nonexistent plans to create a “digital dollar.”
The idea of these senators — all of whom have blocked voting rights measures and aligned themselves with Trump — pointing elsewhere to highlight alleged dangers to democracy is laughable.
So either The Shade Room is woefully ignorant, or it’s willfully piping right-wing conspiracy theories to its followers (or both).
I’ll leave it to you to guess why it is that a blog focused on Black culture is spewing conspiracy theories from anti-Black lawmakers.
In the meantime, if either of the aforementioned platforms are part of your news diet, I recommend a cleanse.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.