At a recent house party, 27-year-old Imani Layton sucked all the fun out of what was meant to be a lighthearted conversation mocking her entire race.
“We were all laughing, having a good time,” said Lisa Van Leuwen, a friend of Imani’s. “And all of a sudden, Imani got all sensitive. All we were doing was joking about how black people have daddy issues and hilarious names! She was being a real downer.”
“I didn’t wanna be a bummer,” said Ms. Layton. “But they were straight up ridiculing black people and expecting me to go along with it. I don’t know why they thought that would be okay?”
Imani’s friends at the shindig didn’t necessarily see things the same way.
“I don’t see why Imani had to kill the vibe of a harmless, joking conversation,” added Oliver Hitchens. “Like, sure, we were making fun of a specific race that she is a part of. But we were obviously kidding around.”
Ms. Layton attempted to give the partygoers, all of whom were white except for her, some perspective.
“I tried asking them how they would feel if they were the only white person somewhere and their race became the butt of a joke,” said Ms. Layton. “But they just kept saying it wasn’t about me specifically and that I was overreacting.”
“Imani was being so uppity about it,” explained Kelly Hanaford, clearly unaware of the etymological history of calling black individuals uppity. “She’s not even the kind of black person we were making fun of. She’s one of the good ones!”
“She totally was sucking the fun out of it all,” added Ms. Hanaford. “She made us feel like we were racists or something, which we’re totally not! If we were racist we wouldn’t be friends with Imani, who is our only black friend, right?”
Layton, however, disagreed.
“They don’t realize that demeaning blackness is demeaning me, and my family, and my relatives, and my close friends specifically,” she said. “This actually wasn’t very fun for me at all to begin with.”
