A girl fights a Pokemon character in a parking lot and gets sucked into a Pokeball. A mustachioed man, pretending to be El Chapo, runs through a cave, then a fast food restaurant, and then a mall, in search of Donald Trump, who viewers see video of making denigrating comments about Mexicans. A young man satirizes the spare dishes presented in fancy restaurants.
These are the types of wacky, of-the-moment videos that will be missed, now that Twitter is winding down its video app, Vine. (To be clear, Vine says it won’t delete its videos. As least, for now. They will be preserved for your perusal.)
And though people all across the internet are eulogizing Vine for its “mirthful” videos and for the gaping six-second hole it’ll leave in our collective hearts, this is also a particular loss for young people of color. Vine is home to a distinctly younger — and browner and blacker — user base. According to a Pew Research Center survey last year, almost a quarter of teens used Vine; and of those surveyed, 31 percent identified as black (non-Hispanic) and 24 percent as Hispanic.
In its short lifetime, Vine became a powerful platform for protests over police-involved shootings. Black and brown activists shared videos from places such as Ferguson, Mo., providing a visceral understanding of those events.
Vine was especially crucial for incubating black talent and launching careers.
Since Vine’s gonna die, here are some great queer vines from Thomas Sanders
I hate this vines because people applaud this guy for being so “progressive” and “supportive” but really he’s just using queerness as a punchline. It’s basically “wow look! You didn’t expect this person to be queer! Hilarious!! That’s the joke!!”
And then he gets millions and millions of likes and followers and praise just for that. People treat him like some kind of saint just for this. It’s pretty stupid.
first of all: sanders is bisexual. he himself is queer (if he identifies in that way)
secondly: I think it’s less about “lol they’re queer” and more about subverting the assumption that everyone is straight. The marriage proposal vine really hammers in this concept; one man is trying to propose to another and outsiders keep declaring that the relationship is platonic (even though it is not).
He also directly tackles his bisexuality in this compilation as well; showing that he is attracted to men and women, and when asked whether he is gay or straight, he answers in the affirmative simultaneously. Bisexuality is often misunderstood and erased; some people do not even consider it possible to be attracted to multiple genders.
third: queer people are allowed to be involved in comedy. we’re allowed to parody ourselves. especially if we’re subverting pre-existing tropes
alder-knight 