Every single day the internet reminds us how gross and disappointing humans can be.
For many of us—and particularly Black people across America—the murder of George Floyd symbolized a galvanizing breaking point in racial awareness. It became the catalyst for a 2020 summer of seemingly endless protests against systemic racism in policing. Floyd never intended to become a martyr, but in the eyes of millions, he became one all the same.
But for some of the racist and tasteless, Floyd’s death became an opportunity for cheap exploitation. So now “Floydies” are a thing.
According to Input, “crudely drawn pixel art that caricatures Floyd, giving him bloodshot eyes—have sold to date, making their creator or creators just short of $5,000.” It’s unclear who the creators are, but their racist-as-hell series of white obliviousness displays was launched on the OpenSea platform on December 7.
Of course, we don’t know if the creators are actually white—but they’re definitely white in spirit. This is some white a** sh** to do. I mean, it just doesn’t get much more caucasified than this:
Make sure to follow the other Floydies socials!
There has been a lot of negativity towards our project on Twitter recently. If you’re looking for a safe space to share your appreciation for George Floyd, check out:
IG: https://t.co/2bmHq9alri
TG: https://t.co/HGivTz7Oc0 pic.twitter.com/kP04wfxhWI— FloydiesNFT (@FloydiesNFT) February 11, 2022
There’s even an image included that features Floyd in a police uniform, which is like “honoring” Nicole Simpson by photoshopping her in a Buffalo Bills jersey. It’s just disgusting, insensitive and decidedly bigotted.
And for some reason, the creators of the images think it’s a good look that the San Fransico Police Department has “liked” some of the images, which, by the way, the department is being investigated for.
Seems less than ideal, folks https://t.co/V88aKHjXA2
— John Hamasaki (@HamasakiLaw) February 11, 2022
And if you need more evidence that whoever created these images is racist and tone-deaf, they actually think they have the authority to permit white people to use the n-word and are presuming to give buyers of their “art” a free-pass to do so.
Hey White boy. Did you know that Floydies come with an N word pass?
That’s right, if you own a Floydie, you have the right to say 1 (one) ‘hard R’ N word (inflation may change this).We will be releasing an official document relating to this soon!#Nwordpass #NFT #NFTs #NFTart pic.twitter.com/BYAfBQNmBR
— FloydiesNFT (@FloydiesNFT) February 4, 2022
And yet, despite how demonstrably racist this creator is (and if they’re Black, even their sunken placer has a sunken place) they are defending their “art” and claiming it isn’t racist at all.
There is nothing racist about my NFTs other than haters like you trying to tear me down.
We are creating a way for people to remember George Floyd in the Metaverse.
Whether you like it or not, the Metaverse is the future. We want George Floyd to not be left behind in the past. https://t.co/jyWpI5K82V
— FloydiesNFT (@FloydiesNFT) February 12, 2022
It is really sad to see people trying to destroy my innocent tribute project.
I want to make it very clear that we are here to celebrate George Floyd and immortalize him.
Wherever you go in the metaverse, you should see him. You should be reminded of what he stands for. https://t.co/lI2Er39tBm pic.twitter.com/TjBERHve2U
— FloydiesNFT (@FloydiesNFT) February 11, 2022
Whether this person or persons really believes what they’re doing honors Floyd and shows allyship, or they’re just racist trolls pimping Black pain for profit (Hint: It’s definitely the latter) it’s clear what they’ve done and continue to do is hurtful and just plain dumb, and it’s really a shame that Twitter and other social media outlets haven’t done the responsible thing and banned this campaign into oblivion by now.
Sometimes I just really hate people.
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