Justin Laboy is a Twitter-friendly Derrick Jaxn #Respectfully(and other commentaries on the profitability of pandering)
by Elemental P
Given the title of this piece, I’m going to go ahead and open by saying something that’s probably unexpected:
I appreciate Justin Laboy’s work.
I’d even venture to say that I enjoy a lot of the content that he promotes. Even though Justin’s most famous for simply reposting Tweets on Instagram, the humor of these posts, as well as their cultural awareness and relatability (we’ll get to that in a bit) encapsulate many of the things that are enjoyable about Black Twitter.
(Yes, there’s a Black Twitter that deserves differentiation from normal Twitter. There’s also a Black Instagram, Black Tik Tok, and there’s also probably an entrepreneurial case to be made for Black people leaving these platforms and establishing our own. The chaos that would ensue alone would be worth the price of admission.)
With all that being said, though, tap on any one of Justin’s posts, and it isn’t hard to notice that most of the people engaging with, commenting on, and reposting Justin’s content are women; typically, Millennial women who are either Black or have experiences adjacent to Black American culture.
This isn’t inherently a bad thing. As stated earlier, I, a cis/het, Black, American man find a great deal of entertainment value in this content, even at my own expense.
It’s healthy to have the ability to laugh at oneself.
However, I wonder how much of Justin Laboy’s online persona is a sincere reflection of his personal values and experiences, as opposed to how much of it is simply pandering for capitalistic purposes.
How much of the “I Told God to Remove All My Enemies & I Lost My Man” posts, and the “Scorpio Men Are The Most Toxic” Retweets, and the comments that “the only men that don’t cheat are Obama and Russell Wilson” are Justin’s genuine thoughts and feelings, and how many of them are simply an entrepreneur’s understanding and appeasement of his target audience?
How much of Justin Laboy’s content conveys the unfiltered musings of a cis/het, Black, American man sharing hisunderstanding of “the game” and its nuances, and how much of it is just successfully capitalized alarmism?
See, I find entertainment value in many of these posts because of my upbringing. I was raised around predominantly Black women, and as such, some of the humor and cultural perspectives I’ve adopted reflect those of the people who I looked up to as a child. I’ve also had many diverse experiences with women, both platonically and…otherwise in my adult life. I’d venture to say that Justin Laboy is similar in that regard, and as such, he likely has a slight understanding of subjects that speak to and affect the various women that have been in his life.
With that being said, though, as Cis/Het men, society at large has likely treated us differently, socialized us differently, and affected our values differently.
This is why during Derrick Jaxn’s time in the sun, many men were criticizing Jaxn for being a fraud, even as many women continued to contribute to his popularity and income by praising his content and brushing off his critics as being the very men that Jaxn had warned them against.
Much of Jaxn’s content during the height of his popularity had to do with traditionally heterosexual relationships, and it was mainly targeted towards Black women. In large part, it discussed topics such as money and potential red flags in the budding stages of dating or “talking” phases between potential couples. It criticized men for being both financially and emotionally cautious by implying that if a man didn’t take a woman he’d recently met on vacation or pay for her kids’ meals on the first “date,” then he was likely broke. He also implied that broke men would likely disagree with and argue against his content because he was making dating life harder by “exposing” these men and their secrets. Much of his other content implied that men were, in large part, emotionally manipulative, prone to infidelity, and afraid of strong and outspoken women.
He essentially simultaneously built his following and discredited his critics by appealing to the fears and concerns of his target audience. He capitalized off of alarmism.
As we all know, Derrick Jaxn’s downfall began when he was similarly exposed for being emotionally manipulative and prone to infidelity as the revelation that he had been cheating on his wife came to light. In an attempt to get in front of the backlash, Jaxn and his wife appeared in a video meant to address the allegations, and as many noted, it seemed as though Da’naiaJackson was being coached through many of the responses and talking points she offered in the video.
I have to digress here by saying that I am in no way comparing Justin Laboy’s humor to Derrick Jaxn’s hypocrisy. However, it’s important to understand how easy it can be to weaponize a group’s cultural sensibilities with the understandings and the positions that both of these men have in juxtaposition to their target audiences.
To highlight this point, let’s take a look at how Fox News weaponizes women and people of color.
Fox News has long been criticized for being less of a news station and more of an echo chamber for conservative voices. And American conservative groups have been largely criticized for being homogenous at best, and racist/sexist at worst.
As such, in recent years, Fox News has “diversified” its catalogue of contributors by giving a platform to both women and people of color. However, upon closer inspection, it appears as though even the diversification of the station’s contributors can be characterized by monotony. Most of the women featured on Fox are blonde, traditionally attractive, modestly dressed, and have strong conservative views, so much so that they can be even more right-leaning than their male counterparts in some instances. Similarly, people of color featured on Fox News are very palatable for old white people, wearing straightened hair (for women), using nonthreatening vocal inflections, and again, presenting strong conservative viewpoints with little nuance.
Bearing that in mind, two things become apparent:
One, that hearing one’s views echoed by a “diverse” group helps to dispel any criticism of prejudice, and as such, makes an audience more comfortable with remaining in that echo chamber.
Two, that tokenism can be very profitable.
Consequentially, one of the most celebrated conservative voices in the modern political arena happens to be a Black woman (who will not be named in this entry). This is likely not by accident. To say that this person is outspoken would be an understatement; the points she presents are both bold and hot-button, and many of the views she expresses, if not for her identity, would likely be criticized for white supremacist and misogynist undertones. From supporting anti-BLM conspiracy theories to praising Donald Trump as a feminist icon, this person seems to be the personification of a January 6th insurrectionist’s power fantasies.
However, what’s even more interesting is the story of how she got to her current position. Before she was the conservative powerhouse she is today, this person was at the helm of a political blog site that represented overwhelmingly liberal ideas and rhetoric. After a failed attempt at raising money through Kickstarter for her next “project,” this person claims to have adopted more right-leaning ideals almost “overnight,” and has since become the self-proclaimed voice of Black Americans who wish to be represented in the political right and alt-right.
With this ideological “change” also came success, income, and legitimacy that had been previously unavailable.
Long story short: she’s a con artist.
She’s a con artist in the same way that Derrick Jaxn was a con artist, and that Justin Laboy isn’t (necessarily), but could be, if he so chooses. These figures understand something about their audiences, and perhaps people in general:
People generally want to hear their ideas echoed back to them, but they often need surface-level diversity in order to give these ideas legitimacy.
This is why tokenism sells. This is why white Tik Tok creators who are known to steal from lesser-known creators of color enjoy more success. This is why your favorite pop artist presents themselves as racially ambiguous and speaks with an accent they didn’t have when they first came onto the scene. And most pertinent to this conversation, this is what makes Justin Laboyand similar creators so powerful.
Venting is a part of healthy coping. And if much of the content shared on Justin Laboy’s posts have to do with relationships that are either failed, failing, or untrustworthy, then a certain amount of venting (and even vilification) should come with the territory. However, when the person that represents those often being vented about supports these sentiments while also refraining to challenge mutual responsibility, it adds a level of legitimacy to these musings.
The person that tells their audience what they want to hear, no matter how disingenuously, will continue to remain relevant. Because at the end of the day, most people want their beliefs confirmed.