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ByJanice Gassam Asare, Ph.D.,
Senior Contributor.
In the days leading up to the suspension of federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, several AI-generated videos of Black women went viral on social media. In one video, Andre Gee of Rolling Stone wrote, a Black woman could be seen in a house full of crying babies screaming about the government shutdown, the loss of her EBT, having seven children with seven men and how it was the taxpayer’s responsibility to support her. Other videos depicted Black women screaming about not being able to use their food stamps in different places. The recent wave of videos are meant to play into the “welfare queen” trope—a pervasive stereotype that portrays Black women as indolent and exploiters of government assistance programs for personal gain. These videos add to the surge of racist AI videos that cropped up over the summer, showcasing Black women AI “influencers” acting in exaggerated ways, which many labeled as digital Blackface.
