Is the News Targeting Black and or Poor People? Thinking about the Kapooya Video

So there’s a new news video that has gone viral that many refer to as the Kapooya video. I was watching it recently and at first I was laughing. Another person being interviewed who was less than articulate and I knew would be followed up with a catchy auto tune song and catchphrase that would soon be heard everywhere. She slurred her words as she described large pieces of hail coming down, yelling “Kapooya Kapooya!” It’s comedic because of the contrast with the ultra-articulate and professional voice of the news reporter. But, I started to quickly feel guilty .

I soon realized that I was really laughing at this woman because she sounded, in harsh terms, dumb. How could she say that in a formal interview on a news report? Why would she use those words that aren’t even found in the dictionary? Did she do this on purpose so she could get a song out of it and potential fame? These were the real questions that I wanted to ask and at this moment I realized that there was a problem with my perception of her as well as the fact that she was selected to be on TV.

Why has there been a trend in having people like “Kapooya girl” on local news broadcasts? There has been Sweet Brown (“Aint nobody got time for that”), Antoine Dodson (“Hide your kids, hide your wife), and Leprechaun in the Hood (“It might be a crack head”) that has gone viral, which show black people, honestly, looking like a goddamn fool. I started to wonder- is this simply happenstance that these are the only people they interview or are these carefully crafted videos to cast black and or poor people in a negative light and get views?

Tell me what you guys think. Are the news outlets targeting the poor, is it a class thing? Or is it a race thing- another attempt to cast the black man as unintelligent?