Sometimes as a writer, rap fan and white person…. More specifically white person in Australia, I often have to wonder if my knee-jerk ‘DATS RACIST!’ response upon seeing something iffy is over active. We certainly are an awkward bunch down under when it comes to black people…. It often feels as though some of us are forever trying to successfully carry off a casual ‘Sup dawg’ camaraderie with black people whilst at the same time making a big deal of something we’re trying to appear so effortless with and failing monumentally. Case in point: Delta Goodrem’s cringe-worthy use of the term ‘brother’ last night on The Voice, when referring to Seal and a black contestant. To be fair, everything Delta does is cringe-worthy to a degree, race related or not.

But then other times I think… nah it’s not my Aussie awkwardness, that IS pretty racist, right?

Can I bring your attention to Lil Debbie’s new video for ‘Ratchet’. Lil Debbie is apparently a stylist cum white girl rapper cum Kreayshawn’s weed carrier and I’m pretty sure I thought she and Kreayshawn were the same person for at least 6 months. She’s cute as hell in that little suburban hoodrat who actually knows how to dress kinda way but this new vid is a lil on the nose… Or is it?

In the same way that people were a bit “TF colonial fuckery is this?!” to Gwen Stefani and her army of itty bitty cute little all Asian b-girl dancers (rumour has it that they were forbidden from speaking English in public) back in those LAMB days, Deb surrounded by a series of all black, all ‘thick’ female back up dancers is a lil, well… unsettling. Oh and the fact the track is called ‘Ratchets’ and she’s in head to toe white just seems to compound the issue.

Are we being over sensitive? Maybe. But when you just to homogenize your back up dancers to not just a certain race but a certain body shape, both of which are at the opposite spectrum to your own, it seems like you’re trying to say something about race, even if it’s unknowingly implied. Throw in a few thick white girls and the energy would have been very different….  Hell! I don’t know…. I do like their hair though.

Watch it above… THOUGHTS? FEEDBACK? DO WE CARE?