Ellen Goes to Africa and the Internet Isn’t Happy
We have all come to know and love Ellen DeGeneres for the courageous, outspoken, and hilarious woman she is, but the internet had a field day with the photo she took with a bunch of kids from Africa.
There was backlash received from this photo Ellen had posted with African children. It almost made the internet cringe because many find it typical for privileged white tourists to travel to a less fortunate country and post images of marginalized brown children as backdrops. DeGeneres, the talk show host, had visited Kenya and Rwanda last week in order to support her own foundation, the Ellen DeGeneres Wildlife Fund.
Besides all the good work she is doing out in Africa, internet users felt the need to attack the popular host over this one photo she had posted. Internet Trolls are calling it “Poverty Porn.” Twitter has been dragging Ellen in different mean tweets about it, some said, “This is a misfire. White tourist taking a pic with an anonymous group of ‘happy but poor African kids’ always is. Examine your motivations in taking this pic- be honest. Showing how ‘real’ your experience was? Did kids consent to this being posted? These kids aren’t props.”
Despite the backlash, many fans are proud of Ellen for going on an amazing trip for a great cause.
Hey there, just a fashion student working on herself while living her best life. Protecting my soul and drinking water. You can usually catch me with a book in my hands while wearing my head phones to silence out the noise of New York City.
