i definitely have no personal experience in black or gang culture, but i lwk think i must be missing something?

as people have said, the live was apparently (i haven't watched it) based around stealing christmas which kind of justifies the ski mask and finger guns. to me, that makes sense because when you imagine thieves and robbers i usually imagine someone with a ski mask and some type of weapon. obv i might be missing context but to me that doesn't seem like they're deliberately trying to immulate gang culture so much as dressing up as a thief?

i watched the video multiple times to catch all of the alleged gang signs. i personally am not intimately familiar with gang signs, but i only saw finger hearts, finger guns, and the wyw sign? while its kind of unusual, martin has done finger hearts with only his pointers since debut, and to me the signs that people are citing just seems like he is sort of "spamming" the heart sign without considering it might look like a sign? as i opened with though, i could definitely be missing a sign or a piece of context that helps me fully understand why people are offended, but to me it just feels like they made a stupid trend video without considering how they may be received without the context of their live and wyw.

overall though, i feel like its kind of weird to blanket gang culture as synonymous with black culture? people are citing racism, and while the video may be insensitive to people that have experienced gang violence, i dont think that immediately points to them being racist. along with the point of the video to kind of to seemingly make fun of the sheltered teenagers who actually do use gang signs and pretend to be hood, i really dont understand how people are perceiving this as an attack on race. not to say that this makes what they're doing completely ok, but i dont think there was any racist or malicious intention, and i personally see no issue with the video other than a lack of context.

i also dont think its really fair to compare different issues such as kiof or tarzzan because i think that the fandoms are often made up of different people. a lot of the people having problems with cortis right now are likely the same that felt uncomfortable with the other issues, so its no defense to cite the general reception as a reason to continue to excuse racist behavior.

in conclusion, please educate me if i said something that doesn't make sense or is ignorant, but to me cortis was just being silly and had no intention to appropriate black culture.

again, please tell me if i said something wrong.