![]() ![]() But then her YouTube video "What White Girls Say. Or a commentator on identity, race, and culture, really. Her fiction is available on Amazon and she keeps an online journal at this sharp, funny, and timely collection of personal essays, veteran video blogger and star of MTV's Decoded Franchesca Ramsey explores race, identity, online activism, and the downfall of real communication in the age of social media rants, trolls, and call-out wars.įranchesca Ramsey didn't set out to be an activist. Kesia Alexandra is a freelance writer from Washington, DC. I think Ramsey will have more wisdom to offer in another ten or fifteen years, but this debut manages to sum up her experiences in a way that is not just entertaining but can be useful to others who hope to follow in her footsteps. As someone who is always curious as to how people get their start or big break in any category of the entertainment industry, I found this to be a great read. It is mostly personal, though it can serve as an introduction to some social justice conversations. I think Well, That Escalated Quickly will mostly appeal to readers who are already apart of Ramsey’s fan base. ![]() There is even a handy glossary of rarely defined words that are commonly thrown around online. Remembering Jessie Maple, the Trailblazing Black Filmmaker of Cinemaįrom the bright smile on the cover that you just have to smile back at to the optimistic tone that runs throughout Well, That Escalated Quickly, Ramsey manages to deliver a fun and clever read while discussing difficult topics. I appreciated Ramsey’s transparency here, which she carried throughout the book. I have never, NEVER, heard anyone admit to being jealous of Lena Dunham, though there are quite a few people I’m certain are, including myself at one point (I mean the woman had an HBO series in her twenties…) Being jealous of Beyoncé is socially acceptable. What I loved about this particular anecdote is that while Ramsey maintains (and I wholeheartedly agree) that there is a lot of legitimate critique to be made of Dunham and her work, a lot of her criticism and the vitriol behind the delivery of it stemmed from jealousy. Ramsey describes meeting the star and creator of the HBO series “Girls” after critiquing and flat out trash talking her work on the internet. One of my favorite chapters is “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? (It’s Lena Dunham)”. There is a story, for example, of Ramsey’s own accidental performance of transphobia, which she was called out for and learned from. What I like most about Well, That Escalated Quickly is that Ramsey is willing to cop to things that I think a lot of people, especially people who are dedicated to branding themselves a certain way, would not. In a time where half of Twitter seems eager to wield their knowledge as a weapon and the other half seems dedicated to using their ignorance in the same way, Ramsey’s advice is relevant and useful, even if you have no interest in becoming a YouTube sensation. Ramsey’s book is as timely and timeless as we are (and probably always will be,) constantly renegotiating how we use the internet. Well, That Escalated Quickly is a combination of humorous memories, learning experiences, and advice not only for navigating the internet but for navigating life with a social justice lens. This is how Franchesca stumbled into her role as an accidental activist. ![]() While she did not yet have all of the language to defend her experiences with casual racism and macroaggressions, responses to the video made it clear that experiences like the ones mentioned in her video were too common to remain undiscussed. In the book, Ramsey goes into detail about the backlash she was met with from both white and Black audiences. ![]() After “SWGSTBG” went viral, she was invited onto various talk shows to discuss the content of the video. One thing Ramsey knew for sure was that she didn’t want to simply become known as “the girl with the wig”. The reality is, it takes time and dedication to become a viral sensation and even more of both to parlay that quick fame into a career. Both of these elements may have played a role, but in her debut book, Well, That Escalated Quickly, Ramsey tells the story of how much work really went into becoming famous in “four hours”. From our side of things, it seemed that Ramsey was an overnight success, a combination of luck and good timing. Most of us were introduced to Franchesca Ramsey by her viral YouTube video “Sh*t White Girls Say to Black Girls”, but very few people know how this video even came to be. ![]()
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