Damn Donald! Back At It Again With The Racism
Damn, Daniel! The first time I heard it, I was attending a speech class. One of the students kept repeating it and I had no idea what he was talking about. After he explained it was a viral Vine video, I didn’t give it a second thought since I don’t really use Vine, though I have an account. I thought the video was only popular among teens using Vine. That was until a comedian referred to Damn Daniel one night on “Saturday Night Live.” I figured that if this video made it to SNL, it had to be something. When I Googled it, I discovered the video was not just on Vine, it had millions of views on YouTube as well.
I read on popsugar.com that “Daniel made his debut in a 30-second video posted to Twitter on Feb. 15 by his friend Josh. In the video, Josh captures Daniel walking around, smiling, looking cool, and showing off his shoes. Josh, unable to control his amazement at Daniel’s swag, compliments his friend by exclaiming, “Damn, Daniel! Back at it again with the white Vans.’”
That’s all it took to create a social media phenomenon. Baffling, isn’t it? Within a month, a lot of compilations and parodies blossomed on the web about this Daniel who just showed off his white Vans at school. And I even found out that the two authors of the viral video were invited to The Ellen Show. Damn!
Then I thought, why not turn Damn Daniel into Damn Donald, referring to Trump. I really imagined I was the first to have this brilliant idea, until I googled it.
Jimmy Fallon had already made the joke on his show. He was lampooning a speech Trump made after his Super Tuesday primary wins when he said, “Damn Donald! Back at it again with the white supremacists.” Damn! He stole my idea even before I got it.
Just joking. I found out that Fallon may not have been the one to create #DamnDonald since some Trump protesters started to hold signs reading “Damn Donald, back at it again with the white Klans” after Trump failed to reject a support of his candidacy from former Ku Klux Klan leader, David Duke. He also declined to disavow the Ku Klux Klan on CNN. SNL later took on Trump by producing a skit in which everyday “real Americans” gently describe why they support Donald Trump for president—before they are all revealed to be white supremacists, Klan members, and Nazis.
Damn! It was too late for me to claim the paternity of #DamnDonald. It was already making its way through social media, trending on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, everywhere. I discovered some funny memes like “Damn Donald, back at it again with a small loan of one million dollar,” “Damn Donald, back at it again with the punch in the face,” “Damn Donald, back at it again with the white wig (or the right wing),” “Damn Donald, back at it again with the white Vans (Border Patrol),” “Damn Donald, back at it again with the: racism, sexism, xenophobia, ignorance” etc.
Damn! Could a simple hashtag stop the Donald?
