Sena Bryer is right: the hatred that Smile gets is highly problematic

[ZXN]

It is a tribute to black culture and black history. How is it offensive? Curious to hear your perspective as long as it is not transphobic.

Because it might not be a tribute to black culture and black history. You could definitely make the argument it is gospel music, or gospel inspired...but don't you think it's a liiiiittle weird to declare smile is specifically black gospel? Don't you think it's just a liiiitle bit weird to listen to a song and then declare "Oh yeah, I'm definitely getting black people vibes with this song i'm hearing."? There was no need for Sena to label it as such when she could've just said it was gospel or gospel inspired. She is allowed to personally believe it is it is "black" gospel music, But then following that up by insinuating that people who dislike the song are in that "certain group of gamers" is just gaslighting for no reason. I hate the song Smile. Didn't know that makes me racist against black people suddenly.

And don't hit me with the: "If YoU'rE nOt ReAlLy RaCiSt ThEn WhY dO yOu CaRe WhAt SeNa SaId ReGaRdInG iT?" Because there was no reason FOR Sena to say it. She could've said that she was sad that people didn't like Smile as much as she did and to just give it a few listens by itself to give it another shot. I did just that, and I still hate Smile, if more because of the baffling ways they used it in-game, like using it while we're building a fucking bomb for example. She could've said that even if people didn't like the song, they shouldn't be clowning on AKINO by telling her she's a terrible singer or she needs to get replaced and to respect the effort she did put into the song even if didn't tun out as expected. AKINO sounded great when she did Scream, so she definitely isn't a terrible singer. However, Smile didn't really seem to fit AKINO's singing style nor her vocal range, so it made the entire song feel off. Sena could've said anything along those lines...

INSTEAD though, Sena chose to tweet this, word for word-

Smile is straight up Black Gospel music, and the fact that it's getting a lot of hate from "certain sections" of gamers? Probably not a coincidence

Then after she got some push-back, decides to follow it up with this, also word for word-

Weird how so many people are getting defensive in response to this instead of just going "ah, she's not talking about me though".

This is absolutely kicking the hornet's nest and gaslighting players on purpose, and it is asinine to imply ANYONE / EVERYONE who spoke up about it to explain their stance on why they didn't like the song actually just "read what she wrote wrong" and as a result, just "Self-reported" themselves as a bigot.