The Exaggerated Swagger of a Black Teen

About

"The Exaggerated Swagger of a Black Teen" is a memorable quote uttered by GameSpot video game reviewer Jordan Ramée in his review of Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales. In the review, while discussing the role of the character Miles Morales' Black and Puerto Rican heritage, Ramée, who is Black, says the character animations have the "exaggerated swagger of a Black teen." The line became the source of minor controversy, with some accusing Ramée of racism, with some removing the phrase from the context of the review for remix videos and image macros that troll the reviewer and GameSpot.

Origin

On November 6th, 2020, GameSpot published the video review for Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales. In the video, reviewer Jordan Ramée says:

His friends serve as two sides of a coin, playing the roles of angels and devils in the debates that will define Miles. Genki, for example, knows that Miles is Spider-man and understands what Miles wants to get out of the role but can't really empathize with Miles' Black or Puerto Rican heritage. Other friends and allies, however, more closely relate to Miles' cultural identities and struggles but don't understand the extent of his secret identity. Miles regularly talks to key members of the supporting cast throughout the first half of the campaign. You get to see him coming to an understanding of what kind of hero wants to be through these conversations. It's awesome. So when he dons his traditional black and red suit and emerges as a brand new Spider-man for the first time, one similar to but altogether different from the Peter Park Spider-man, you can understand how he's grown to this point. You got to live through that internal turmoil with him. The child of a Black father and Puerto Rican mother, Miles is a wonderful mixture of cultures and languages. The way he leaps off of rooftops and flips backwards to face the camera before falling into a head first dive is just full of the exaggerated swagger of a Black teen.

Within two weeks, the video received more than 245,000 views, 26,000 downvotes and 5,200 upvotes (shown below). The phrase is said at 2:58 mark.

Spread

That day, on November 6th, 2020, Twitter user @RenRenHa tweeted the video and the caption "Yoooo wtf GameSpot??" The tweet received more than 1.1 million views, 31,000 likes, 8,200 retweets and 1,200 comments in less than two weeks (shown below).

GameSpot editor Alessandro Fillari refuted the implication that the review was racist. He tweeted,^[1] "Hi, GameSpot editor here. If you actually bothered to read and listen to Jordan's review, who is Black, the majority of it examined Miles' experience of being a Black character in NYC. This shameful tweet of yours just reeks of you assuming he was white and speaking out of turn." The tweet received more than 3,500 likes and 560 retweets in less than two weeks (shown below).

Despite the defense, the phrase became a popular source of mockery for people online. On November 9th, 2020, for example, Instagram user @atlglocky posted video from the clip from the review with the caption "what the hell is these game reviewers on?" The post received more than 42,000 likes in less than one week (shown below).

Days later, on November 11th, TikToker @.darealgoat shared a video featuring a Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue to rhyme with the phrase. The post received more than 1 million views, 258,000 reactions and 1,700 comments in less than two weeks (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References