Onision: The Most Ignorant YouTuber
The Ignition
I'm a week late in to the drama; however, since this dude posted an entire series of videos explain his 'knowledge' on black hair and I painfully watched each of them, and decided to write an article on Onision.
Let me just state, everyone has their opinion, and of course, I respect everyone's opinions even if it goes against my beliefs. However, you can't form your opinions on an imaginary base; you CANNOT speak against a practice or a movement that you have never participated in. For example, Onision and the 'natural hair' movement.
When I was thirteen-years old, I used to watch Onision's YouTube channel.
Onision is infamous for his lack-luster humor and his slightly obnoxious towards people of certain subculture groups. Although his comedy extent has been known for weighing down on the dark side of the spectrum, he was one of those YouTubers you can spend your spare time watching on a Thursday afternoon. He had his critics and the drama of his private life, but I never paid attention to them because I did not know what 'tea' was a few years ago.
Well, I stopped watching a channels a few months after eighth grade (my humor matured immensely), and focused on other interesting Youtubers.
Then, this event occured...
WHITE HAIR vs BLACK HAIR (What Girl's Hair Type To Guys Like?)
Technically, I didn't watch this whole video until I came across several reaction videos that were outrageously offended by content Greg spilled out on his opinion on black hair.
Frankly, it was ignorant.
In the video, Onision uses his magical Google engine to complete his research on the most preferable hair texture for woman. I did not approve the fact that he criticized a black woman's afro in the beginning of the video by calling it 'frizzy crap'; her hair is probably more moisturized than his own, which looks like sun dried tea leaves (inspiration of this joke actually comes from a comment from one of the videos of the series). Then, he tries to dim down the noise by insisting that the lady may have a bubbly personality.
However, the next shocking event is when he searches up 'Beautiful woman' and graciously compliments (without criticism) Caucasian women with wavy hair, but as soon as a beautiful woman with darker skin and pin straight hair appears, he says 'her hair falls flat'. He also criticizes another woman with the same hair type (who's white) as if it's mentally hurting him to see 'straight hair', and a wavy haired woman who most likely put her hair in a ponytail.
Then, there's the part that angered majority of his audience, including me; the lady with the braids. As soon as she appears, he calls her hair dirty because 'she probably doesn't spend seven hours a day doing it'. He proceeds to complain rapidly about the simplicity of hairstyles, including the laziness of women who dons dreads/ braids/ afros.
I was triggered. Triggered because I'm wearing curly faux locs, and I haven't washed my hair in a month. I ran my fingers through my growing roots, gathered the scent on my hands, and sniffed it; Mane n Tail's herbal growth shampoo. Then, I sniffed my faux locs, and realized I didn't have the overwhelming stench that Onision complained about in the video.
Many African-American Youtubers were outaged by the results of the commentary; in the comments, people were talking about their experiences with their natural hair and their upfront knowledge on hair care.
Following the backlash from fellow Youtuber's about his video, Onision created another one to support his argument that black people are fully capable of washing their hair daily. He searches up an Amazon hair product for curly hair to reinforce this idea, even though 'wash daily' is the typical set of instructions of every toiletry product. He snoops on Lipstick Alley (a forum for African American gossip) and uses the comment from a user who washes their hair every day to back up his claim. Then, he goes on an article about African American hair myths and concentrates on a particular section that only highlighted partially of the truth.
He also includes his foster brother and his ex girlfriends, who were African American and may have washed their hair everyday. Either way, that doesn't mean that EVERY African American person washes their hair in that matter.
Black Hair is Equal
This wasn't his last video. He attempted to get rid of his racist background by recalling his black foster brother and his ex girlfriends, but insults his viewers by labelling us as morons. Yes, I don't think the claimed threats of physical violence against him was necessary, but I believe every informative argument should not require rudeness. In a debate, you don't intimidate your competitor verbally abusing them, you do so by rattling them with facts, something he lacks of because he doesn't provide accurate evidence.
After 'Black Hair is Equal', he created two more videos, one that contained a list of conditioners with the same 'wash daily' instructions', and the very last one of him being aggresive towards his viewers again with a ton of malign words. Basically, he went on a rampage to overturn the opinions of black people
My Theory
Why is Onision spending his precious time, trying to educate 'morons' about natural hair? Surely, he could've/ should've created an apology post to his viewers on his social media (like any rational person), and moved on with his life. However, he chose the opposite action and attempted to valiadate his words with docile evidence (Are you really listening to a few users on Lipstick Alley? or the description on an Amazon product?)
In my opinion, this series of 'Trying to Educate Black folks on their own hair' is a scheme to gain more money, because yesterday he posted this video;
He's asking you for your money; anyone looking at this article, do not even waste your time on him. I believe his stunt was a scheme he used to collect more money. He knows people will look at his videos, thus giving him more views. Lately, Onision has been receiving less than 100k views on his videos, which opposes his 1.7M followers on YouTube. Onision has been known for his trail of money scams, and creating this range of videos is another way get people to look at him- because his videos are starting to become less interesting to look at.
My message to natural haired women
Do not listen to Onision, a white male with straight hair. He doesn't know the struggles that we, black women, encounter with our hair and our attempts for other people to recognize black beauty. Not everyone has the luxury to wash their hair daily, and wearing braids doesn't make your hair stink. I won't claim my knowledge on straight hair just because I date white people and have a white foster sister.