Mizzy —Anarchy In The UK.
Tiktok prankster Mizzy (Bacari-Bronze O’Garro) came to my attention last month in the way I suspect most of us came to know him. ‘Who was this arrogant little upstart terrorising the public for tiktok clout’?- Was the general consensus. I didn’t know what to make of it at first to be honest. Was it all set up, was it for real? It was definitely on the border of illegality; some of his stunts were in pretty poor taste. There was something more about it, though. This wasn't the usual tiktok pranking. It had an artistic dimension that I recognised as a brand of anarchic situationism.
I watched the twitter feed blow up and quickly it became clear to me that, even if he intended to or not, he was exposing the endemic racism in the British psyche. Not just racism but a fear of anything anarchic and untamed. The twitter comments were extreme and the pile on was brutal. Whatever you think of Mizzy’s actions you could see the reaction was overtaking the story. Sadly, it did not come as a surprise to me.
Twitter pile-ons were something I had become affected by myself over the last 6 months because l have been writing about transgender issues and doing some media work. Twitter is toxic, some people just want to bully you off the platform and destroy even the tiniest bit of autonomous free speech you have. It’s not enough for them to disagree with your position. If they choose to, some very weighty accounts can send a pack of attack dogs to abuse you for days. I was worried about how Mizzy would navigate it.
I saw Mizzy’s story getting picked up by Piers Morgan. I was worried about how this was going to play out, so I reached out to him. I didn’t expect him to listen to me or take on board anything l had to say, who the hell am I to him? but I know how these things work and I had been willing to play that game to challenge the current negativity which affects me directly. Often the set up is exploitative and requires you to defend an untenable position in front of people with real media power, people from think-tank agencies and opinion-for-hire media trained talking heads from darkly funded lobby groups.
For me this was a story about a star of social media meeting traditional media head on and the fall out of this is fascinating to watch. Mizzy is playing both the part of a clown and an anarchist. He is the Joker, he is the upsetter and mirror held up to white British privilege. He is right to take every opportunity he gets to propel himself out of hell and into the lights of the media. The worry is, is it sustainable? Will they put him through the rinse and diminish his spirit?
Things came to a serious peak on Talk TV on Andre Walker’s Saturday evening show. I’ve known Andre for a while on Twitter. I could never work out if he was a comedian or a journalist because he jumped around seamlessly between both positions. I had some ding-dongs on his posts and he got to know me a bit. He actually said he had a “lot of respect for me” at one point. This didn’t seem to stop him going in for all the usual culture war talking points which became dangerous to trans people. In lots of ways Andre and Mizzy are the same kind of performer.
There is one huge difference with Walker. He has the power in the studio that Mizzy does not. His other guests are there, not by virtue of their talents, analysis of culture or abilities in oratory. They are there because the media machine prefers their voices and is willing to validate the prejudice of viewers, rather than educate them. Mizzy wasn’t there to play nice and what happened next tells us something very important about the culture of public exploiting, tabloid style TVv has fostered over the last few years.
I tweeted this video as I recorded it live, I just knew something was bubbling up there. I didn’t do it as a ‘gotcha’, nor did l do it for clout, but my video started to get traction because it was unedited and just as it was on air. The reaction to the original tweet is wild. The quote tweets gave me hope.
As soon as this went off air l reached out to Mizzy again. I don't know what l hoped to achieve, but I wanted to tell him about my experience in similar situations. I was surprised when he replied but he did and he agreed to let me ask him some questions about his intentions, what he was hoping to achieve and how he felt it was going. We had a bit of chat and I was surprised how open he was to understanding my trans experience. He’s young (18) , has some problematic views but one thing he isn't is a monster, a hater or the pariah which the media want him to be.
I dont care what you think of his criminality. This kid is bright and fully aware of his intentions. We used to call it ‘woke’, but we see that now weaponised. To me it still means something, in a way the BBC, Talktv or the Daily Mail cannot take away from him by making ‘woke’ a pejorative.
This was part of a chat we had -(verbatim)
When did you feel like this all blew up and people started to misrepresent you?
I thought I was pissed until people reached out to me, notably the Tates and helped me be more self aware, give me insight on life and actually contribute to society to do what I need to do to spread my message.
Do you regret any of the actions which led you to becoming known in the media?
Yes and no, like I said in my script I had to do the things I had to do to get where I am right now to spread my message, and as a young black male suppressed by the system it’s harder to do that in a good way. I have remorse for those people and that is expelled to them In my real life not on social media, essentially meaning I take accountability for my actions regardless of what the internet says. I’m just repeating a pattern of fame that has been done for years and then calling everyone out on it so the youth can change.
Mizzy is a online personality similar to anyone who’s made a video on social media with any type of username and mizzy is desperate for clout, there are so many ‘pranksters’ that aren’t even doing pranks but literal crimes that are worse than me and I’m just proving that the internet is so easily manipulated and someone that knows what’s happening can literally come on board and spread a message, which is what I’m doing now.
Do you consider yourself an artist?
I consider myself a genius.
Which people in the media/culture do you most respect and why?
I have respect for anyone in social media who has built a stable career with no bad intentions and have provided for their family. They essentially have completed the game or the cycle and just need to keep going and helping.
If you could have billboards made with a message on what would it be?
If you put your mind to something, you can achieve greatness, who says someone is better than anyone just because of money or your social status.
Social media is a facade
.
Do you have a support network?
Yes I have a small group of friends who have been with me from the start, but all my plans and intentions have been my own, I control my own narrative.
What are your plans for the future?
Talk is cheap, just know I’m going to be the biggest thing on the internet, I want to help the youth and spread my message to people in whatever way they choose to listen to it.
The movement is real.
