“Soft White Underbelly” Teaches Us the Gateway Drug is Trauma
Whether you believe it exploits people or gives a voice to the voiceless, we can all learn one valuable lesson.
Soft White Underbelly is a rapidly growing YouTube Channel that interviews people who are forgotten by society. The owner, Mark Laita, is a photographer who takes portraits of people and then films an interview. Many of his subjects are sex workers, drug addicts, pimps, and tricks.
The channel has come under controversy for exploiting vulnerable people. Mark frequents Skid Row and offers people money to have their photograph taken and be interviewed. Others see the channel as a platform that gives a voice to the voiceless, and Mark has set up a GoFundMe account to raise money to help some of the people in his videos.
I have mixed feelings about the channel. I am uncomfortable with vulnerable people being exposed on the internet like a modern-day freakshow. I found the video about The Whitaker Family extremely disturbing.
“Soft White Underbelly video and portraits of The Whitakers, an inbred family from Odd, West Virginia. The individuals in this video are brothers and sisters, except for Timmy who is a nephew. The two portraits are from my book Created Equal, which was published by…
