FEATURE
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS (PRISMA ARCHIVO_ALAMY)
Modern Day Christopher Columbus? J WORDS | STEPHANIE HINDS
osh Butler skyrocketed to popularity when videos of his dancing were shared across multiple Caribbean social media accounts. But recently, those same accounts have named and shamed him, with users flooding the comment sections with jokes and tagging him in memes, sarcastically likening him to Christopher Columbus after he claimed he paved the way for Caribbean dancers to turn wining into a profession. In 2017, Butler was featured in an article in The Voice SLU. The article praised him for being, “Good looking and physically fit,” called him, “The highlight of local fetes” and touted his wit and charm. 18 SN OCT 2020
Butler is quoted as saying that he, “Likes the attention” he has received from being a white winer. In his apology, he suggested that the clip was edited in a way that invited misconstruction of his words. However, many who saw the original video agree that the editing had nothing to do with the received perception; it was the actual sentence that exited his mouth that was problematic. He also claimed that he noticed influencers are not as popular in the Caribbean as they are in the U.S. and the U.K. - categorically untrue - and that he wanted to show both companies and social media users that using real people to promote their brands and products could be a lucrative business
