Most of us know Danielle Bregoli as the “Cash Me Outside” girl. When that infamous Dr. Phil clip surfaced onto Facebook, the girl - who was on the show for being rude to her mother - was quickly turned into a meme that went viral. As we all know, memes come and go faster than most trends. The popular ones only last for a few months. I expected the same course of action with the “Cash Me Outside” memes. You can imagine, then, how I and many others were surprised to see that media attention stay on her for six months. Then for a year. It just kept going in different ways. She transcended from meme status to dropping music videos. Despite her clever use of her Internet fame, though, there are two big things that are problematic to it: its origins and her race - and before you brand me as a “social justice warrior” or someone with “white guilt,” I implore you to read the rest of this article.

Let’s start with the most obvious reason that Bregoli’s consistent media attention is problematic: the way in which she rose to fame in the first place. I’ll admit that I don’t closely follow every move that Danielle makes in her life, but we cannot deny that she capitalized off of being disrespectful to her mother. Now, if someone rises to fame off of being rude, I have no issue with that as long as they publicly apologize for they used to be and show clear signs of change or attempts to control their bad behavior. Danielle is not doing this. She is still twerking, swearing, and proudly strutting her way to the top. While of course twerking, swearing, and proudly strutting are not necessarily inherently bad things themselves, they are bad for her because they are all a part of that same “badass,” disrespectful persona. She uses those things to tell anyone who’s watching that she doesn’t care and doesn’t have respect to give to anyone. When impressionable minds see the content that she puts out, they don’t see a truly strong female role model; they see an affirmation that being bratty and rude pays off.

The second - and probably most controversial - reason that Bregoli’s fame is problematic is undoubtedly her race. I’m not saying that her race should prevent her from being famous, but stop and really think about this: imagine how you feel about Danielle as she is. Maybe you find her outspoken. Maybe you find her a “lone wolf” who is just one white girl who happens to act conventionally “trashy” and she doesn’t define all white girls.

Now imagine that Bregoli isn’t white. Imagine she’s black. You probably changed the way you thought about her, didn’t you? Maybe you hesitated to use the word “outspoken” and replaced it with “ghetto” or assigned her the label of “angry black woman.” Instead of considering her an outlier of a particular race’s behavior, you aligned her with other black people, as if her actions are typical of that race. If Bregoli were actually black, she would still go viral as an “angry black woman,” and then quickly fizzle out with the other memes that only last ten seconds. She would be given the negative attention, and in the worst case scenario, have her entire life ruined because of one instance that went viral, with no chance of redemption. But because she is white, she got a record deal and has been famous for over a year. She has fans who think she is breaking the mold of expectations for white women. For many people, her bad behavior is seen as a good thing, and instead of being shoved aside as just another disrespectful teenager, she became famous. Just think about that for a minute and then see if you have the nerve to come back and still assert that her fame is not problematic.

Needless to say, Bregoli doesn’t have my support until she publicly acknowledges that her behavior is not okay and finds other ways to keep herself relevant. She shouldn’t have yours, either. Someone who capitalizes off of conventionally “trashy” behavior doesn’t deserve as much fame as she has.