Most of us may know JoJo Ozougwu as a former NFL linebacker, but now he is a social-media sweetheart with 187K followers on Instagram. We usually see him handing strangers money or gift cards and leaving his viewers misty-eyed.
But then came that video that started like a feel-good moment and ended like the borderline racist conversation at Thanksgiving nobody wanted to have. It went down over the summer during a trip to Target. In a July 26 reel posted to Instagram, JoJo Ozougwu staged a skit in which he was standing at self-checkout with $2.80 worth of candy and fake-swiping a card that “kept declining.”
Next to him, we see a white woman who noticed him struggling. He leaned over and asked, “Excuse me, did your card decline, too?” She didn’t hesitate and just offered to pay. In JoJo Ozougwu’s universe, when kindness comes naturally, he comes in with a reward that could cover a shopping spree. So, he pulled out a $500 Target gift card. That’s when the energy shifted.
“Oh, love, that’s okay,” she said as she declined the gesture, which already surprised many of us watching. But what came next sucked the air out of the video, because, for some reason, she actually told JoJo Ozougwu:
“If you can do anything to promote kindness, and especially to let young Black men know that they can stop killing each other.”
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In the comments, one user wrote, “Yo, I’m on the verge of tears .. then homegirl just ambushed with the black on black crime … I haven’t laughed this hard in mad long.” Another wrote, mourning the lost dopamine hit, “I mean, I agree with her, but like what did it have to do with anything?” Many were quick to clarify that they didn’t think the woman meant direct harm to JoJo Ozougwu. “She’s probably not racist, but idk why we’re pretending like that isn’t hella out of pocket,” one viewer commented.
Why did it turn into a stereotypical PSA about violence and Black men at all? Instead of a tear-jerker, we got secondhand embarrassment. JoJo Ozougwu simply wrapped up the video, though. But we saw racist stereotypes get dropped casually.
Now, coming back to JoJo Ozougwu, the 28-year-old content creator used to once suit up for Arkansas State before trying out with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2022. But his audience hasn’t forgotten the Target video.
