Sh*t IU says

The “Shit White Girls Say” video on YouTube has created a trend, with resulting spin-offs such as “Shit College Freshman Say.” IU is not left out, with “Sh*t People at Hillel Say” and “Sh*t White Girls Say to Muslims” as recent additions to the site.

Both videos were uploaded within the past two weeks. The IU Helene G. Simon Hillel Center video has more than 1,500 views, and the latter has more than 10,000.

Kiara Abdullah is the star of the “Sh*t White Girls Say to Muslims” video. When Abdullah originally made the video, she did it mainly for family and friends, she said, but she wanted it to be something other people could access, as well.

“I did really want it to be a teaching tool,” Abdullah said.

Abdullah made the majority of the video herself, using a few friends for help.

On YouTube, the video only has six dislikes.

“I think that’s really successful if only six or seven people didn’t like it,” Abdullah said.

She said if non-Muslims learn that how they phrase questions could be misinterpreted, that’s all she can hope for. If people have questions that appear in the video, they should consider thinking of new ways to phrase them, she said.

“It’s a good way to start the conversation,” Abdullah said. “It’s not so much what you say. It’s how you say it.”

Abdullah gives examples in the video of statements she hears a lot. In one part of the video, she imitates a “white girl” holding a scarf over her face and says “twinsies.”

“You wouldn’t imagine how many people put a scarf on their head and say, ‘We look alike,’” Abdullah said.

She said that when it rains, people sometimes tell her she’s lucky she has a “scarf.”
“I still need an umbrella and jacket,” Abdullah said. “It’s just a piece of fabric.”

Lance DaSilva, Ross Bennett and Daniel Weber, all Hillel employees, were the driving force behind the Hillel video.

“I think a lot of what we say would sound like mumbo-jumbo to a non-Jew,” Bennett said. “It’s almost like Hillel inside jokes.”

Weber said he hoped to upgrade the way social media was used at Hillel. The video was filmed around various parts of the Hillel building. The target audience was students who have experienced Hillel in some way.

“We wanted it to be relatable and funny to students at IU,” DaSilva said. “We had a lot of fun making it. All the food you see me eating in the video, I think I ate that times four.”

They were able to write the script in less than a day because many of the things said in the video are things said around Hillel all of the time, but they didn’t always stick to it.

“It never hurts to stray away from the script,” Weber said. “It keeps things real.”

Sophomore Ben Tamir Rothenberg  filmed and edited the video footage. Weber said they saw people share the video on Twitter and Facebook, and that waswhat they wanted.

“It got people who have never been before were intrigued,” Weber said.

He said someone even called to ask about the Friday Shabbat services and dinners, one of Hillel’s biggest events, because the person had no idea Hillel offered it.

“That was probably one of the coolest things,” Weber said. “It was quick, painless and an overall good time.”

The goal of Hillel is to be the Jewish “home away from home” for the 4,000 Jewish students at IU, Bennett said.   
 
“We wanted to come up with different opportunities for students to get information about Hillel,” Bennett said.

The video was sent out with Hillel’s weekly email.

“We got a lot of positive feedback,” DaSilva said. “Even recent alumni thought it was funny.”

Their goal was to reach people they don’t normally, Weber said.

“We want to show we’re really easygoing people and we like to have fun at Hillel,” Weber said.