Digital Blackface Memes
Racist Cultural Appropriation in the Twenty-First Century
Digital Blackface Memes
Racist Cultural Appropriation in the Twenty-First Century
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Description
Assuming Black identities online, a growing number of non-Black individuals have embraced memes, AI imagery, and social media to spread racial stereotyping and cultural appropriation.
Mia Moody investigates the persistence and evolution of digital blackface and the commodification of Black identity in online spaces, offering insights through Critical Technocultural Discourse Analysis (CTDA), intersectionality, and framing theory.
Drawing on historical contexts steeped in the tradition of Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, and Stuart Hall, Moody examines the evolution of blackface representations from minstrel shows and children's media to TikTok trends, AI-generated personas, and political memes. The book reveals how race, gender, class, and sexuality intersect in the performance and perception of Blackness in the digital age.
Table of Contents
Preface: From Minstrelsy to Memes, the Evolution of Blackface in Digital Culture
Part I. Race, Representation, and Algorithmic Bias: A Theoretical Framework
1. From Minstrelsy to Memes: Sociopolitical Climate and the Persistence of Racial Stereotypes
2. Critical Players in the Analysis of Digital Blackface and Cultural Appropriation
3. Framing Blackness on TikTok: Memes, Stereotypes, and Digital Appropriation
Part II. Performing Race in Digital Spaces: Historical Legacies and Contemporary Manifestations
4. Historical Foundations of Blackface and Modern Ideations
5. AAVE Blackface and Its Transfer from Minstrel Shows to Digital Spaces
6. Fantasy Theme Analysis of Blackface and Digital Blackface
Part III. Performing Race in Digital Spaces: Children's Media and Identity Tourism
7. Innocence and Imagery: Blackface Tropes in Children's Media
8. Identity Performance and Digital Blackfishing in Influencer Culture
9. Performing Blackness: Identity Tourism, Blackface, and Cultural Appropriation
Part IV. Cultural Capital, Image Repair, and Cancel Culture
10. Black Twitter, Identity and Meme Culture
11. Cultural Capital in Costumes and the Racial Politics of Halloween
12. Cancel Culture, and the Revival of Blackface Controversies in Celebrity Culture
13. Image Repair, Runway Racism: Blackface in Fashion and Commercial Aesthetics Analyzes
14. Political Landscape, Blackface, Image Repair, and Apologia
Part V. Intersecting Identities: Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Digital Appropriation
15. Emojis and Digital Blackface: Floating Signifiers in Online Culture
16. Race, Gender, and Stereotyping Digital Content
17. Respectability Politics, Performativity, and Femme Identity
Part VI. Digital Minstrelsy: Memes, Media, and the Performance of Blackness
18. Algorithmic Appropriation: AI Personas, and the Performance of Identities
19. The Dolezal Effect: Identity Fraud and the Boundaries of Racial Performance
20. Appropriation and Resistance-Defining Cultural Borrowing in a Global Context
21. Starter Pack Memes as Cultural Mirrors and Risk of Digital Blackface
Part VII. Conclusions, Solutions, Limitations, and Future Directions
22. Digital Blackface, Critical Race Digital Literacy (CRDL), AI, and Other Implications
Appendix: Teaching Exercises and Discussion
Index
About the Author
Product details
| Published | 10 Dec 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Hardback |
| Edition | 1st |
| Pages | 288 |
| ISBN | 9798765153734 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Dimensions | 229 x 152 mm |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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