Digital Blackface and GIF Culture
Understanding online (mis)representation is essential to grasping the digital world students navigate daily. This post critiques Lauren Michelle Jackson's Teen Vogue article, "We Need to Talk About Digital Blackface in Reaction to GIFs" (2017), and its educational implications.
Understanding Digital Blackface
According to CNN's analysis of Digital Blackface, the term refers to a practice where white people borrow or "co-opt" digital representations of Black people and culture. This includes Black personas, slang or expressions that are intended to generate a comedic response in the viewer or display emotions ( Blake, 2023).
While I was aware of the term Digital Blackface, I hadn't considered how the digital GIF plays into Blackface discrimination. Scholar Sianne Ngai discusses how our culture sees Black people as a "walking hyperbole" ( Jackson, 2017). This is found in the overrepresentation of Black people in everyone's GIF repertoire and how this emphasizes stereotypes of black expression ( Jackson, 2017). These caricatured portrayals—often seen as comedic or trendy—reinforce racial stereotypes.
Jackson (2017), describes Digital Blackface as the various types of "minstrel performance that becomes available in cyberspace" and that these "minstrel performances" reflect the 19th-century theater when performers would "blacken themselves up with costume and behaviors to function as black caricatures" ( Jackson, 2017). After reading Jackson's article, I began to realize how the GIF, through both form and function, manifests some of the deeper layers of Blackface discrimination and racism, through the perpetuations of stereotypes within digital world. This lack of understanding may be due to my age, my use of the internet, and the fact that I do not create, or consume GIFs as part of my digital practice. Maybe I just hadn't been exposed?! But after some research and a dive into online images, I discovered that I had seen many of these representations before, if not captured in a GIF, then in a meme or video.
GIFS: A Meme in Action
I understand a GIF to be a meme in action; however, it is much more real. Instead of a static image of a meme, the GIF loops itself repeatedly, mockingly repeating its subject's facial expressions, words, and appearance. Reflecting on my social media use, I have noticed how GIFs autoplay in comment threads, exposing viewers—sometimes unwillingly—to repeated imagery. I now understand how this can reinforce prejudice and racism. Jackson ( 2017) argues that Digital Blackface thrives online due to the anonymity the internet provides, allowing creators and consumers to hide behind fake profiles and computer screens. This type of 'hiding' both as online consumers and producers removes ethical accountability and creates an environment where Blackface not only still exists, but is expanding without awareness amongst our young people.
Real World Implications
I am shocked to discover many of my students, even as young as elementary school, use GIFs to communicate with each other; as if a language all to itself; with humor at the basis of its premise, and backbone of poking fun at the physical reactions, expressions, and interactions of other human beings. In my classroom, memes and phrases spread rapidly, often without students understanding their origins. Even though shouting "Lebron" isn't a GIF, it reflects how easily digital culture seeps into real-world behavior, often without critical thought ( Jackson, 2017). While middle schoolers calling out "Lebron" is not a direct GIF, the point is that like trendy reels and memes, GIFs have the potential to spread like wildfire. Adding in the next layer of anonymity to online consuming and sharing, the GIF is a recipe for a dangerous and harmful outcome; one that Jackson (2017), argues targets the Black community through online (mis) representation.
Perpetuating Stereotypes in the Classroom
Jackson's article made an immediate connection to my own teaching experience. Students in our middle-year program hold school district Google Accounts: Google Classroom, Drive, Docs, Slides, you name it. All students can change their profile pictures. Recently, a student had been outed by other students for having a racially inappropriate meme as their profile picture. The account was put on hold, and an investigation into the image went forward. One student's inappropriate profile image prompted a broader review of others' pictures. We found several problematic images, including memes and GIFs highlighted in Jackson's article which reveal the pervasiveness of racial stereotypes in student media use.
Appropriation and Awareness
It became clear through conversations with students, that they didn't understand the severity of using a photograph representative of another's cultural or racial identity as their own, not did they see the implications this has on the Black community. I wondered if this was because they haven't been taught about the injustice of Blackface, or if somehow they felt removed due the online nature of the content. As an educator, this was an alarming discovery.
In SFU's (2015), Guide for Creator's and Designers , "Think Before you Appropriate", the term appropriation is defined as, "taking something that belongs to someone else for one's own use (p.1). Students are familiar with the concept of appropriation in middle school. We explore this topic as we learn through Indigenous education and also in our studies of cultural heritage. Jackson's ( 2017) article, made me reflect on how we as teachers can leverage student's current understandings of cultural appropriation as way to further explore the topic of digital injustice ; and the (mis) representation of Black people through digital images.
Approaching Digital Blackface at School
The idea of providing students with technology tools that perpetuate inequalities in this way feels terrifying. Providing students with access to these digital tools is intended to break down barriers, not create more walls between us. How can we avoid implementing barriers and inequities when using digital tools in the classroom? My first reaction to this problem with the misuse of profile pictures was to suggest that students not be able to change their profile pictures at all. Would it be that bad if students had a colored circle around their name with the letter E, for example as their avatar in Google Classroom?
After lengthy discussions, my colleagues and I agreed that teaching students about racism in digital imagery, rather than restricting profile options, fosters understanding and responsible citizenship. Teaching them the why allows them to be more informed digital citizens, yes, but it also teaches them about historic injustice and how we need to learn from the past. These are heavy things, big discussions, and difficult conversations to have. If we are willing to have these conversations in our classrooms, some learning will transfer to students' online presence at home and beyond. It may help them pause as they notice a GIF (mis) representing the Black community online or refrain from passing on a GIF or interacting with it through likes, comments, and shares.
The argument that these types of GIFs are considered "Digital Blackface" remains an ongoing discussion in the online world. I, however, feel that it is our job as educators to teach students about the history of discrimination against Black people and inform them, as they grow, about Blackface while inviting them to be part of the discourse. Blackface has infiltrated the digital world and should be considered an equal part of the discourse as we move forward with teaching about systemic racism to our students.
References
Communications, M. (2023, January 6). Unlearning
Digital Blackface with Culturally-Responsible GIFing. Mixte Communications.
https://gomixte.com/blog/culturally-responsible-gifing/
Cottingham, A. (2021,
February 17). You’re probably guilty of digital blackface. Yes, you.
INDIE Magazine. https://indie-mag.com/2021/02/digital-blackface/
Jackson, L. M. (2017, August
2). We need to talk about digital blackface in reaction GIFs. Teen Vogue.
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/digital-blackface-reaction-gifs
Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage Project - Think Before You Appropriate. (2015). Simon Fraser University. https://www.carfac.ca/carfacwp2019/wp-content/uploads/Think-Before-You-Appropriate.pdf
Strategies, A. (2021,
September 22). Digital Blackface: What it is, why it’s a problem, and how to
avoid it. ACM Strategies. https://www.acmstrategies.com/post/digital-blackface-what-it-is-why-it-s-problematic-and-how-to-avoid-it
Vox. (2015, September 18). Color
film was built for white people. Here’s what it did to dark skin. [Video].
YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d16LNHIEJzs
