Unapologetically Blackfishing: Being Black without the Consequences of Blackness

ABSTRACT

Kim Kardashian is a White female celebrity influencer who also blackfishes. Blackfishing refers to altering one’s appearance to appear Black, mixed-race, or racially ambiguous to appeal to a broader audience. In our case study, we examined blackfishing through the lens of celebrity and influencer, Kim Kardashian. We argue that blackfishers like Kardashian cosplay what they believe is Black womanhood for profit and fame at the expense of Black women. Using image repair theory and critical technocultural discourse analysis as our methodological approach, we explore how Kardashian uses social media to create and manage her image. Our study extends the concept of image repair theory by connecting the role social media with image repair, specifically through affordances and the “non-apology” apology. Our study shows the limits of image repair theory because there is little sanctioning of micro/celebrities due to their followers.

KEYWORDS:

• Apology
• blackfishing
• cosplay
• critical technocultural discourse analysis
• image repair theory

Acknowledgments

Special thank you to Drs. Nancy Small, Marilyn Snyder, and Stephen Underhill, and Ms. Brittany Brigham and journal special issue co-editors, Drs. Amy N. Heuman & Anjana Mudambi.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Twitter as rebranded as X when Elon Musk took over the platform and changed the corporation’s name at the end of July 2023.

2. Minoritized is a better term to use than minority because it centers experiences with stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination that people who are discriminated against due to disability, gender, genderqueer, race, and trans encounter. People who are minoritized endure mistreatment and face prejudices that are enforced upon them because of situations outside of their control.

3. Saartjie (Sara) Baartman (1789–1815) was a member of the “Gonaquasub group of the Khoikhoi” and born in what is presently referred to as the Eastern Cape in South Africa. “Baartman was one of the first black women known to be subjugated to human sexual trafficking … and she was derisively named the “Hottentot Venus.” Her body a source of fascination for white Europeans, it “would be publicly examined and exposed, [and mocked] inhumanly throughout the duration of her young life.” Baartman’s body became a rhetorical and literal symbol of visual and “sexual fascination with African women bodies by the people of Europe” (Howard, 2018, paras. 1–2).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tracey Owens Patton

Tracey Owens Patton, Professor Department of English, University of Wyoming (Ph.D., University of Utah, 2000). Dr. Patton’s research specialization is critical cultural communication, critical media studies, rhetorical studies, and transnational studies. She is particularly interested in critical theory, cultural studies, womanist theory, and rhetorical theory and the interdependence between race, gender, and power culturally and rhetorically in education, media, memory, myth, and speeches.

Julie Snyder-Yuly

Julie Snyder-Yuly, Assistant Professor Department of Communication Studies, Marshall University (Ph.D. University of Utah, 2017). Dr. Snyder-Yuly’s research engages qualitative and rhetorical methods to explore online communication, specifically the intersection of race, class, and gender in society. She is particularly interested in how historical presentations of race continue to be revived in online media. Additionally, her research focuses on pedagogical practices within higher education contexts.