Likes, Comments, and Colourism: The Construction of the Self and the Promotion, Maintenance, and Reproduction of Anti-Black Colourism on Social Media

Abstract

Colourism— or the preferential treatment of people with lighter skin tones that occurs within and across racial groups— is a pervasive public issue. However, while colourism has become a social issue that is embedded within social institutions and hierarchies, it has gone understudied in academia. Social media platforms such as Instagram provide users with the ability to like, comment, and share content that they deem entertaining and worthy of attention while allowing these same users to carefully construct and manage a depiction of their self. The growing role of social media in everyday interactions and in the creation of identity becomes troubling when considering the presence of colourism on social media platforms. Colourism is a social issue that effectively reproduces cycles of oppression. Its presence and persistence on social media must be addressed and dismantled in order to establish true racial equity both online and off. By applying contemporary sociological theories to recognize the role of social media in the construction of our identities, examining the history of anti-Black colourism, and considering social media platforms as sites for the reproduction of colourism, this project suggests ways to fully deconstruct colourism on social media and work towards the eradication of the intergenerational harm that colourism inflicts upon Black communities.