Is TikTok racist?

Could one of the world’s fastest-growing video platforms be yet another hotbed for racism? Especially when one considers the app’s biggest user demographic, Gen Z, and how they are often perceived to be relatively unscathed by the muck of the world’s racist past?

Not a week goes by without some or other TikTok video making its way to other social media platforms, often shared by users who are either outraged by a video’s overtly racist content or confused by the covert racism in videos like this simple skit below:

Described as “the perfect way to reach heartland Gen-Z’ers” in a recent Forbes interview, TikTok is a social media platform specialising in short-form video content that is highly popular among people aged between 13 and 24 years old.

The topics covered in the videos range from popular, easy topics such as fashion and beauty to current affairs, inspiration, pop culture, inspiration and comedy.

Despite appearing relatively simple in nature, there is actually a lot of thought, planning and production that goes into a lot of the content featured on the platform.

This pushes people to explore new levels of creativity on an almost daily basis. However, it also opens up the app to a myriad of ways that it can be misused (and sometimes, misunderstood).

Earlier this year, TV presenter Lalla Hirayama found herself at the centre of a media storm after she was called out for her racist depiction of coloured women in a TikTok video of her own published back in April.

In the video, she played up racist stereotypes of coloured women in an effort to elicit laughs from her followers – however, the attempt backfired spectacularly.

She posted a screenshot of an apology, typed in the Apple notes app which reads as follows:

“I made a TikTok video on Tuesday which was offensive to some of my fellow South Africans. Also, I published it during a time when we each face new and unfamiliar pressures. Moreover, I was not sensitive to the climate in SA as we prepare to enter the fourth week of isolation together. I will be more aware of our collective context.

“TikTok is a new platform that many of us are learning how to apply ourselves to. It is satirical in nature and my warning to others using the platform is, despite the mechanic relying on you impersonating others, that in the South African context we must always respect the [cultural] nuances of our countrymen.

“My efforts were intended only to be entertaining. To share some uniquely South African ‘thing’ we celebrate as part of what makes us so good at overcoming adversity when the chips are low. I am sorry to know that it angered people.

“I am aware that my understanding of the TikTok post was potentially short-sighted, I will never be able to take that back. It was not meant to offend any race. I will, however, continue to learn as much as I can every day about the rich diversity in South Africa so as to be more emphatic and contribute in a positive way.”

In a more ambiguous case; South African TikTokker Malcom Wentzel drew the ire of a few social media users when a video of he and his helper Thembi Ubisi went viral.

Those who had been following Malcom for a while shared more videos of his interactions with Thembi and many expressed their discomfort at the videos – speculating that Thembi exercised no authority in the making of said videos – insinuating that there was an exploitative element to them.

Across the pond, there have been countless incidents; such as the “how is my form” trend in which non-black teens pretend to be making seemingly innocuous TikTok content before switching theme mid-video to make fun of the fact that African American slaves had to pick cotton for a living.

Other trends include instances of non-black teens mocking African American people who were brutally murdered by police officers.

Often, this content is allowed to exist on the platform for prolonged periods of time before any action is taken by creators once the content is reported.

In some instances, anti-racism content faces a harsher fate than the racist content itself, which has led many to wonder whether or not the app is a free-for-all when it comes to racism and whether or not its moderators are deliberately harsher on black creators and users for speaking out about racism and discrimination in general.

For creators, however, it presents a unique dilemma; how do you continue to exist on, create for and profit from an app that seemingly does not care about the wellbeing of people who look like you?

This is a problem that YouTube content creator and avid TikTok user Buhle Lupindo finds herself struggling with.

Given her chosen profession, Lupindo relies on social media to derive an income from the content she creates and the opportunities that arise as a result of that.

However, the fact that she is a young black South African woman also presents itself with an entirely different set of concerns.

“I navigate it the way I would navigate the world, because unfortunately racism and homophobia is something you deal with in the real world and it will definitely come up in social media spaces. People feel very brave when they are behind their phones and they say the worst things you could ever think of.

“I pick and choose my battles… Sometimes, you just know which battles you’re not going to win and you can see this person is convinced about their opinion. My job is to make sure that my platforms are a safe space for people like me, who have the same opinions as me and for them to have some sort of a say.”

She laments at how unfortunate the expectations are on black creatives to cancel the very platforms they earn a living from when content like the examples illustrated above become ubiquitous.

“It’s hard as a content creator to cancel an entire platform because that social media platform is what pays the rent.”

Lupindo also highlights her disappointment at the fact that creators and social media users of colour have to be activists over and above just being creators and consumers because they are subject to so much racist content. She is of the belief that people of other ethnic backgrounds sometimes have the pleasure of just having to enjoy content without it infringing on their personhood.

While Lupindo doesn’t necessarily share much of her opinion on popular topics, politics and current affairs on her YouTube channel, she is very vocal about it on social media (namely Twitter).

However, in recent months she has been subject to much backlash over the wording of certain tweets or the contents thereof.

“I try to run away from the word ‘role model’ because I am also human and I make mistakes which I have made multiple mistakes. It feels like once you are a role model, you’re not allowed to make mistakes.”

“I am also on that platform as a person who is learning and unlearning.”

Lupindo has been very vocal about her belief that “cancel culture is not a group project”.

The creator explains that she takes exception to the increased calls for more and more people to be involved in the cancellation of a person, place or thing once it makes headlines for the wrong reasons.

“When I say it’s not a group project, I mean it in the sense of ‘if it doesn’t go with your beliefs or how you feel, you can completely cancel that person.’

“I understand cancel culture in the sense of having a lot of people come together to prove a point…” begins Lupindo, before trying to articulate her reservations about the fact that there is little to no uniformity in cancel culture or commitment to calls for certain things to be cancelled.

“Just the idea of coming together and having the same morals of ‘this wasn’t right’ and we need to let this person know that it’s not right…”

To Lupindo, cancel culture doesn’t leave room for people to gain an understanding of why something was not right and why they are being cancelled.

So, is TikTok racist in Lupindo’s opinion?

“TikTok has shown signs of racism in the sense of suppressing black creatives, not allowing them to get the same credit as creators of other races and allowing certain content to stay up but that means it just has elements of racism.

“I don’t think the platform is racist but I think the people behind the platform are racist. They have done things to show that they don’t fully support black people.”

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