Digital Blackface and Spectacularizing Blackness with Dr. Francesca Sobande

Black History Year

Today's Historic Story: Ray Charles vs. Elvis

Every time we hop on Twitter, Instagram, or any other social platform, we’re running into brands who use insidious tactics to get into our pockets. From "Black" CGI influencers to brands that align themselves as Black allies when they just want Black dollars, it's all digital anti-Blackness and it's causing more harm than we may know. Leading today's conversation is Dr. Francesca Sobande. She's a Senior Lecturer in Digital Media Studies at the School of Journalism, Media and Culture at Cardiff University. She’s a researcher and writer who’s authored several books and published work about “woke-washing,” digital (re) presentations of Black people, and how brands mis-use, exploit, and commercialize such notions like Black social justice activism.

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The Black History Year production team includes: Tareq Alani, Brooke Brown, Shiavon Chapman, Abeni Jones, Briona Lamback, Zain Murdock, Tasha Taylor, and Leslie Taylor-Grover. Producing the podcast we have Marcelle Hutchins and Cydney Smith, who also edits the show. Our audio engineer is Joanna Samuel. Black History Year’s executive producer is Julian Walker.

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