Looking at TikTok trends such as "People I Thought Were Black When I Was a Kid," this work in progress examines nostalgic racial misrecognition by black content creators through a queer disidentifications model. The cultural logic of being able to designate another as a light skinned black person, and the suspicion or acknowledgement that comes with an idea of membership in a shared identity category precludes a recognition of sameness.
An expansive reading of 'it takes one to know one' is able to mirror the queer experiences of identifying one another in straight spaces. The possibilities opened through cross-racial identification and affective modes of "seeing oneself" through dissimilarity open new avenues for examining meme-scapes in digital cultures.
Dr. Anna Wald is a postdorctoral fellow in the Gender Studies Program.
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This event is free to attend and open to faculty, staff, and students