A Technical Hair Piece: Metis, Social Justice and Technical Communication in Black Hair Care on YouTube

ABSTRACT

This article argues that through embodied presentations and the multimodal, international and intercultural affordances of YouTube, the rhetoric of Black hair care YouTubers is tactical TPC toward social justices. We note the interactive comments section as a place for technical communicators to identify and redress issues in normative instructional discourse. This scholarship extends TPC beyond “how to do it” and “how I do it” toward “how we must view it in order to do it.’

KEYWORDS:

• Metis
• tactical technical communication
• Black hair care
• international/intercultural
• decoloniality
• social justice

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Modupe Yusuf

Modupe Yusuf is a PhD candidate in the Rhetoric, Theory and Culture program at Michigan Technological University.

Veena Namboodri Schioppa

Veena Namboodri Schioppa is a PhD candidate in the Rhetoric, Theory and Culture program at Michigan Technological University.