The celebrity whitewashing of Black Lives Matter and social injustices

ABSTRACT

This work examines aspects of the relationship between whiteness, celebrity culture, and contemporary media content and conversations concerning Black Lives Matter (BLM). Focusing on two key examples, it explores how the perspectives of white celebrities receive visibility, praise, and critique amid mediated discourse on BLM and social injustices. This piece considers the ‘novelty’ of white celebrities alluding to and articulating their whiteness. In addition to this, it reflects on the notion of celebrities showing solidarity, speaking for the so-called ‘voiceless’, and (de)centring whiteness. The work includes discussion of dancer and comedian Casey Frey’s ‘I Take Responsibility’ spoof video, as well as the 2020 Oscars speech of actor Joaquin Phoenix. Such writing draws on prior work on racism, the internet, and the power dynamics implicated in celebrity culture. Specifically, this commentary is shaped by studies of stardom, the politics of digital culture and communication, and the way that whiteness operates and is observed in celebrity culture. Thus, this work urges the field of celebrity studies to continue to consider how white celebrities’ efforts to call out and critique whiteness and social injustices can in fact have the effect of reinscribing the dominant and marketable status of whiteness.

KEYWORDS:

• Activism
• Black Lives Matter
• Screen actors
• Stars
• Whiteness

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Francesca Sobande

Francesca Sobande is a lecturer in Digital Media Studies and Course Director of the BA Media, Journalism and Culture programme at Cardiff University. She is the author of The Digital Lives of Black Women in Britain (2020, Palgrave Macmillan) and co-editor with Professor Akwugo Emejulu of To Exist is to Resist: Black Feminism in Europe (2019, Pluto Press). Francesca is also co-author with layla-roxanne hill of Black Oot Here: Black Lives in Scotland (forthcoming 2022, Zed/Bloomsbury) and is the author of a forthcoming book on the relationship between digital culture, social justice, and marketing/branding practices (under contract with University of California Press).