TIKTOK & RACE: An Informative Series

As part of an informative series, we wanted to explore the many areas of racism and inequality within social media platforms today

By Stephanie Suazo

To start off our second blog, we would like to discuss the issues behind race and social media. We can all agree that we use our phones for everything, whether it be posting a funny video or interacting with others. Social media is an instantaneous tool that we use at our disposal. We have such a powerful tool, literally in the palm of our hands. However, social media also has the power to be divisive. In some well-known instances, social platforms have censored and deleted informative information and silenced movements. Hashtags such as #blacklivesmatter #stopasianhate #latino #racism #indigenouspride have all been controversial topics but, they all serve a purpose — to create a conversation. We use these hashtags and posts to our advantage to bring truth to light, to talk about disinformation, and to unpack present day and historical racism and discrimination. As part of an informative series, we wanted to explore the many areas of racism and inequality within social media platforms today.

Millions of people around the world are copiously consuming TikTok and the audience and users are growing every day. We are launching this blog series on TikTok and race because of the impact and knowledge that the platform shares. In the past couple of years, there have been several accounts of censorship by content creators of color. In this series, we wanted to share how TikTok users from all walks of life are engaging with the platform. We wanted to create a series that would shed light and connect us with people of all different backgrounds. We also wanted to discuss how many content creators use TikTok to encourage others to become activists.

Part One: we will talk about the black lives matter movement and how it was suppressed on TikTok.

Part Two: we will discuss the inequality between black content creators and white content creators.

Part Three: we will discuss how the Hispanic/Latino communities are represented on TikTok.

Part Four: we will discuss how Native Americans are raising awareness about their culture on TikTok.

Part Five: we will discuss how many Asian Americans are using TikTok to discuss racism.

Part Six: we will discuss how Pacific Islanders/Native Hawaiians use TikTok to fully express their heritage.

Part Seven: we will discuss why India banned TikTok.

Part Eight: will cover the algorithm and science behind TikTok, analyzing whether it is racist.

Part Nine: we will talk about how indigenous groups are portrayed on TikTok.

Part Ten: we will discuss how young women of different backgrounds are portrayed on TikTok. If you would like to discuss a topic that isn’t mentioned above, please comment below. This blog is meant to be interactive, a discussion is strongly encouraged.