ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how Black girls use TikTok despite the ways it can replicate racial violence. How do Black girls resist narratives of exploitation and create a space of joy and self-care? This chapter investigates the ways that Black joy is present in Black girls’ TikToks and how they use TikTok to express that joy. Drawing from bell hooks’ “Homeplace (a site of resistance)” and Audre Lorde’s A Burst of Light, this chapter examines the role social media plays in how Black girls construct a safe place to express themselves freely. Combining these theoretical frameworks with interviews of Black girls and close readings of Ma’Khia Bryant’s TikTok videos, this chapter demonstrates how Black girls’ TikToks become spaces of resistance.
