Season 01, Episode 02: A (new) cult of personality
The BLK IRL Podcast is an audio docuseries that explores the business of “influencing” and the power dynamics at play in the act of cultural exchange. Join host Anuli Akanegbu as she dissects themes related to race in the influencer economy through research-supported commentary and intimate interviews with predominantly Black content creators, scholars, entrepreneurs, activists, marketing experts, and cultural critics.
This is the first full episode of Season 1! In this episode, Anuli talks to culture writer Shamira Ibrahim about how influencing has become the new cult of personality and how the exploitation of Black people and Black creative labor has become central to the inner workings of Internet culture.
FEATURED SPEAKER: SHAMIRA IBRAHIM
Shamira Ibrahim is a Brooklyn-based culture writer by way of Harlem, Canada, and East Africa, who explores identity and cultural production as a critic, reporter, feature/profile writer, and essayist.
Referenced materials
@843KT. Social Post. Twitter, August 7, 2020. https://twitter.com/843KT/status/1291752001857105920.
Brock, André. Distributed Blackness: African American Cybercultures. New York: New York University Press, 2020.
“GloZell Green: YouTube Personality and Comedian.” Million Stories. https://www.millionstories.com/media/glozell-green-youtube-personality-and-comedian?video=13.
Ibrahim, Shamira. “For Women in Hip-Hop, 2020 Has Already Been an Iconic Year.” How Megan Thee Stallion, Flo Milli, and Saweetie Dominated 2020. Teen Vogue, August 18, 2020. https://www.teenvogue.com/story/megan-thee-stallion-flo-milli-saweetie-2020.
Ibrahim, Shamira. How the Internet Became a Playground for Exploiting Black Creators. VICE, February 4, 2019. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/yw8pvx/fornite-suit-dance-moves-black-artists.
Ibrahim, Shamira. The Dark Reality of Being a Brand Influencer. VICE, March 4, 2019. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/zmagdy/trends-in-influencer-marketing-brand-ambassadors.
Morgan, Joan. When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks It Down. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2017.
Nakamura, Lisa. Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet. New York: Routledge, 2002.
Noble, Safiya Umoja. Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. New York: New York University Press, 2018.
Pough, Gwendolyn D. "What It Do, Shorty?: Women, Hip-Hop, and a Feminist Agenda." Black Women, Gender Families 1, no. 2 (2007): 78-99. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/blacwomegendfami.1.2.0078.
Weber, Max, C. Wright Mills, and Hans Gerth. From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology. London: Routledge, 1998.