Here’s Why Black Influencers Code-Switch Despite Having Success
In an interview about appropriation, TikTok creator Kiera Breaugh told Yahoo: “I want you to really think about how much content we’re all consuming of white women characterizing Black women in whatever imagination they have them to be like.”
The concept of not portraying oneself fully, especially for cultural reasons, is often referred to as code-switching. It can be done for a variety of reasons, including wanting to fit in, to get a particular outcome from an interaction, or as a way to get one’s message across effectively, according to NPR’s “Code Switch,” a podcast and blog about race.
As such, code-switching can be used in a variety of settings, both inside and outside of white-majority spaces — spaces that might include work, school, or social media.
Josh Howard, adjunct professor of social media and digital branding at Louisiana State University, told HuffPost that “code-switching in itself is survival.”
“If you don’t code switch, and you say something that might be a little bit inflected or sharp, it’s going to reinforce stereotypes because we as human beings are always looking for something that is a common factor or something that we can associate with. Unfortunately, there have been more negative connotations to being Black than there have been positive,” Howard said.
Howard added that the concerns Black women face when presenting themselves to others — including their appearance and their hairstyle, as well as their pitch, tone, and inflection when speaking — are different than those of Black men or other marginalized groups.
“Truly, I have to imagine that’s exhausting. Code-switching on its own is exhausting. And then when you have to add in those extra layers of gender and race expectations, it makes you want to stop before you start,” he said.
Still, code-switching is “essential” if “my goal is to make money or get my message across and have it permeate so many different cultures,” Howard said.
