From #MelaninMansion to #BlackTikTokStrike: Black TikTok, Joy, and the Politics of Refusal

In this article, we critically analyze TikTok videos related to the #MelaninMansion trend and the #BlackTikTokStrike. Videos analyzed were posted during the hashtags’ peak engagement, 2019–2020, and the summer of 2021, respectively. Drawing from Black cyberfeminism and literatures on Black cyberculture, platform politics, visibility, affect, resistance, refusal, and copyright, we identified shared themes and thematic differences between the hashtags. Based on these findings, we argue #MelaninMansion and #BlackTikTokStrike illustrate two significant moments on TikTok for Black creators, and a marked change in their tactical and affective response to on-platform racism, appropriation, and content theft. We contend the messaging and imaginings found in the videos reveal Black TikTok’s negative experiences on-platform and their understanding of potential technological and policy solutions. We especially note the affective change during the strike, where Black TikTok creators turn from humorous utopian imaginings of on-platform equity and celebrations of Blackness and community, to frustrated refusal of on-platform labor and pessimistic reflections on the (im)possibilities for Black content creation. Despite the sharp turn in tactics and expectations, content from both moments reflects a commitment to Black joy and intracommunity support. We argue our findings reveal how the TikTok platform and non-Black TikTok community together create a toxic technoculture rife with the violence of racism, cultural appropriation, and creative theft. Finally, we note the centrality of Black women to these viral moments, how #BlackTikTokStrike especially centered Black women’s labor and creativity, and that despite this, Black women performed an outsized amount of labor during the strike.