BLACK GIRL TRIES KOREAN MAKEUP: RACE, GENDER, AND TRANSNATIONAL PLATFORM

This study aims to theorize how YouTube fundamentally capitalizes theracial and gender identity of women of color and local culture in a way it facilitatesinter-racial and inter-cultural conflicts. I specifically focus on so-called K-beauty(Korean beauty), a catchy trend on YouTube which encompasses aesthetics, cosmetic products,and beauty ideals from South Korea, characterized by pursuing glowing, dewy, and light skintone featuring a variety of skincare products. K-beauty is now being adopted by non-Koreansin North America including Black women influencers on the borderless platform of YouTube,who created the Black Girl Tries Korean Makeup video series. By using a CriticalTechnocultural Discourse Analysis approach, I examined YouTube videos, comments, as well asthe module titled “Building a Global Channel” to analyze not only the contents anddiscourses around that but also the platform that might have shaped this intercultural flowon YouTube. Black women YouTubers actively critiqued the light skin preference, as well asanti-Blackness reflected in K-beauty brands through the Black Girls, Tries Korean Makeupvideo series. Korean viewers, on the other hand, strongly rejected these accusations of theanti-Black aspect of K-beauty, explaining distinctive Korean racial dynamic as a one-ethniccountry where the light skin preference is not translated to the anti-Blackness. I arguethat this inter-cultural and inter-racial conflict arguably has been shaped by YouTube’sdigital infrastructure that prioritizes short, trendy, how-to-style videos, that do notrequire a lengthy contextualization of each culture’s beauty practices, and history ofoppressions.