#BlackOutBTS: Race and Self(ie)-Display in Digital Fandom

Abstract

ABSTRACT:This article takes up K-pop's online fandoms as sites of racial work and resistance in the digital era. Examining the #BlackOutBTS selfie project on Twitter, a project created by and for Black fans of Korean group BTS to combat online racism, I argue these fans intervene meaningfully into anti-Black optic regimes through creative acts of self-display. In turn, their productions frame the selfie as a dynamic, rather than static, digital genre. Its capacity for editing, manipulation, and image play—its merging of photography with performance—makes the selfie an effective site for a minoritarian (re)presentation of the racialized subject.