AI, INFLUENCERS & Digital BLACKFACE
The Life Changing Tool
Generative AI is a powerful tool. It helps solve problems in seconds, generates code and visuals, and sparks creativity with a single prompt. It reshapes how we imagine what is possible and how quickly we can get there.
Creators lean into AI not just for innovation, but for access. For visibility. For a version of belonging in a world that still decides who gets to be seen, heard, and valued. Many Black creators are harnessing AI not just for innovation, but using it to streamline their work, amplify their stories, and carve out space in industries that have long excluded them.
On the other hand, AI has a darker side. For many Black communities, especially in the South, it’s a disruptive force, threatening environmental safety as unchecked tech expansion fuels pollution and displaces vulnerable neighborhoods.
For non-Black creators, AI becomes a mask, a loophole, a backdoor into cultural spaces they’d otherwise be denied. By digitally mimicking Blackness, they gain clout and profit.
The Rise of AI-Generated Black Influencers
We are now witnessing a rise in AI-generated influencers. These are avatars that look like us, sound like us, but are not quiet like us.
Recently, a video went viral of an AI persona eating a chicken wing whole.
Source: @jazmmmmmmmm (TikTok)
Made to be relatable, but honestly? Deeply unsettling. Because beneath the imagery lay bigger questions:
Who’s behind the page? Whose face was used to build this digital persona? Who’s profiting from this performance of a “Black woman”? And let’s be real—why a chicken mukbang? Made to be relatable, but honestly? Deeply unsettling. Because beneath the imagery lay bigger questions:
Who’s behind the page? Whose face was used to build this digital persona? Who’s profiting from this performance of a “Black woman”? And let’s be real—why a chicken mukbang?
When Popeyes jumped into the TikTok comment section to declare "chat, this is real," they exemplified everything wrong with corporate AI responses today.
Historically, Blackness has been commodified, copied, and capitalized on through the exploitation of Black people.
From minstrel shows where white performers painted their faces Black to mock and degrade Black life, to modern-day marketing that borrows Black music, language, and style to sell products, this erasure has always existed. Now, AI is simply giving it new digital tools.
We’re witnessing avatars and content bots that embody “Blackness,” while concealing who is behind the screen. While some of these pages openly note they are curated by Black creators, there is growing concern about the rise of non-Black individuals using AI to mimic Black identities for reach, relevance, and revenue.
The tech might be new. The pattern of erasure is not.
The real impact of Generative AI and Environmental Racism
Regardless of how you feel about AI, it’s having direct consequences on Black life. In Memphis, a city with a long legacy of Black resistance and cultural brilliance, a billionaire-backed data center is operating without environmental permits or pollution controls. A center burning enough methane to power a small city, polluting the air, soil, and water in predominantly Black neighborhoods.
These communities are not reaping the rewards of this so-called innovation. They’re living with the consequences—rising health challenges, crumbling infrastructure, and environmental neglect.
It’s the same system, just upgraded with tech and dressed in AI. Let’s be clear:
Blackness should never be a mask for engagement.
Innovation should not come at the cost of Black lives.
Progress without justice is not progress at all.
As the tech world races ahead, who’s being trampled in the process?
Why The Consumption?
Because people crave Black culture but rarely protect Black people.
Because the algorithm rewards what it can commodify.
Because AI lets non-Black people perform Blackface without ever living the reality of it.
Because some see this as a shortcut to the bag, and right now, AI is a profitable venture.
It’s about power. Proximity. Profit.
As we engage with content online, we should always ask ourselves:
— Who is behind these AI-generated pages?
— What policies should exist to protect real people from digital exploitation?
— What do we lose when representation is reduced to replication without accountability?
Let’s talk about AI, digital Blackface, and the price of representation in a world run by algorithms.
SOURCES:
jazmmmmmmmm -TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jazmmmmmmmm/video/7516786580174982414
We Went to the Town Elon Musk Is Poisoning https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VJT2JeDCyw&t=751s
This essay was written by Charlisa Goodlet, a passionate creative dedicated to dismantling the status quo and promoting equity for Black individuals. Her work focuses on improving community lives, advocating for reparations, and developing impactful anti-poverty initiatives. By day, she's a policy enthusiast researching and analyzing policies; by night, she cultivates conversations on BROKE BLACK BOUGIE (BBB) a space dedicated to Black women existing in a world that doesn’t make room for us, yet, we still find ways to reclaim our space. She is the founder of BBB.
