African Australians reshaping and reaffirming their identity in the Australian Diaspora Online

Individuals of African descent living in Australia have been subject to an identity that is stigmatised, politicised and othered within the Australian Diaspora. This has been exacerbated by overreporting and misrepresentation of sensationalist media and political agents who benefit – monetarily, for power and status – from the resulting negative impacts and hyper fixation. In recent years societal movements such as Black Lives Matter (BLM) have seen this discourse become mainstream within the wider Australian populace. Other subcultural shifts have been observed with the mainstream success and integration of content created by Black artists within mainstream Australian media and pop culture. Spaces designated for African-Australian community building and identity creation on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook are now in the process of reshaping and reclaiming how the African-Australian community views itself and how they want to be perceived by the wider society. However, the shadow left by historic racial stigmatization, misrepresentation and moral panic persists at systematic and societal levels for those of darker complexion who are left to navigate their identity within an environment with a naturalised hostility and misinformed understanding towards them.

This topic consistent with the Online Diaspora and Social media stream of this conference. The actions of African youth using social media as a point of connection and representation with various dimensions of their intimate circles and public sphere demonstrates their navigation of identity within the context of the Australian online diaspora. However, as their identity functions within the physical and digital bounds of a Western Society with a colonial past, their identity is politicised due to ongoing tensions (Moran & Robards (2020) surrounding refugees regardless of the validity of this association (Wahlquist, 2018 & Phillips, 2011). This tension is a result of the risk aversion towards migration (Gaffry, 2019) caused by moral panic rhetoric propagated by politicians to support their campaigns as well as media propaganda (MacDonald, 2017). There is an observable focus in the discourse during these moments of political change and campaigning. Examples include A Current Affairs ‘African Gang’ violence reporting, the Turnbull and Dutton interviews and calls of action to protect ‘Australian Values’ from Blackness and other non-white individuals who they claim cause police and policy failure dismissing the positive and non-stereotypical aspects of the community individual or otherwise (Gaffry, 2019, Wahlquist, 2018 & Budarick & Han, 2013). Their environment has already created perceptions ofAfrican-Australians. Their identity, therefore, carries elements of public discourse, criticism, activism and social change regardless of their own willingness to participate. Additionally, because of online influences from other Western diasporas (UK and US) and their respective communities of origin their identity functions within the Online Diaspora as they share experiential and identity similarities with these communities (Gebrekidan, 2018).

Before I continue, I would like to clarify the reasoning behind my use of the term African-Australian and which of Gebrekidan’s (2018) definitions shape my own understanding and relationship with the term. For those that are not aware the term can/has been used to make others less Australian and can function as an “archaic equation of ‘Africanness’ with ‘blackness’” to form a racialized identity term that is code for the less preferred ‘Black’ because communities have shown distaste to this term due to racist undertones (Gebrekidan, 2018). Additionally, the hyphenation indicates a ‘divided loyalty’ (Gebrekidan,2018 & MacDonald, 2017).), a duplicate cohesive identity may become difficult/impossible to retain as it opens individuals to the dangers associated with the status of an “eternal immigrant” and “over stayers” (Gebrekidan 2018 & Smith, 1992) in the eyes of the white populace who oppose their cultural duality.  What I have observed online is that the term is used to “accept Australian values” while “[keeping] our culture and these two together form that African-Australian identity” (Gebrekidan, 2018 &MacDonald, 2017). The term helps those who cannot directly connect with those of their own origin due to language barriers and community tensions (MacDonald, 2017) “[foster] a spirit of commonality among African migrants in Australia” as they share “macroscopic ideological constructs” (Gebrekidan, 2018). This feeds into the term being used in a flexible manner between various “social and cultural worlds of ‘African’ and ‘Australian’” (Gebrekidan, 2018).. I agree that it does create a prioritisation of the African identity first, over the ‘Australian’ as there is an understanding that “Everybody should have something before Australia besides Aboriginals” (Gebrekidan, 2018).. This notion however puts into question if there will ever be a true point where one becomes Australian first. How many generations will this take? Will it ever occur in the absence of Indigenous Australian recognition and approval? These are the challenges faced by African-Australian youth wishing to culturally assimilate and construct their own identity into a narrative that is yet to resolve the impacts of colonial genocide and displacement.

Proximity to Australian whiteness is the distinguishing factor that separates who is associated with negative discourse, othered and excluded and those who are seamlessly integrated (MacDonald, 2017 & Gebrekidan, 2018), “Because this country makes you feel that if you are not white, [blonde-haired and blue-eyed], you are not Australian. So papers mean nothing.” (Gebrekidan, 2018). This distinction can be seen in the mainstream reporting of African communities that often insinuates a black and homogenous ‘Africa’ (Gebrekidan, 2018), as seen in the A Current Affairs reporting and discussions about migration and ‘African Gangs’(Gaffey, 2019) and a distinction between the political attitudes towards white South Africans and Black South Africans (Gaffry, 2019 & O’Sullivan, 2018) . This creates “a them-and-us situation” (The Standard, 2018). As Phillips points out the “fiction of a universal ‘[Africa]’” is a colonial practice used as justification for silencing and marginalisation based upon “race and simplistic stereotypes” by nationalist movements. Gebrekidan‘s research found that “‘Australianness’ had a predominant core of ‘whiteness’, notably associated with Anglo-Saxons or Europeans.” As such who becomes an assimilated ‘Australian’ is “complicated by dominant perspectives of allegiance to British heritage”, a commonality of both White Australians and South Africans (excluding South Africans of Dutch heritage). As such “Australianness [is] redefined in confrontation with the ‘African other’” (Gebrekidan, 2018 & MacDonald, 2017). This shared history makes it harder to assimilate if you do not physically present the same. It also explains why my focus references those with a darker complexion as their physical difference creates a visual barrier that often overrides their national and ethnic background in favour of a simplistic understanding (Gebrekidan, 2018). As both an observer for over 15 years and a participating individual within the context of the Australian diaspora I have seen the shifting attitudes and presentation of the idealised and monolithic ‘Africa’. From poverty-stricken, diseased, usage as a point of comparison in the casual debate – “there are starving children in Africa” -, to becoming non-participants of Western discourse surrounding immigration crisis, violent criminals, etc. Perceptions in Australia both online and otherwise have carried a negative connotation regardless of the popular narrative of multiculturalism used when promoting Australia, for the sake of exoticism, tourism and capital as opposed to actual social integration (MacDonald, 2017). As such integrated resettlement within Australia is difficult unless there is profit to be made with your identity or a sense of proximity that easily integrates you within White Australian society (Phillips, 2011, MacDonald, 2017, Moran & Robards, 2020, Budarick & Han, 2013 & O’Sullivan,2018). Examples of integration associated with profit include the Menulog ‘everyone delivers differently’ ad (2021) and the CADA radio YouTube ads (2022).  There are still instances where profit driven inclusion stems from the othered community on instagram @tutsisiwimwear and @thebeutyplugau promote using African-Australians but it comes from an authentic place because they are headed by members of the African-Australian community directly. As such individuals who participate online look for spaces and others who are living a relatable shared experience through lifestyle content, social events and private groups on social media which presents a positive contending narrative.

The simplification of identity has been impacted by two topics of popular discourse online in recent years, the BML movement and the ‘African Gangs’ moral panic. The transferable nature of an issue beginning in the US diaspora indicated the interconnectedness between individuals of different geographic locations with similar shared experiences and origins. BLM discourse connected the three Western diasporas (US, UK and Australia) in mainstream media and online social media after the discourse began to bleed into white online spaces by 2020 (Abad, 2021). I make this distinction because the conversation had already found its way to the African-Australian online community prior to mainstream coverage, due to the digital divide (Moran & Robards, 2020) that minority groups experience. This is facilitated by the influence of “class, gender and ethnic background [have to] access and engagement in digital spaces” (Moran & Robards, 2020). Conversations were apparent on YouTube through commentary channels, Instagram posts and Twitter by 2013 especially for those like me who followed African-American (in both senses of the term), content creators, out of an unfulfilled necessity to consume media and content of those who physically mirrored ourselves in positive and constructive ways and also humanised minority lived experiences in the diaspora. The response to the BLM in 2020 shared similar themes and stories confronting police brutality and other forms of institutionalised racism as the 2010 Haile-Michael Case (MacDonald, 2017). They even shared the same criticism of police and policy failure (MacDonald, 2017 & Wahlquist, 2018). However, the framing of this failure was on the part of the police needing to be held accountable and having to respect and stop endangering African-Australian and Indigenous Australians during police activities and incarceration (MacDonald, 2017 & Abad, 2021). As opposed to antagonising the African-Australian community and labelling them as criminals to use a moral panic to “increase sanctions/interactions against the criminalised group” (Gaffey, 2019) the BLM discourse humanised us as a victim who had the authority to voice and influence the audience (Gaffey, 2019). This also brought about further shifts that moved away from the African Gang discourse that had persisted and gave more African-Australians space to “[detail] how “black people go through a lot because white people are racists to us” as Rosalina puts it (Moran & Robards, 2020) and gave white audiences insight into everyday experiences with racialized content and its impact (Moran & Robards, 2020, MacDonald, 2017 & Gebrekidan, 2018). Some were sympathetic and acknowledged the issue there remained those who reported and attacked the concerns raised on Facebook and Instagram, showing that for some public discourse may not be safe yet online. Although awareness has been created the need for further conversation endures as the connections and impact being made by African-Australians are becoming more permanent with them settling here permanently and engaging in change in society.

Besides using social media as a means of transference, African-Australian youth is using social media to create community and an African-Australian culture that is authentic to their status as an online global citizen (I define this as an individual with ethnic and national origins separate from their residing diaspora, with connections to similar diasporas and country of origin through digital and/or physical means). In recent years various African-Australian collectives and individuals comprising a diverse range of countries, tribes, languages and cultures are following the influence of African Americans, British Africans and Africans from their countries of origin in building communities online. There has been an increase in YouTubers creating content related to experiences where the two cultures meet. They use title captions such as ‘African Australian YouTuber’, ‘African Australians’, ‘Zimbabwean Australian’, ‘Afro Australian’ or ‘living in/moving to Australia as X’ to capture this audience. This form of labelling is used as an identifier for the audience to find the content from independent YouTube accounts such as ‘Ngechi Gichomo’ and for institutional channels such as ABC TV & iview’s “You Can’t Ask That: African Australians answer ‘Can I touch your hair?’” (ABC TV & iview., 2019).

On Instagram African-Australian users can more readily share and expand their communities across platforms en masse, @afrotok.au is one such example. They engage with people through Instagram ads in feeds, post through relevant hashtags such as ‘#africanaustralian’. The account is structured as a promotional tool for proudly Black African-Australian Tikyok content creators; inking their Instagram and Tiktok accounts. It provides brief introductions of their collective and a collection of videos featuring these creators. The page leaves an open invitation to others to join or to move between platforms in the bio. Other successesfull account contributing to reshaping African-Australian identities are @theafricancollective and @albertinatncube. The African Collective exemplified the impact and creativity available within the African-Australian community. Ncube has successfully filmed and produced a documentary ‘Abuntu – People of art’, presented at TEDx Youth Armadale 2020 and participated in discourse to elevate the voice of her community and change perceptions. A change in discourse provided by the mass distribution steaming from the social media content, balances, normalises and relates African Australians to the wider society. By offering alternative images of blackness to both black and other audiences nationally and globally discourse could be had in an open and informed space. Transitioning into mass media through historic symbols and institutions with large voices in the public sphere would be the next step (Budarick & Han, 2013). I leave you with a final statement that summarises why the amplification of African-Australian and other voices is a necessity within the Australian diaspora.“All of these stories make me who I am. But to insist on only these negative stories is to flatten my experience and to overlook the many other stories that formed me. The single-story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.” (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 2009)

Engage mobile-first design to, consequently, come up with a bespoke solution. Growing analytics so that as an end result, we make the logo bigger. Target dark social and then be CMSable. Utilising above the line in order to build ROI.

Amplify growth hacking and then build ROI. Growing stakeholder management and possibly make the logo bigger. Target agile so that as an end result, we take this offline. Take a holistic approach in order to disrupt the balance. Demonstrate growth channels with the aim to come up with a bespoke solution.

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