Reading Khaby Lame’s Silent Comedy as a Critique of Racial Capitalism on Tiktok

This study examines how Senegalese-Italian TikTok creator Khaby Lame’s silent comedy exposes digital capitalism’s artificial complexity, subverts algorithmic biases favouring hyperverbal content, and reclaims agency through bodily expression over linguistic labour. These practices can be interpreted through the framework of racial capitalism as a critique of the commodification of Black bodies, based on the understanding that racial inequalities are inherent in the discourse of capitalism, including platform capitalism. Drawing on Cedric Robinson’s racial capitalism theory and digital labour frameworks, a qualitative analysis of Lame’s three most viral videos (totaling 979M + views) reveals his use of simplification, non-verbal communication, and strategic silence as apparent resistance tactics. By resolving absurd “life hacks” with minimalist gestures, Lame challenges neoliberal multiculturalism’s co-optation of diversity, creating cross-cultural relatability while critiquing platform-dependent extraction. His success – 161.3 million followers, 2.5 billion likes – embodies the paradox of resisting racial capitalism while relying on its infrastructures, offering insights into how marginalised creators navigate systemic inequalities. This research presents a reading of Lame’s videos through the lens of racial capitalism; it does not claim that Lame deliberately or consciously intends such a critique, but rather that his work can be meaningfully interpreted as engaging with these structural dynamics. The research contributes to debates on race, resistance, and digital labour, highlighting both the potential and limitations of subversive praxis within algorithmic platforms.