International Platforms, International Prejudice in the Platformization of Crafting

Abstract

The platformization of crafting in an unequal world encourages discriminatory attitudes toward ethnic Others. Imagining that the “magic circle” of a subcultural platform can insulate users from racism is deeply misguided. We examine this thesis through a mixed-methods approach combining an online survey assessing perceived experiences of racism online and willingness to communicate with people of different ethnicities, discourse analysis of crafters’ online posts, and ethnographic interviews. As the e-commerce platform Etsy allowed “manufactured goods” to be sold in their marketplace as handmade, Western crafters channel their frustrations with a broken platform economy into racist sentiment against Chinese crafters. This study explores the implications of these Orientalist sentiments as a reinforcement of Western exceptionalism around originality and creativity, and it analyzes White fragility and the assumption of Whiteness within the crafting subculture.