Collegians creating (counter)space online: A critical discourse analysis of the I, Too, Am social media movement.

Abstract

In 2014, an online student activist movement-"I, Too, Am"-exposed everyday racism Black collegians experience. The movement began at Harvard University and spread to universities throughout the U.S. and abroad. Student activism maintains a strong social media presence, but there is little empirical scholarship on the subject. This study mitigates the literature gap by investigating the "I, Too, Am Harvard" and "I, Too, Am Oxford" campaigns. While in a broad sense Black college enrollment grows in the United States and the England, these students face multiple forms of oppression including negative campus racial climate and microaggressions (Kimura, 2014;Solórzano, Ceja, & Yosso, 2000). We use critical discourse analysis as well as counterspaces as a theoretical framework to examine the "I, Too, Am" campaigns. Counterspaces provide a way for Students of Color to counter the institutional hegemony and racism they experience on their campuses by coming together to affirm and validate their racial identity and racialized experiences (Carter, 2007;Solórzano et al., 2000). Findings discuss (a) how British and American Students of Color are narrating and navigating their experiences with campus racism through social media, (b) I, Too Am as an avenue for exposing the transnational pervasiveness of institutionalized campus racism, and (c) social media as a means of promoting solidarity and counterspace among Students of Color across the Atlantic.

Racism, Hate Speech, and Social Media: A Systematic Review and Critique

“…In terms of positionality statements from authors, reflecting on their role as researchers in studying and contesting oppression, only 6.73% of studies contain such statements ( n = 7), making them marginal within the field. In the few statements we find, authors acknowledge how their “interpretation of the data is situated within the context of our identities, experiences, perspectives, and biases as individuals and as a research team” (George Mwangi et al 2018, 152). Similarly, in a few ethnographic studies, authors reflect on taking part in the fight against discrimination (see Carney 2016).…”

Hidden in plain sight: Uncovering the emotional labor of Black women students at historically White colleges and universities.

“…Movements erupting across the country (#MeToo) and on various college campuses, such as #BlackLivesMatter and #ITooAmHarvard (George Mwangi, Bettencourt, & Malaney, 2018), also make Black women students’ issues of racism/sexism hypervisible with widespread media attention. At the same time, this coverage renders the founders of these movements, Black women, invisible.…”

Mujer contra mujer: misoginia femenina en comentarios de noticias en Facebook

“…Por ejemplo, se ha analizado la caricaturización que hacen de los chinos migrantes en México (Lisbona Guillén & Rodríguez Balam, 2018). Existen diversas investigaciones, como contraparte, que exploran los medios sociales digitales como herramientas poderosas para promover la inclusión e incrementar la conciencia sobre estas microagresiones, ya sea raciales (Mwangi et al, 2016) (Matías & Grosland, 2016 o las que afectan a las personas transgénero y otras minorías sexuales (Ingram et al, 2017). Es menor la porción de estudios relacionados con las mujeres y las microagresiones digitales.…”