It’s Not How You Say It, It’s What You Say: Ambient Digital Racism and Racial Narratives on Twitter

Abstract

Social media has been used to disseminate hate speech and racism. Racist opinions can be disguised through a language that may appear to be harmless; however, it can be part of a racist rhetoric toward communities of color. This type of racist communication is called Ambient Digital Racism (ADR). Through a thematic analysis, this project sought to identify and analyze social media racist discourses on Twitter in the context of George Floyd’s death. This research examined original tweets posted during the time of the protests using three known counter Black Lives Matter (BLM) hashtags, namely, #WhiteLivesMatter, #BlueLivesMatter, and #AllLivesMatter. After the analysis, two themes emerged, namely, the discourse of oppressor’s reverse racism and the social criminalization of BLM. These themes described the narratives used by these groups to develop a racist digital discourse that goes unnoticed by social media regulations and policies and that leaves an open space to negotiate what constitutes acceptable race talk and what constitutes a racist discourse. It was found that both themes were grounded on White victimization, color-blind racism, and the dehumanization of BLM as a social and racial justice movement.

“When you Search a #Hashtag, it Feels Like You’re Searching for Death:” Black Twitter and Communication About Police Brutality Within the Black Community

“…As previously articulated, analysis from this study adds to an already robust literature base surrounding Black Twitter, social movements, and the importance of racial analysis on digital platforms (Agudelo & Olbrych, 2022;Brock, 2020;Florini, 2014;Taylor, 2022;Wellman, 2022). However, this study centers on the experience of police brutality, an issue often void of scholarly interest.…”

“…Black Twitter and the intersection of race and Twitter have been previously explored (Agudelo & Olbrych, 2022; Brock 2020; Cowart et al, 2016; Mundt et al, 2018; Taylor, 2022), yet still, racism on the platform runs rampant (Frenkel & Conger, 2022; Knight, 2022). Moreover, Twitter has played a role in the simultaneous spread yet suppression of police brutality-related protests.…”