Black Twitter

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Black Twitter is a cultural identity[2] on the Twitter social network focused on issues of interest to the black community, particularly in the United States.[3] Feminista Jones described it in Salon as "a collective of active, primarily African-American Twitter users who have created a virtual community ... [and are] proving adept at bringing about a wide range of sociopolitical changes."[4] A similar Black Twitter community is growing in South Africa.[5]

User base

According to a 2013 report by the Pew Research Center, 26 percent of African Americans who use the Internet use Twitter, compared to 14 percent of online white, non-Hispanic Americans.[6] In addition, 11 percent of African American Twitter users say they use Twitter at least once a day, versus 3 percent of white users.[4]

André Brock of the University of Iowa dates the first published comments on black Twitter usage to a 2008 piece by blogger Anil Dash, and a 2009 article by Chris Wilson in The Root describing the viral success of Twitter joke memes such as #uknowurblackwhen and #uknowurfromqueens that were primarily aimed at black Twitter users. Brock says the first reference to a Black Twitter community—as "Late Night Black People Twitter" and "Black People Twitter"—occurred in the November 2009 article "What Were Black People Talking About on Twitter Last Night?" by Choire Sicha, co-founder of current-affairs website The Awl. Sicha described it as "huge, organic and ... seemingly seriously nocturnal"—in fact, active around the clock—so that when white Americans wake up, the trending topics are "hilarious chat-memes," and not the "white and boring" Twitter that happens during the day.[7]

Reciprocity and community

Further information: Hashtag
Brown Twitter birds. Shown top left is the original illustration by Alex Eben Meyer that appeared in the Slate article, "How Black People Use Twitter". The remaining birds are parodies by Twitter user @InnyVinny illustrating the diversity of the Black Twitter community. The resulting #browntwitterbird hashtag game went viral, as users adopted or suggested new Twitter birds.[1]
An August 2010 article by Farhad Manjoo in Slate, "How Black People Use Twitter," brought the community to wider attention.[8] Manjoo wrote that young black people appeared to use Twitter in a particular way: "They form tighter clusters on the network—they follow one another more readily, they retweet each other more often, and more of their posts are @-replies—posts directed at other users."[9] Manjoo cited Brendan Meeder of Carnegie Mellon University, who argued that the high level of reciprocity between the hundreds of users who initiate hashtags (or "blacktags") leads to a high-density, influential network[9] (one notable example being Mikki Kendall's #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen).[10][11]


Manjoo's article in Slate drew criticism from American and Africana Studies scholar Kimberly C. Ellis (Twitter user @drgoddess). She concluded that large parts of the article had generalised too much, and published a response to it titled "Why 'They' Don't Understand What Black People Do On Twitter." Pointing out the diversity of black people on Twitter, she said, "[I]t's clear that not only Slate but the rest of mainstream America has no real idea who Black people are, no real clue about our humanity, in general [...]. For us, Twitter is an electronic medium that allows enough flexibility for uninhibited and unfabricated creativity while exhibiting more of the strengths of social media that allow us to build community. [...] Actually, we talk to each other AND we broadcast a message to the world, hence the popula­rity of the Trending Topics and Twitter usage, yes?" Ellis said that the most appropriate response she had seen to the Slate article was that by Twitter user @InnyVinny, who made the point that "black people are not a monolith" and then presented a wide array of brown Twitter bird drawings on her blogsite in order to express the diverse range of Black Twitter users; the #browntwitterbird hashtag immediately went viral, as users adopted or suggested new Twitter birds.[1]

According to Shani O. Hilton (@shani_o) writing in 2013, the defining characteristic of Black Twitter is that its members "a) are interested in issues of race in the news and pop culture and b) tweet A LOT." She adds that while the community includes thousands of black Twitter users, in fact "not everyone within Black Twitter is black, and not every black person on Twitter is in Black Twitter". She also notes that the viral reach and focus of Black Twitter's hashtags have transformed it from a mere source of entertainment, and object of outside curiosity, to "a cultural force in its own right ... Now, black folks on Twitter aren't just influencing the conversation online, they're creating it."[12]

Apryl Williams and Doris Domoszlai (2013) similarly state, "There is no single identity or set of characteristics that define Black Twitter. Like all cultural groups, Black Twitter is dynamic, containing a variety of viewpoints and identities. We think of Black Twitter as a social construct created by a self-selecting community of users to describe aspects of black American society through their use of the Twitter platform. Not everyone on Black Twitter is black, and not everyone who is black is represented by Black Twitter."[2]

Signifyin'

Further information: Signifyin'

Feminista Jones has argued that Black Twitter's historical cultural roots are the spirituals, or work songs, sung by slaves in the United States, when finding a universal means of communication was essential to survival and grassroots organization.[4]

Several writers see Black Twitter interaction as a form of signifyin', wordplay involving tropes such as irony and hyperbole. André Brock states that the Black Tweeter is the signifier, while the hashtag is signifier, sign and signified, "marking ... the concept to be signified, the cultural context within which the tweet should be understood, and the 'call' awaiting a response." He writes: "Tweet-as-signifyin', then, can be understood as a discursive, public performance of Black identity."[8]

Sarah Florini of UW-Madison also interprets Black Twitter within the context of signifyin'. She writes that race is normally "deeply tied to corporeal signifiers"; in the absence of the body, black users display their racial identities through wordplay and other language that shows knowledge of black culture. Black Twitter has become an important platform for this performance.[13]

Manjoo referred to the hashtags the black community uses as "blacktags," citing Baratunde Thurston, then of The Onion, who argued that blacktags are a version of the dozens.[9] Also an example of signifyin', this is a game popular with African Americans in which participants outdo each other by throwing insults back and forth ("Yo momma so bowlegged, she look like a bite out of a donut," "Yo momma sent her picture to the lonely hearts club, but they sent it back and said, 'We ain't that lonely!'").[14] According to Thurston, the brevity of tweets and the instant feedback means Twitter fits well into the African tradition of call and response.[9]

Influence and reception

The aftermath of the death of Trayvon Martin brought Black Twitter to wider public attention.

Black Twitter came to wider public attention in July 2013 when it was credited with having stopped a book deal between a Seattle literary agent and one of the jurors in the trial of George Zimmerman. Zimmerman was controversially acquitted that month of charges stemming from the shooting of Trayvon Martin, a black teenager, in Florida in February 2012.[15] Black Twitter's swift response to the juror's proposed book, spearheaded by Twitter user Genie Lauren (@MoreAndAgain), who launched a change.org petition, resulted in coverage on CNN.[12][16]

The community was also involved in June 2013 in protesting to companies selling products by Paula Deen, the celebrity chef, after she was accused of racism, reportedly resulting in the loss of millions of dollars' worth of business.[4] A #paulasbestdishes hashtag game started by writer and humorist Tracy Clayton (@brokeymcpoverty) went viral.[12][17] In August 2013, outrage on Black Twitter over a Harriet Tubman "sex parody" video Russell Simmons had posted on his Def Comedy Jam website persuaded Simmons to remove the video; he apologized for his error in judgment.[10]

Jonathan Pitts-Wiley, a former writer for The Root, cautions that Black Twitter is just a slice of contemporary African-American culture. "For people who aren't on the inside," he writes, "it's sort of an inside look at a slice of the black American modes of thought. I want to be particular about that—it's just a slice of it. Unfortunately, it may be a slice that confirms what many people already think they know about black culture."[9]

Daniella Gibbs Leger (@dgibber123), writing in HuffPost Black Voices, said, "Black Twitter is a real thing. It is often hilarious (as with the Paula Deen recipes hashtag); sometimes that humor comes with a bit of a sting (see any hashtag related to Don Lemon)." Referring to the controversy over the Tubman video, she concluded, "1. Don't mess with Black Twitter because it will come for you. 2. If you're about to post a really offensive joke, take 10 minutes and really think about it. 3. There are some really funny and clever people out there on Twitter. And 4. See number 1."[10]

South Africa

Kenichi Serino writes in The Christian Science Monitor that South Africa is experiencing a similar Black Twitter phenomenon, with black discourse on Twitter becoming increasingly influential. In a country that has 11 official languages, Black Twitter users regularly embed words from Zulu, isiXhosa, and Sesotho in their tweets. Twitter had 1.1 million users in South Africa as of 2011. Tweeting is still a middle-class activity in that country, where just 21 percent have access to the Internet, but according to journalism lecturer Unathi Kondile (@UnathiKondile), blacks have taken to Twitter as "a free online platform where black voices can assert themselves and their views without editors or publishers deciding if their views matter."[5]

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chase Hoffberger, "The demystification of 'Black Twitter'", The Daily Dot, 9 March 2012.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Apryl Williams and Doris Domoszlai. "#BlackTwitter: a networked cultural identity", The Ripple Effect, Harmony Institute, 6 August 2013.
  3. ↑ André Brock, "From the Blackhand Side: Twitter as a Cultural Conversation", Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 56(4), 12 December 2012 (hereafter Brock 2012).
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Feminista Jones, "Is Twitter the underground railroad of activism?", Salon, 17 July 2013.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Kenichi Serino, "#RainbowNation: The rise of South Africa's 'black Twitter'", The Christian Science Monitor, 7 March 2013.
  6. ↑ Maeve Duggan, Joanna Brenner, "The Demographics of Social Media Users — 2012", Pew Internet and American Life Project, Pew Research Center, 14 February 2013.
  7. ↑ Choire Sicha, "What Were Black People Talking About on Twitter Last Night?", The Awl, 11 November 2009: "At the risk of getting randomly harshed on by the Internet, I cannot keep quiet about my obsession with Late Night Black People Twitter, an obsession I know some of you other white people share, because it is awesome."
    • For Choire Sicha being the first journalist to refer to Black Twitter, see Brock 2012, p. 533: "The initial coining of 'Black Twitter' is commonly attributed to Choire Sicha's (2009) article, 'What Were Black People Talking About on Twitter Last Night'."
    • Chris Wilson, "uknowurblack", The Root, 9 September 2009.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Brock 2012.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 Farhad Manjoo, "How Black People Use Twitter", Slate, 10 August 2010.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Daniella Gibbs Leger, "Don't Mess With Black Twitter", Huffington Post, 22 August 2013.
  11. ↑ "Black Twitter: A virtual community ready to hashtag out a response to cultural issues". washingtonpost.com. Retrieved January 27, 2014. 
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Shani O. Hilton, "The Secret Power Of Black Twitter", BuzzFeed, 16 July 2013.
  13. ↑ Sarah Florini, "Tweets, Tweeps, and Signifyin’: Communication and Cultural Performance on 'Black Twitter'", Television & New Media, 7 March 2013.
  14. ↑ Cecil Adams, "To African-Americans, what does "signifying" mean?", The Straight Dope, 28 September 1984.
  15. ↑ Jamilah Lemieux, "Justice for Trayvon: Black Twitter Kills Juror B37’s Book", Ebony, 16 July 2013.
  16. ↑ Don Lemon, "The Influence of Black Twitter", CNN, 17 July 2013.
  17. ↑ Prachi Gupta, "Paula Deen’s racism goes viral with #PaulasBestDishes", Salon, 19 June 2013

Further reading

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