Charlene Etienne
Statement
Perhaps the thorniest point of contention in conversations regarding race is language. Individuals are either incredibly wary of engaging for fear of being mislabeled as racist or barrel in with all the grace of a bull in a china shop determined to shrug off the perceived burdensome yolk of political correctness. Yet racialized language is used every day without the speaker being fully aware of how steeped their words may be in historically racist tropes. However, Twitter users typically do not shy away from the conversation and instead engage head-on, discussing topics that affect the Black community that goes beyond police brutality to issues like colorism, texture discrimination, or amplification bias.
The connection of these issues to historical stereotypes will be examined to determine which intersection of the Black demographic is affected. In other words, is the topic of colorism more prevalent when Black women are mentioned, or is it an issue that affects all Black People equally?
Given the popularity of social media and its ability to subvert traditional avenues of discourse, data will be collected from Twitter to analyze which historical racist tropes are being discussed and their evolution over time. Additionally, Twitter is a microcosmic representation of societal norms and opinions primarily communicated via text versus imagery, as is the case with Instagram, making it an optimal choice.
Data Analytics and Visualization (MPS) Students