Race, Education, and #BlackLivesMatter: How Digital Activism and Algorithmic Oppression Impact Black Girls in College

• In Event: Transformational Resistance 20 Years Later: Developments and Possibilities for Engaging Students of Color

Abstract

The rise of digital movements like #BlackLivesMatter have brought much needed attention to issues of anti-Black racism and police brutality. At the same time, the increased use of social media to document racial violence has exposed youth activists to gruesome and racially traumatic content at unprecedented rates. An analysis of #BlackLivesMatter tweets reveals that images depicting fatal interactions with police are among some of the most shared images on Twitter in 2016 (Freelon et al, 2018), and psychologists have identified witnessing a graphic police shootings of Black Americans as vicarious trauma that triggers psychological effects reminiscent of post-traumatic stress syndrome (Strayhorn et al., 2022). In recognizing the prevalent role young Black women play in leading online movements against police brutality, and the proliferation of racially traumatizing content online, this study examines the effects of viewing, discussing and reading about racial violence and police brutality for Black women in college. It simultaneously considers the role that socio-technical infrastructures (e.g. algorithms, code, content moderation, etc.) play in the curation and hyper-circulation of racially traumatizing content.
This study draws upon critical race technology theory (CRTT) in education as a theoretical framework. Grounded in critical theories of race, gender and technology, CRTT responds to calls for more intersectional, techno-structural examinations of digital technologies within educational research that can expose the intercentricity of anti-Black racism as the “default setting” of school-based technologies, learning platforms and digital research contexts (Author, 2019, 2022). This framework disrupts majoritarian “stories” that characterize information technologies as post-racial, apolitical and democratic and instead acknowledge the power systems embedded within Twenty First Century information systems (Noble, 2018). In doing so, CRTT in education “shifts discourse away from simple arguments about the liberatory possibilities of the internet toward more critical engagements with how the internet is a site of power and control over Black life” (Noble, 2016, p. 2), and how these infrastructures quietly mediate Black students use of, representation in and access to digital technologies.
Qualitative interviews were the primary source of data collection for the study. I conducted one hour, semi-structured interviews with 17 Black undergraduate women from 11 universities across the US and Canada. Interview sub-topics included: students’ experiences with digital activism; their encounters with racist and racially traumatizing content; and the academic and socio emotional impacts of engaging in digital activism.
Interview data revealed that social media activism provided participants with a sense of safety, visibility and community that was believed to be either inaccessible or unavailable to them offline. At the same time, participants noted that heavy social media activism had salient effects on their mental health and wellness. An overwhelming majority of participants experienced depression, anxiety, anger and fear that inevitably impacted their educational experiences. Participants identified viral death videos, digital harassment, and algorithmic silencing as being common features of Black girls’ experiences online, and major contributors to their mental health challenges. These concerns shed light on the pervasive presence of algorithmic racism, its socioemotional and academic toll on youth activists, and the need to reconsider the liberatory possibility of the Internet.

Author

• Tiera C. Tanksley, University of Colorado - Boulder
  Presenting Author