@BlackAt: A Qualitative Content Analysis of Narrative Identity Work in Social Media Counter-Spaces

• In Event: Black Counter-Spaces, Resistance, Bonding, and Belonging

Abstract

Senior administrators at colleges and universities received significant critique when issuing statements surrounding the racial justice movement following the murders of George Floyd, Ahmad Arbury, and Breonna Taylor (Batty, 2020; McKenzie, 2020) at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Black students and alumni of predominantly white institutions (PWIs) used @BlackAt pages across social media to engage in conversations about racial inequity in the college experience. This study uses qualitative content analysis to interrogate how Black students used social media as a counterspace. Findings suggest Black students utilized the @BlackAt accounts to express resilience and ameliorate the Black student experience on their respective campuses by counterspace organizing and strategically employing narrative identity work to challenge institutional narratives about campus values.

Author

• Alethia Russell, Indiana University
  Presenting Author