My research operates at the vital intersections of racial rhetorical criticism, digital media analysis, and intersectional internet studies. My research contributes to this endeavor by exploring the complex interplay between digital spaces, rhetoric, and power dynamics within the context of Black women's online communication. I delve into the historical dimensions of Black women's rhetoric, exploring its implications and the possibilities it holds for their discursive practices in online environments. To achieve this, I engage with a diverse range of source materials, including archival records, digitized artifacts, and born-digital social media data. I acknowledge the urgent necessity within the multidisciplinary field of Internet studies for theoretical and methodological approaches that facilitate a critical examination of how social relations are structured within digital technologies. Equally essential is my commitment to cultivate insights into the ways in which power relations are structured and perpetuated through these technologies. Through this multidisciplinary approach, I aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of Black women's digital rhetoric, its evolution, and its significance in contemporary digital landscapes.
This article examines Kimberlé Crenshaw’s interview on Democracy Now! in 2015 and her 2016 TED Talk, “The Urgency of Intersectionality,” to theorize Black women’s “activist rhetoric of blame.” Crenshaw enacts three distinctive features of Black feminist pedagogy in her activism for the #SayHerNameCampaign. She challenges traditional “frames” of anti-Black police brutality, uses blaming vocabulary from a Black woman’s standpoint to create new frames, and names an audience’s “revolutionary potential” in dismantling misogynoir in the justice system. An activist rhetoric of blame expands frames in dominant discourses so that the collective blame toward an institution can encompass intersectional oppression.
The unique experience of Black Americans in the United States produces a physical and cultural space with a long history of misuse, commodification, and theft of the Black imagination and Black culture. These spaces, which also historically complicate notions of privatization and ownership, are replicated online today. In this essay, we propose the corner as a lens through which to interrogate whether Black networks online potentially produce a rhetorical digital commons and, further, whether the theory and practice of “the commons” adequately make space for the particular historical reality of Black America. To do so, we focus on three social media platforms wherein Black digital praxis meets the possibility of the corner: TikTok, Twitter, and Black Planet. These digital corners provide lessons that center the Black experience on- and offline, and point toward possibilities and limitations in our digital future. Ultimately we argue that the corner contradicts hegemonic modes of white supremacy in public spaces while also spotlighting the brutal realities of gentrification, commodification, and theft that fortify the exploitation of Black communities.
The Intellectual Labor Of Digital Black Feminist Enclaves In Hashtag Construction, Reception, And Stratification Online In Aoir Selected Papers Of Internet Research
Black Communication and Technology Lab:
My active engagement within the digital humanities community at the University of Maryland has allowed me to successfully complete coursework in Digital Methods and Digital Studies. My interest in digital humanities expands beyond the study of Black online communities and digital activism to also include learning new digital tools and applying my DH knowledge in the classroom. The BCaT Lab @ the University of Maryland enlivens a new generation of scholars focusing on Black studies and cultural production, digital humanities, and critical race work, creating a prototype for recruiting and sustaining a new generation of scholars in digital studies. As a BCaT graduate fellow, my responsibilities encompass the orchestration of administrative endeavors within the lab including the meticulous upkeep of our digital infrastructure such as the website, newsletter and lister. I play a pivotal role in orchestrating and hosting our events including our lunch and learns, BCaT applies, BCaT eats and BCaT learns. I am also co-leader for our BCaT collaborative project, which delves into the intricate phenomenon that examines Black digital migration as it unfolds on the social media platform “X” previously known as Twitter. I aspire to apply my knowledge and experiences gained during my graduate studies to become a professor and continue conducting critical research that contributes to development of the field of Black digital humanities and rhetorical studies.