Found on Academia.edu: Expressing and Challenging Racist Discourse onFacebook: How Social Media Weaken the “Spiral of Silence” Theory. “This article examines the discursive practices of Facebook users who use the platform to express racist views. We analyzed 51,991 public comments posted to 119 news stories about race, racism, or ethnicity on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation News Facebook page. We examined whether users who hold racist viewpoints (the vocal minority) are less likely to express views that go against the majority view for fear of social isolation. According to the ‘spiral of silence’ theory, the vocal minority would presumably fear this isolation effect. However, our analysis shows that on Facebook,a predominantly nonanonymous and moderated platform, the vocal minority are comfortable expressing unpopular views, questioning the explanatory power of this popular theory in the online context.” I had not heard of the Spiral of Silence theory, but Briannica helped me out.
racism
New York Times: Russian Effort to Influence 2016 Election Targeted African-Americans
New York Times: Russian Effort to Influence 2016 Election Targeted African-Americans (This is a different report than the one that was covered in The Washington Post.) “The Russian influence campaign on social media in the 2016 election made an extraordinary effort to target African-Americans, used an array of tactics to try to suppress turnout among Democratic voters and unleashed a blizzard of posts on Instagram that rivaled or exceeded its Facebook operations, according to a report produced for the Senate Intelligence Committee.”
UNC: Grant Will Help Librarians Examine Jim Crow Laws Through Lens of Data
UNC: Grant Will Help Librarians Examine Jim Crow Laws Through Lens of Data. “Using optical character recognition and machine learning, the team will build a text corpus of North Carolina session laws from the end of the Civil War through the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and will then compile a listing of North Carolina’s Jim/Jane Crow laws. This effort builds upon work done by civil rights pioneer Pauli Murray in the 1950s.”
University of Arkansas Little Rock: UA Little Rock Completes Digitization Of History Of Segregation, Integration Of Arkansas Schools
University of Arkansas Little Rock: UA Little Rock Completes Digitization Of History Of Segregation, Integration Of Arkansas Schools. “As a result of this project, a unique group of archival collections are now easily accessible online to students and scholars of civil rights, race, education, and the law, as well as the general public. Anyone around the world now has the opportunity to study the evolution of education in Central Arkansas through the lens of religion, the judicial system, and contemporary students and educators. In addition to the more than 350,000 digital files now available online, CAHC has also published a virtual exhibit featuring digital objects from the project along with a timeline, lesson plans, and short essays by scholars.”
The Verge: Former Facebook manager calls out company for bad treatment of black employees
The Verge: Former Facebook manager calls out company for bad treatment of black employees. “Today, former Facebook partnerships manager Mark Luckie published an internal memo that was sent to his co-workers on his last day at Facebook earlier this month, calling out pervasive discrimination issues within the company. The note argues that Facebook has a ‘black people problem’ that involves the mistreatment of black employees. He cites incidents where managers or colleagues called their co-workers ‘hostile’ or ‘aggressive,’ and others where campus security gave extra scrutiny to black employees.”
The Verge: Google settled with a contractor after complaints of racial profiling
The Verge: Google settled with a contractor after complaints of racial profiling. “Google settled a racial discrimination claim brought by a contractor who says that the company failed to adequately protect him from being ‘treated as a terror suspect,’ while on the job for Google Maps, reports The Guardian.”
The Verge: How an Instagram conversation led to a firestorm in China
The Verge: How an Instagram conversation led to a firestorm in China. “Racist Instagram exchanges have gone viral in China, despite the platform being blocked. A Dolce & Gabbana fashion show has been apparently canceled in China as hordes of online users accuse the brand of racism. First denounced by famous actors including Zhang Ziyi (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), the brand pulled its Shanghai fashion show last night after a dozen models left, and now, online platforms like Net-A-Porter and Alibaba’s Taobao have swiftly stopped carrying its wares in China.”
