From Blackface to Black Twitter

Dates, Jannette L.; Moody-Ramirez, Mia

doi:10.3726/b13336

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Black Twitter, an informal community of Black users on Twitter, focused on issues of interest to the Black community in the United States (Bland & Moody-Ramirez, 2020). Black Twitter users made a strong effort to change the negative framing of police brutality victims (Brock, 2012; Clark, 2014; Dates & Barlow, 1993; Dates & Moody-Ramirez, 2018).…”

Section: Black Twitter and Blmmentioning

confidence: 99%

Special Issue Introductory Essay

Moody-Ramirez¹,

Perry²

2022

Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly

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Mass media messages create, popularize, and reinforce stereotypical narratives of Black people that fuel fear and hatred of the group (Dates & Pease, 1994). Blackface representations overemphasized and ridiculed personality traits, mannerisms, and the vernacular of Black people. Narratives of Black men included images of criminals, dupes, social deviants, and brutes. In the 21st century, U.S. media continued to frame Black men negatively-as drug dealers, pimps, and thugs-to provide a rationale for the high number of them in prison. After the 13th Amendment passed, free Black men in chain gangs provided free labor, and this legacy lives on in for-profit prisons that benefit from the income generated from the sale of everyday necessities, such as toiletries, telephone calls, and food.Likewise, the media have historically framed Black women as loud, angry, lazy, and promiscuous. While the narrative didn't begin with Ronald Reagan's campaign for president of the United States, the aspiring president's campaign platform highlighted the myth of the "welfare queen." The legend surfaced in the 1970s to embody the myth that Black women are too lazy to work and would rather rely on public assistance subsidized by hard-working, upstanding White citizens. Former president Ronald Reagan introduced Linda Taylor during a campaign stop (Levin, 2013): "There's a woman in Chicago, who used 80 names, 30 addresses, 15 telephone numbers to collect food stamps, Social Security, veterans' benefits for four non-existent deceased veteran husbands, as well as welfare." And she wasn't the only one. Reagan bemoaned a welfare system "infested with fraud, although he kept returning to the woman in Chicago. She wore a fur coat. She drove a Cadillac. She paid for T-bone steaks with food stamps." Linda Taylor, of mixed-race descent, became the template for the stereotype of the Black woman saddled with multiple children by multiple men who were getting rich off taxpayer money. The speech was effective in garnering support. Former actor Reagan won the bid for president. He championed bipartisan welfare reforms that slashed (or eliminated) direct aid to poor populations while redirecting this money to wealthy business owners, CEOs in industries that supported him, and wealthy legacy farmers.Stereotypes and narratives have effectively perpetuated the hatred of Black people first brought to the United States as slaves. Stereotypes serve to stifle the group's progress in education, home ownership, and healing the family unit, which still suffers from the ravages of the period of enslavement. Cultural narratives continue to foster hatred toward the group while providing a rationale for continued systemic racism."Pull yourself up by your bootstraps" is a common phrase in American political discourse, particularly present in conservative rhetoric about self-reliance. The idea 1109007J MQXXX10.

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Section: Black Twitter and Blmmentioning

confidence: 99%