From the Blackhand Side: Twitter as a Cultural Conversation

"He can read my writing but he sho can't read my mind." —Zora Neale Hurston Twitter's combination of brevity, multi-platform access, and feedback mechanisms has enabled it to gain mindshare far out of proportion to its actual user base, including an extraordinary number of Black users. How best to understand Twitter's reception and uptake by Black Americans, who surprisingly comprise over a quarter of all U.S. Twitter users? This article approaches Twitter from two perspectives: an analysis of the interface and associated practices alongside critical discourse analyses of online discussions of Twitter's utility and audience. This dual analysis employs critical race and technocultural theory to understand how…