Black Lives Matter and the Diffusion of Anti-racist Ideology on Twitter

• In Event: Race and Ethnic Politics in the Media and on the Internet

Abstract

Previous research has established a sharp uptick in public attention toward issues of racism and prejudice in the U.S. after 2010 that accelerated after 2014. Scholars have analyzed news media content, poll and survey results, political alignments, pop culture, investments in diversity, equity, and inclusion, and other social indicators to ascertain this shift. These trends, collectively dubbed the “Great Awokening,” were particularly pronounced among white liberals. A few studies have explored related dynamics on social media platforms. We build on this work.

We rely on a panel of 1.8 million Twitter handles matched to eligible voter data and its attached demographic data. This combination allows an attribution of the aggregate demographics of users of words and terms of interest; evaluation of the connection of words/terms via shared users; and robust evaluation of linguistic signatures associated with their use. Our full dataset goes back to 2017; a subset goes back to the very first tweet. We ask: Who sparked the increasing use of anti-racist terms in our panel? How did anti-racist terms diffuse over time? How did conservatives respond?

First, we identify three rival racial ideologies that arguably characterize the contemporary American landscape: intersectionality, colorblindness, and white supremacy. Then we use the core precepts of each ideology, in addition to 200+ related words and terms, to distinguish several clusters of elites (in the sense that they are frequently retweeted by the panel on these topics). Next, we create dimensions along which each racial ideology can vary. Then, using word embeddings, we measure the extent to which each tweet sent by elites aligns with that dimension. With these steps, we seek to create time series that associate clusters of elites with each core ideological precept over time.

We hypothesize that the discourse shift —already underway when the organizers of BLM first coined the social media hashtag #BlackLivesMatter in July 2013—accelerated after 2014 from within what we call the “BLM Activist” Cluster. Then it spread to the “Young Black Twitter” Cluster (via strong ties) and the “White Liberal” Cluster (via weaker ties). In the “Conservative” Cluster: a) the valence changed (woke became anti-woke) and b) Black Conservatives played a niche role in spreading phrases used to disparage BLM.

Authors

• Kim M. Williams, Portland State University

• David Lazer, Northeastern University