Extending Campus Life To The Internet: Social Media, Discrimination

Though many college students access the Internet and social media in order to socialize with friends, discuss school-related issues, and network for job opportunities, the interaction in these sites is not exclusively prosocial. Indeed, as research increasingly shows, many of the social ills that exist offline are reproduced online (Burkhalter, 1999). For example, a number of scholars have outlined the nature of racism, racial microaggression, and racial discrimination in online settings (Clark, Spanierman, Reed, Soble, Cabana, 2011; Daniels, 2009; Dyer-Barr, 2010; Tynes, 2005; Tynes, Giang, Williams, & Thompson, 2008; Tynes & Markoe, 2010).

First coined by Chester Pierce (Pierce, Carew, Pierce-Gonzalez, & Willis, 1978) and expanded by Derald Wing Sue and colleagues (Sue et al. , 2007), racial microaggressions are “brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral and environmental inequities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial, gender, sexual-orientation and religious slights and insults to the target person or group” (Sue, 2010; p. 5). There are three primary types: microinsults (rudeness and insensitivity, demeaning a person's heritage), microassaults (explicit racial derogation and discriminatory behavior), and microinvalidation (excluding or negating experiences). Applying this framework to online blogs, researchers found evidence of the three types of microaggressions against Native Americans and mascots. These include European Americans asserting sociopolitical dominance over Native peoples, denying racism, alleging oversensitivity, waging a stereotype attack, and making a case for the need for an American Indian mascot as a historical memorial to a people who are “extinct” (Clark et al. , 2011). Though the posts and some of the practices advocated therein include blatant disregard for Native peoples, racial microaggressions are typically subtle and often perpetrated by people who are not conscious of what they are doing (Sue, 2010).

For this reason, we use the term online racial discrimination to frame the negative race-related experiences of participants in the current study. Online racial discrimination involves denigrating or excluding an individual or group on the basis of race through the use of symbols, voice, video, images, text, and graphic representations (Tynes, Rose, & Williams, 2010). Drawing on Harrell's (2000) multidimensional model of racism-related stress, we assess “microstressors” or microaggressions as well as experiences that are more blatant. Moreover, it is important to measure experiences directed at the individual as well as those that are vicarious or witnessed by a respondent. Like individual experiences, those witnessed may also impact psychological outcomes (Quintana & McKown, 2008). It follows that both of these types of experiences may be related to racial climate. One type of online racial discrimination is being shown racist images.

There were several instances that were publicized beginning in the mid-2000s in which European American students from across the country threw what were called “racial themed parties” or “ghetto themed parties” (Tynes & Markoe, 2010). Party themes were often consistent with titles, including “Tacos and Tequila” and “Ghetto Hoes and Ghetto Bros. ” Partygoers were expected to dress and act as racial and ethnic minorities. Students openly mocked these groups including their stereotypical occupations and representations in the media. One type of party also mocked historical figure Martin Luther King Jr. , and the celebration of his holiday by dressing in blackface. Images of partygoers mocking these groups and figures were then placed on social media sites and received a good deal of traction with a wide range of people then accessing the photos. Tynes and Markoe (2010) demonstrated that people with social media profiles and high in racial colorblindness would condone these images and even encourage friends to engage in the practice. At the same time that these parties were being thrown across the country, local issues on the campus on which this study was conducted were causing a considerable amount of tension. The mascot of the university was being challenged and was ultimately retired. Students and alumni took their concerns, and in some instances, demonstrations for and against this change to both online and offline contexts.