Since the arrival of the internet and social media, the world has seen the biggest transformation of the structures of the public sphere since the invention of the printing press. The printing press created mass audiences for content, while keeping the number of content creators small. By contrast, in reducing the cost of publication, social media have created mass creators of content. At the same time, the social media companies themselves, and the governments that often influence them, have become the new gatekeepers for publication and dissemination of ideas. Social media companies have an interest in creating continuous and ongoing viewer engagement, and the mechanisms and rhythms of social media therefore tend to privilege sensationalist content. This panel will explore the ways in which this new framework of the public sphere has affected the depiction and discourse of racism, a topic that has remained central in the public sphere.

The ideal of the public sphere developed by Jürgen Habermas envisions a place of rational debate, with the possibility of changing opinions based on arguments. Recent work has described the rise of social media as a welcome democratizing of the public sphere yet also as a danger to public sphere structures that promote rational debate. On the one hand, social media discourse is driven by narratives that structure content according to familiar tropes and conceptions. On the other hand, the possibilities for commentary from a broad audience on social media could present the possibility of livelier debate, differing perspectives, and the building of consensus through interaction. Yet, it does not seem that social media debates result in the changing of people’s opinions in a way that would lead toward consensus building. By some accounts, the opposite may be happening. Comparing the Rodney King incident in 1991 with the George Floyd controversy in 2020, David Pan will analyze the ways in which social media have changed the dynamics of the discourse on racism in the US.

In his paper on “Art/Race Swarms,” Jeffrey Clapp discusses one kind of sensationalist content on social media, the “shitstorm,” theorized by Han Byung-chul as a wave of stance-taking characteristic of a de-hierarchical and mediatized social world. Such swarms have recently characterized the discussion of racism in the arts, as exemplified by controversy over Kenneth Goldsmith’s “The Body of Michael Brown” (2015), Dana Schutz’s “Open Casket” (2017), and “Scaffold” by Sam Durant (2018). The sensationalism of these events is multiple: first, the sensationalism of white artistic practices which display violence meted on racialized bodies; then, the sensationalism of the swarms that arise to contest/defend those displays, and finally the sensationalism of cancellation as a scene of iconoclasm. Based on archival material, this presentation considers these visceral and medial circuits in Claudia Rankine’s recent work, including The White Card (2019) and Just Us (2020). Rankine’s works attempt to arrest slides from one kind of sensationalism to another. Clapp suggests that this cannot be done without appealing, as Han does, to sovereignty.

While the concept of beauty is subjective and often said to be in the eyes of the beholder, social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram have perpetuated narrow beauty standards that label women based on attributes such as “sexiest”, “brown” , “'tan”, or “dark” skin tones. The algorithms used by these platforms inadvertently reinforce cultural biases, leading to the marginalization and erasure of diverse racial identities and often raise the question “Who am I?” Sadiya Jannath will first explore how marginalized groups encounter colorism issues in social media, impacting their perception of cultural identity and often leading them to create unique identity. Additionally, she will highlight the underlying racial biases inherent in terms such as “filter” and “effect,” which often perpetuate the objectification of users. Jannath will focus on the effects of virtual racism on individuals' self-representation and hierarchies of beauty by following popular trends.

The three presentations, one by an advanced scholar, another by a developing scholar, and a third by a graduate student, represent diverging viewpoints on the way in which social media have affected the discourse and depiction of racism. The first paper emphasizes the way in which social media have turned race into a more crucial social issue than warranted by statistical data about race and policing, and the second paper describes the sensationalist aspects of social media depictions of race. By contrast the third paper looks at how social media reinforce cultural biases about race. Each paper will be limited to 15 minutes to allow ample time for discussion.