Killing Us Softly: A Social Media Critical Discourse Study of Black Protectionism and Violence Against Black Women

Background and Purpose: In the late hours of July 12, 2020, rapper and entertainer Megan Thee Stallion was shot by then friend and fellow rapper, Tory Lanez. There are numerous cases of celebrity Black women experiencing violence; however, research suggests that scholars tend to focus on poor women of color in their analyses of violence, conflating race, ethnicity, class, and other factors. I use Afro pessimism, Race as Resource Signal, and Cultural Betrayal Trauma Theory and apply them to the case study of the shooting of Megan Thee Stallion. Building on previous research, I suggest that the conceptualizations of violence against Black women are based on class and not race, blurring and distorting the image of violence against Black women. I explore how intracultural expectations related to Black women’s resilience and Black men’s oppression contribute to violence against Black women, crossing socioeconomic lines. I argue that the interpersonal power dynamic of violence experienced by Black women is created through the intracultural expectations of Black womanhood and this power dynamic is reflected in the violence discourse. We can use the case of a celebrity to understand this power dynamic within the discourse because the celebrity is a Black woman.

Methods: I use social media critical discourse studies as a methodological framework to explore how intracultural expectations of Black womanhood are mediated and negotiated among Black Twitter, a subcommunity of Twitter/X. This method is useful for understanding the intersection of race, class, and gender in discourse. Data was collected within one week of three key events related to the shooting of Megan Thee Stallion: the shooting itself (July 12, 2020); Megan Thee Stallion’s appearance on Saturday Night Live (October 15, 2022); and the trial/verdict of Tory Lanez (December 23, 2022). The search yielded a total of 596 screenshots which included single tweets or entire threads. The inclusion/exclusion criteria resulted in a total of N = 146 screenshots across the three timepoints: 47 screenshots (July, 12, 2020); 41 screenshots (October 15, 2022); and 58 screenshots (December 23, 2022). Deductive, theory-driven approaches and semantic coding guide my reflexive thematic analysis.

Findings: Analysis reveals six themes: imbalance of protection; some Black women deserve protection/violence more than others; Black women’s trauma is minimized; Black women are assumed to be lying/not believed; Black women experience violence because of individual choice/not community; and systems are rigged against Black men/no choice. The findings indicate that most Black women understand how intracultural expectations of Black womanhood affect all Black women irrespective of status and how these expectations contribute to and maintain violence against Black women. Black women are expected to give their very lives to save others. This is an implication of the pervasiveness and severity of cultural messaging in maintaining violence against Black women.

Conclusion and Implications: Findings suggest that violence against Black women is not a structural issue, an individual issue, but a community issue. Implications for research and practice include the adoption of a cultural framework beyond a traditional class analysis to understand violence against Black women.