#WakeUpAmerica, #IllegalsAreCriminals: the role of the cyber public sphere in the perpetuation of the Latino cyber-moral panic in the US

ABSTRACT

This project explores the influence of discursive interactions on driving moral panics by drawing on the theoretical strands of the public sphere and the white racial frame. We apply the framework of the Latino cyber-moral panic to understand online public discourse surrounding the criminalization of undocumented immigrants in the United States. With an ethnographic approach, we find the Internet becomes a cyber public sphere where user’s interactions reinforce and are reinforced by a white racial frame; this then contributes to the spread of a moral panic, and ultimately reinforces systemic racism. We argue that social media sites and their discursive tools, such as hashtags, comments, and ‘likes,’ help to efficiently and continuously target Latino and undocumented immigrants. By weaving communication literature and critical race scholarship, we conceptualize the Internet as a powerful mechanism for the spread of white supremacy and systemic racism.

KEYWORDS:

• Latino cyber-moral panic
• cyber public sphere
• white racial frame
• systematic racism

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the participants of the session and the anonymous reviewers for their useful comments and suggestions to improve this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Nadia Yamel Flores Yeffal is currently an assistant professor of sociology at Texas Tech University. She received her doctorate in sociology from University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of the book, Migration-Trust Networks: Social Cohesion in Mexican U.S.-Bound Emigration (by Texas A&M University Press). Flores-Yeffal's research focuses on the causes, processes, and consequences of undocumented migration from Mexico and Central America to the United States [email: [email protected]].

Guadalupe T. Vidales Ibarra is a retired professor with a Ph.D. in Criminology, Law, and Society, from UC Irvine. Her areas of study include issues related with Latinos (as) and the Criminal Justice System, Domestic Violence, Media, cyberspace, and health and inequality [email: [email protected]].

Girsea Martinez is a doctoral student and McKnight Fellow at the University of South Florida. Her work takes a critical approach to the experience of undocumented immigrants and their families. Girsea's work also integrates her positionality as a young immigrant woman of color and draws upon emotions, critical race, and social movement literature [email: [email protected]].

Notes

1 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/9-outrageous-things-donald-trump-has-said-about-latinos_us_55e483a1e4b0c818f618904b.

2 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/03/technology/how-the-internet-is-loosening-our-grip-on-the-truth.html?_r=0.

3 http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/data-from-2006-comptroller-study/.

4 http://iris2016.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/IRIS2016_paper_21-2.pdf.

5 http://www.digitallearning.macfound.org.

6 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T4jssO9t-0.

7 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/07/08/donald-trumps-false-comments-connecting-mexican-immigrants-and-crime/.

8 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/9-outrageous-things-donald-trump-has-said-about-latinos_us_55e483a1e4b0c818f618904b.

9 http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2015/09/trump-was-right-20-of-illegal-immigrants-caught-at-the-border-have-criminal-record/.

10 https://www.facebook.com/386287982528/photos/a.396571917528.165387.386287982528/10153832098432529/?type=3&theater.

11 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B65pLsah3XE.

12 https://www.youtube.com/user/renegadesinamerica/videos.

13 http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/05/12/liberal-democrats-most-likely-to-have-learned-about-election-from-facebook/.

14 http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/04/15/americans-views-of-immigrants-marked-by-widening-partisan-generational-divides/.

15 http://www.people-press.org/2015/06/04/broad-public-support-for-legal-status-for-undocumented-immigrants/#views-of-immigrants-impact-on-the-u-s.

16 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/white-nationalist-movement-twitter-faster-growth-isis-islamic-state-study-a7223671.html.

17 http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/26/politics/executive-orders-presidents-actions-presidential-memoranda/.

18 Who may have already become the next targeted group.

19 http://www.npr.org/2017/09/05/546423550/trump-signals-end-to-daca-calls-on-congress-to-act.