How #Blacklivesmatter: exploring the role of hip-hop celebrities in constructing racial identity on Black Twitter

ABSTRACT

Pundits disagree on the extent to which hip-hop artists have used their celebrity clout to further the #BlackLivesMatter movement. This study adds to a nascent body of research on Black Twitter by examining how celebrities, in particular, hip-hop celebrities, used the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag to create and maintain Black identity during the 2014 Ferguson protests related to racial justice and police brutality. Using computerized and manual content analyses of 2.67 million tweets, this study found more celebrity tweets were framed as related to Black identity compared with marketing/self-promotion. Further qualitative analysis of the Black identity-framed tweets revealed four themes: speaking to whites, solidarity, Black is beautiful, and equality. Through a lens of social identity theory, this study demonstrates how hip-hop celebrities used Black Twitter to construct Black identity and community, building on research that shows group identification is fundamental for creating the solidarity and commitment necessary for collective action.

KEYWORDS:

• Activism
• police brutality
• race
• social identity
• Twitter

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Summer Harlow, who has a Ph.D. in Journal is from the University of Texas at Austin, is an assistant professor in the Jack J. Valenti School of Communication at the University of Houston. Her research explores the intersections of emerging technologies, activism, and journalism, particularly as related to Latin America and marginalized communities. She is the author of “Liberation Technology in El Salvador: Re-appropriating Social Media among Alternative Media Proects” from Palgrave Macmillan (2017) [email:[email protected]].

Anna Benbrook is an adjunt professor at Kennesaw State University and an Emory-CDC Ponce Clinical Research Site Health Educator at Emory University. She has a master's degree in Integrated Marketing & Management Communications from Florida State University [email:[email protected]].

ORCID

Summer Harlow http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6079-1439