Twitter can be used to discuss problems of the real world, and racism is one of them. Kyra Gaunt joined Twitter in July of 2008 as @kyraocity and, as an associate professor of music and anthropology at Baruch College-CUNY as well as being a writer, blogger and generally a politically aware person, she started to be interested in Twitter and racism.
Indeed, racism became a big issue on the micro-blogging platform, when the trending #thatsafrican topic was removed by by Twitter.
What happened? Last June a thread with the hashtag #thatsafrican became a trending topic. Here are some tweets that appeared with the hashtag, cited by the blog Afrolicious:
#thatsafrican when your last name when your lst name is OD too hard for teachers to pronounce
#thatsafrican if your son is the leader of the free world
#thatsafrican when your mum negotiates the prices of sneakers at footlocker. 99 dollars. come oooon!
#thatsafrican when your ringtone is african queen by 2face. haha!
A journalist from the Huffington Post, David Weiner, published a piece "#Thatsafrican – when Twitter went racist?" shortly after the topic was removed from the Twitter stream. He said:
The debate is already raging over the appropriateness of the trend. Is it self-deprecating humour? A cover for racists? Something only Africans and African-Americans can joke about? Something no one should be talking about?
What's more, it brings into question the role of free speech on Twitter and the company's role as moderator, or lack thereof. If a popular trend on Twitter is deemed racist, what action is required on the part of the company.
Gaunt argues that this was a racial conversation, but not a racist conversation. She still tweets racial issues to make people aware of them because in her opinion Twitter can be a resource:
Kyraocity abt racism #31: Could a black Jane Elliot be as effective? Would CEOs & staff pay and hire black consultant with same $$ & freqcy?
Kyraocity abt #Racism #33: Africa has more genetic divrersity among ppl than anywhere, so why do most think they r the same race? #skincolor
Was #thatsafrican racist? Do you think Twitter can play a useful role in discussing race?
