‘Joy is resistance’: cross-platform resilience and (re)invention of Black oral culture online
Existing research has affirmed that Black people historically mastered oral communication strategies to resist subjugation and oppression by dominant groups, and have emerged as leaders in technological innovation. This article takes seriously Black users’ social media engagement
and focuses particularly on Black joy online. We analyze a rich collection of discourse spanning both Twitter and Vine through which Black users utilize the affordances of both platforms to challenge dominant narratives that demean and dehumanize Black people. We argue that Black users seize
upon the interplay of the applications to not only express and foster joy, but to extend historic legacies of Black oral culture and further cultivate contemporary strategies that leverage – but also transcend – the affordances of each platform.
Keywords: Black joy; Black oral culture; platform use; resistance; rhetorical strategy; social media
Document Type: Research Article
Affiliations: College of Arts & Humanities, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
Publication date: 12 May 2019
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