Black Twitter Asks Rachel: Racial Identity Theft in "Post-Racial" America. Issue 2 (3rd April 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Stevens, Leslie; Maurantonio, Nicole
• Is Part Of: Howard journal of communications. Volume 29:Issue 2(2018)
• Page Start: 179
• Page End: 195
• Publication Date: 2018-04-03
• Subjects: race -- critical theory -- identity -- new media communications; Communication -- Periodicals; 302.205
• DOI: 10.1080/10646175.2017.1354789
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1064-6175

Abstract

ABSTRACT: On Monday, June 15, 2015, Rachel Dolezal resigned from her post as president of the Spokane chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People amid allegations that she had been lying about her race. Dolezal, her White parents claimed, had been "presenting herself as a black person when she is not." This article explores Black Twitter's response to Dolezal's "outing" as a White woman with particular emphasis on the #AskRachel hashtag, to which users posted a series of questions intended to discern Dolezal's "true" racial identity. Although the hashtag has been alternately praised for its wit and critiqued for its cruelty, this article suggests that both critiques underestimate the hashtag's significance. This article argues that the hashtag provided a site for the articulation, contestation, and negotiation of Blackness, capturing larger cultural anxieties surrounding racial identity in a "post-racial" United States.