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SheridanFord (talk | contribs) →User base: Cleaned up user base section + added citations that explain why "Black" is the preferred spelling--with capital B. There is no one rule but it is preferred based on a survey. All ethnic groups are capitalized in census data. |
Mserard313 (talk | contribs) m →Signifyin': RNC tweet from Committee, not Convention |
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Florini notes that the specific construction of Twitter itself contributes to the ability for African Americans to signify on Black Twitter. She contends that “Twitter’s architecture creates participant structures that accommodate the crucial function of the audience during signifyin’”. By being able to see each other’s replies and retweets, the user base is able to jointly partake in an extended dialogue where each person tries to participate in the signifyin’. In addition, Florini adds that “Twitter mimics another key aspect of how signifyin’ games are traditionally played—speed”. Specifically, the retweets and replies are able to be sent so quickly that it replaces the need for the audience members to interact in person.<ref name=":0" />
In addition the practices of signifying create a signalling that one is entering a communicative collective space rather than functioning as an individual. Tweets become part of Black Twitter by responding to the calls in the tag. Hashtags embody a performance of blackness through a transmission of racial knowledge into wordplay. Sarah Florini in particular focuses on how an active self-identification of blackness rejects notions of a post-racial society by disrupting the narratives of a color-blind society. This rejection of a post-racial society gets tied into the collective practices of performance by turning narratives such as the Republican National
Manjoo referred to the hashtags the black community uses as "blacktags," citing [[Baratunde Thurston]], then of ''[[The Onion]]'', who argued that blacktags are a version of [[the dozens]].<ref name=Manjoo10Aug2010/> Also an example of signifyin', this is a game popular with African Americans in which participants outdo each other by throwing insults back and forth ("[[Maternal insult|Yo momma]] so bowlegged, she look like a bite out of a donut," "Yo momma sent her picture to the lonely hearts club, but they sent it back and said, 'We ain't that lonely!{{'"}}).<ref>Cecil Adams, [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/498/to-african-americans-what-does-signifying-mean "To African-Americans, what does "signifying" mean?"], ''The Straight Dope'', 28 September 1984.</ref> According to Thurston, the brevity of tweets and the instant feedback mean Twitter fits well into the African tradition of [[call and response]].<ref name=Manjoo10Aug2010/>
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