Normative White Internet Practices: Performances at the Edge of a Digital Black Community

Abstract

Following the murder of George Floyd, more than 2,000 White-identifying Reddit users applied to the subreddit, r/BlackPeopleTwitter, in hopes of becoming verified allies. Prior research has argued that White people may seek out digital contexts to learn about and practice race. However, few studies examine why, and none problematize the relationship between normative internet practices and Whiteness—normative White internet practices. In collaboration with r/BlackPeopleTwitter moderators and rooted in a theoretical orientation of race as doings, this ethnographic and qualitative case study aimed to document examples of normative White internet practices through a focus on the performances of White users seeking allyship at the edge of a digital Black community. The study analysis focuses on 3,219 White ally applications sent in the year surrounding George Floyd’s murder—when and where normative Whiteness was actively and openly contested. The findings begin to articulate a repertoire of normative White internet practices as White-identifying users engaged in information seeking, self-differentiation, impression management, and spatial negotiation to center individualistic projects rooted in Whiteness even when obscured as care for others. These unsolicited and normative practices took on distinct capacities for harm when sent to r/BlackPeopleTwitter moderators. Online racism may persist due to more subtle and normalized forms of racialized harm that do not trigger platformed or moderator interventions. As scholars continue to study racism on social media, there remains a need to partner with online communities to name and organize against digital harms enacted through normative White internet practices.