IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jscscx/v7y2018i2p21-d129284.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Discourse from #TheRealUW: What Tweets Say about Racial Concerns at a Predominately White Institution

Author

Listed:
  • Karl Vachuska

    (Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA)

  • Jack Brudvig

    (Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA)

Abstract

In March 2016, after a series of hate crimes victimized students of color on campus, students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison started #TheRealUW movement against racism on campus. In order to exemplify racism on campus, students of color took to social media to share personal experiences and opinions on racism, affixing “#TheRealUW” to their posts. In this article, we analyze what students of color on the social media site, Twitter, spoke about and took issue against. The plurality of #TheRealUW tweets centered primarily on instances of subtle or explicit verbal racism. These experiences had impacted a variety of aspects of students of color’s lives, including mental health, housing, access to spaces, and overall quality of education. Students also discussed isolation, marginalized representation in the University’s decisions, and their relationship with authority. The many tweets clearly demonstrate the breadth of racism at predominately white institutions and indicate that inequality of peer and faculty social resources, opportunities, and experiences is a significant perpetuator of a variety of forms of racial inequality at predominately white institutions, but that racism in institutional and systemic forms is also an area of concern for students.

Suggested Citation

  • Karl Vachuska & Jack Brudvig, 2018. "Discourse from #TheRealUW: What Tweets Say about Racial Concerns at a Predominately White Institution," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-13, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:7:y:2018:i:2:p:21-:d:129284
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/7/2/21/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/7/2/21/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wallace, S. & Nazroo, J. & Bécares, L., 2016. "Cumulative effect of racial discrimination on the mental health of ethnic minorities in the United Kingdom," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 106(7), pages 1294-1300.
    2. Mitzi Davis & Yvonne Dias-Bowie & Katherine Greenberg & Gary Klukken & Howard R. Pollio & Sandra P. Thomas & Charles L. Thompson, 2004. "“A Fly in the Buttermilk”: Descriptions of University Life by Successful Black Undergraduate Students at a Predominately White Southeastern University," The Journal of Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 75(4), pages 420-445, July.
    3. Esperanza Vera-Toscano & Victoria Ateca-Amestoy, 2008. "The relevance of social interactions on housing satisfaction," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 86(2), pages 257-274, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Irizar, Patricia & Kapadia, Dharmi & Amele, Sarah & Bécares, Laia & Divall, Pip & Katikireddi, Srinivasa Vittal & Kibuchi, Eliud & Kneale, Dylan & McCabe, Ronan & Nazroo, James & Nellums, Laura B. & T, 2023. "Pathways to ethnic inequalities in COVID-19 health outcomes in the United Kingdom: A systematic map," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 329(C).
    2. Matel Anna, 2020. "Tenure Status, Housing Conditions and Residential Satisfaction of Adolescents," Real Estate Management and Valuation, Sciendo, vol. 28(4), pages 24-32, December.
    3. Adeyemo, Omolola Ibijoke & Ilelaboye, Damilola Josephine & Omoni, Adedayo Adebola & Ogundiran, Adeyinka Amos, 2024. "Evaluation of Residential Housing Satisfaction in Ibadan Metropolis, Nigeria," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 8(8), pages 432-438, August.
    4. Jason Arday, 2018. "Understanding Mental Health: What Are the Issues for Black and Ethnic Minority Students at University?," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(10), pages 1-25, October.
    5. Sylvia Jansen, 2013. "Why is Housing Always Satisfactory? A Study into the Impact of Preference and Experience on Housing Appreciation," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 113(3), pages 785-805, September.
    6. Nkasi Stoll & Anna-Theresa Jieman & Yannick Yalipende & Nicola C. Byrom & Heidi Lempp & Stephani L. Hatch, 2023. "A Qualitative Evaluation of the Motivations, Experiences, and Impact of a Mental Wellbeing Peer Support Group for Black University Students in England and Wales: The Case of Black Students Talk," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, December.
    7. Bonakdar, Said Benjamin & Roos, Michael W. M., 2021. "Dissimilarity effects on house prices: What is the value of similar neighbours?," Ruhr Economic Papers 894, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    8. Ismail, Muhammad & Warsame, Abukar & Wilhelmsson, Mats, 2021. "An exploratory analysis of housing and the distribution of COVID-19 in Sweden," Working Paper Series 21/5, Royal Institute of Technology, Department of Real Estate and Construction Management & Banking and Finance.
    9. Chris Foye & David Clapham & Tommaso Gabrieli, 2018. "Home-ownership as a social norm and positional good: Subjective wellbeing evidence from panel data," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(6), pages 1290-1312, May.
    10. Tuyen Quang Tran & Huong Vu, 2018. "A microeconometric analysis of housing and life satisfaction among the Vietnamese elderly," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 52(2), pages 849-867, March.
    11. Drydakis, Nick, 2024. "Discrimination and Health Outcomes in England's Black Communities Amid the Cost-of-Living Crisis: Evaluating the Role of Inflation and Bank Rates," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1500, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    12. Taimaz Larimian & Arash Sadeghi, 2021. "Measuring urban social sustainability: Scale development and validation," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 48(4), pages 621-637, May.
    13. Shinichi Nagata & Eugene Brusilovskiy & Greg Townley & Bryan McCormick & Elizabeth C. Thomas & Gretchen Snethen & Mark S. Salzer, 2023. "Housing and loneliness among individuals with serious mental illnesses," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 69(3), pages 559-566, May.
    14. Haeny, Angela M. & Gibbons, Frederick X. & Fleischli, Mary E. & Gerrard, Meg & Lopez, Joel & Beach, Steven R.H., 2023. "Racial centrality mediates the association between adolescent racial discrimination and adult cigarette smoking outcomes among Black Americans," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 316(C).
    15. Tobias Wolbring, 2017. "Home Sweet Home! Does Moving Have (Lasting) Effects on Housing Satisfaction?," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 18(5), pages 1359-1375, October.
    16. Fava, Nicole M. & Li, Tan & Burke, Shanna L. & Wagner, Eric F., 2017. "Resilience in the context of fragility: Development of a multidimensional measure of child wellbeing within the Fragile Families dataset," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 358-367.
    17. María Navarro, 2019. "Financial, Job and Health Satisfaction: A Comparative Approach on Working People," Societies, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-17, April.
    18. Heijs, Joost & Cruz-Calderón, Selene Cruz, 2023. "A novel research strategy of measuring housing disadvantages of vulnerable populations for all income levels: the Propensity Score Matching approach," MPRA Paper 117212, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 04 May 2023.
    19. Marlena Piekut, 2021. "Between Poverty and Energy Satisfaction in Polish Households Run by People Aged 60 and Older," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-30, September.
    20. Alfonso Urzúa & Alejandra Caqueo-Urízar & Diego Henríquez & Marcos Domic & Daniel Acevedo & Sebastian Ralph & Gonzalo Reyes & Diego Tang, 2021. "Ethnic Identity as a Mediator of the Relationship between Discrimination and Psychological Well-Being in South—South Migrant Populations," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-13, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:7:y:2018:i:2:p:21-:d:129284. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.