ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how Twitter’s function as a hybrid space allows for the cultivation of contemporary African American Hush Harbors. Historically, these were hidden spaces where enslaved African Americans were able to more freely express themselves and discuss important aspects of their lives that they otherwise had to hide. In contrast, contemporary Hush Harbors are more likely to be semi-private or somewhat public spaces that African Americans create in order to discuss, repudiate, and escape from an oppressive hegemonic society. As such, Twitter as both a public and private space has come to serve as a contemporary Hush Harbor—that is, a space for African American users to bring experiences from the physical world into digital spaces and vice versa. In this chapter, I argue that as users play with GIFs, memes, and social commentary, they cultivate, share, and represent insider knowledge from the black community. Further, I indicate that by engaging in on-going dialogue(s) [tweets/threads], individuals become both active contributors and consumers of conversations at different points in time. To demonstrate how this unfolds, I examine the use of Twitter as a contemporary Hush Harbor to discuss the evocative 2017 film Get Out.
