ABSTRACT
This chapter explores Twitter conversations about race and racism, in the context of increased public race-related incidents on Twitter in which citizens have been called out for racist comments online. Social media has the power to make large sections of public life visible, and through this exploration of the discourses on race and racism on Twitter, the chapter explores to what extent the platform facilitates or allows for resistance to social surveillance around matters of race online. The chapter attempts to explore how dominant discourses about race are created on social media, and argues for Twitter as a vehicle for conversations and debates among racially, culturally and geographically diverse groups of South Africans. This chapter highlights the potentially transformative storytelling effect of social media. It argues that hashtagged conversations around controversial political events tend to elicit processes of polarisation, but that in general, Twitter discussions on race in South Africa do not represent closed-walled gardens or digital enclosures. Instead, the platform reveals itself as a space for discussion and debate between people with divergent political opinions, resulting in the formation of a virtual public sphere.
