In a new opinion piece in Scientific American, CITAP faculty Daniel Kreiss, Alice Marwick, and Francesca Tripodi describe how political campaigns against critical race theory (CRT) continue a long tradition of linking racial justice movements to communism as a form of fearmongering.
Conservative anti-CRT rhetoric and the accompanying bills introduced and enacted by Republican state legislatures across the country comprise a disinformation campaign designed to manufacture white grievance in the service of white power. These policies reveal the need for researchers and scholars concerned with the quality of democratic debate to treat white supremacy as a disinformation campaign and to incorporate an honest accounting of America’s racial history and legacy of present-day inequality into all levels of education.
They conclude that effectively countering this disinformation campaign requires going beyond dismissals anti-CRT rhetoric as inaccurate to affirmatively supporting racial justice lessons in classrooms as a matter of equality and justice.
Recent publications and appearances
“It begins with an accusation—someone is accused of doing something that according to one group’s ideological framework is immoral… now the target is often but not always from a different social context that has different moral norms and values. The accusation is amplified through social media, usually due to one or more high-profile accounts or influencers…” Alice Marwick discussed her work on morally-motivated networked harassment for the Hettlemen Talks. (A video of her presentation begins about 19 minutes in to the full event recording.)
“I read Heavy and I was angry. I was angry at how vulnerable you were and how powerful you were. I was angry that you kept pushing me to think and feel at the same time. Because like a lot of intellectuals, I prefer to do one or the other. And you just kept insisting that we do both, and you wrote it in a voice that was undeniable.” Tressie McMillan Cottom talks revision and vulnerability with Kiese Laymon as guest host of the Ezra Klein show.
“Companies learning the lessons of the Haugen disclosures will likely reduce the number of people involved in hard decisions, reduce the volume of research they conduct on hard problems, and change hiring practices to reduce leaking.” Faculty affiliate Matt Perault discusses the potential internal decision-making effects of the Facebook Papers.
“History is a powerful tool that creates cultural identities and power structures; it tells us why Black service members like Lt. Caron Nazario face discrimination and harassment while wearing the uniform of one of the most respected institutions in the nation, and how right-wing extremism enters the military’s ranks.” A Veteran’s Day op-ed from affiliate Daniel Johnson explores the erasure of American racial history and the longstanding mistreatment of Black service members.
Coming soon
November 16: CITAP affiliate Caitlin Petre will discuss her new book, All the News That’s Fit to Click, with Alice Marwick and Alexis Madrigal at NYU.
Rest of Web
💯 Congratulations to Tressie McMillan Cottom for making the Root 100 annual list for 2021!
🔬 Diana Enriquez of Princeton University shared a new dataset of interviews with delivery gig workers on automation at work. The dataset is publicly available with a CC attribution license.
💼 Microsoft Research is hiring for 12-week internships in Computational Social Science.
🛠 The Shorenstein Center announced a call for participants for a March 2022 workshop on “True Costs of Misinformation.”
Welcome to our new neighbors at the University of Alabama!