A talk by Dr. Tempest Henning,
American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Emerging Fellows Scholar

EVENT POSTPONED; please watch for future updates

Keyboard stickers, memes, and reactionary GIFs have become an integral part of everyday internet and text message communication.  As a society, we have now reached a point where the same sort of images are being used to convey not only affective states, but also argumentative assertions.  For example, the eyeroll of NeNe Leakes (Real Housewives star) is used to not only convey a sentiment of ‘Gurl bye,’ but also can be, depending upon the context, a non-illocutionary objection to another’s argument.  While the usage of ‘Digital Blackface’ by white and non-Black users has been critiqued on the grounds of racial stereotyping, exploitation, and the commodification of Black bodies, what I aim to show within this project is that white and non-Black individuals should also not utilize these GIFs, memes, or reactionary stickers as argumentative replies due to a lack of understanding of the norms of African American Argumentation (AAA).  Not only is ‘Digital Blackface’ a repackaged form of 19th and 20th century minstrel blackface, but when these memes and GIFs are used within arguments they are fully intelligible within a specific argumentative modality (African American Argumentation), which within the Western world is typically seen as defective.  I find the popular usage of ‘Digital Blackface’ by white and non-Black users within arguments problematic on two fronts: 1 – due to racial privilege and anti-Blackness ‘Digital Blackface’ by white and non-Black users is seen as an acceptable practice; however, for many Black individuals engaging in AAA is commonly unacceptable.  So the practice perpetuates anti-Black oppression.  This also violates the pragma-dialectical ‘starting point’ rule.  2 –Individuals who are ignorant of the norms of AAA who utilize these memes and GIFs are, under a pragma-dialectical model, violating the ‘usage rule.’