White Flight-Then and Now: Chocolate Networks and Vanilla Platforms

 

White Flight-Then and Now: Chocolate Networks and Vanilla Platforms



White flight occurs when white people feel threatened, challenged, or intimidated by Blacks, Hispanics, Indigenous or other people of color.  It is a racially motivated sudden or gradual migration of whites from a specific neighborhood, community, or locale.  This was most apparent after the desegregation orders ended racial exclusion in schools.  Many whites, often with the aid of federal loans, rather than allowing their kids to attend schools with black and brown kids, fled to the suburbs.  Hence, we have chocolate cities and vanilla suburbs.  In modern times, with the internet, this same phenomenon is witnessed on various social network platforms, including listservs and newsgroups, Facebook, GroupMe, TikTok, etc. Typically, before flight, other mechanisms, both covert and obvert, might be witnessed, ranging from violence and intimidation to marginalization and attempts to silence the non-white.  But when all else fails, the whites abandon the setting and enter more exclusive neighborhoods or social network platforms.  As a result, today, we are even more segregated, regardless of physical or virtual territories, than ever.

Comments

  1. Gilmore CrosbyMarch 23, 2024 at 8:16 AM

    There is truth to that of course, but there are other types of flight. I left Twitter as soon as Muck took over. I am white, by the non-scientific classification system that people in the US generally adhere to, but that was not the reason I left. I think it is safe to say a bunch of non-white users left as well, and users with other group identities, such as LGBTQ users. So is 'white flight" a thing? Yes. And as you know, other variables intersect so analysis remains necessary.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gilmore CrosbyMarch 23, 2024 at 8:18 AM

      Talk about a Freudian slip...I meant Musk, not muck lol!

      Delete

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