2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumMapping Racist Tweets in Response to President Obama's Re-election
http://www.floatingsheep.org/2012/11/mapping-racist-tweets-in-response-to.html?m=1During the day after the 2012 presidential election we took note of a spike in hate speech on Twitter referring to President Obama's re-election, as chronicled by Jezebel (thanks to Chris Van Dyke for bringing this our attention). It is a useful reminder that technology reflects the society in which it is based, both the good and the bad. Information space is not divorced from everyday life and racism extends into the geoweb and helps shapes its contours; and in turn, data from the geoweb can be used to reflect the geographies of racist practice back onto the places from which they emerged.
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Given our interest in the geography of information we wanted to see how this type of hate speech overlaid on physical space. To do this we aggregated the 395 hate tweets to the state level and then normalized them by comparing them to the total number of geocoded tweets coming out of that state in the same time period [2]. We used a location quotient inspired measure (LQ) that indicates each state's share of election hate speech tweet relative to its total number of tweets.[3] A score of 1.0 indicates that a state has relatively the same number of hate speech tweets as its total number of tweets. Scores above 1.0 indicate that hate speech is more prevalent than all tweets, suggesting that the state's "twitterspace" contains more racists post-election tweets than the norm.
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A couple of findings from this analysis
Mississippi and Alabama have the highest LQ measures with scores of 7.4 and 8.1, respectively.
Other southern states (Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee) surrounding these two core states also have very high LQ scores and form a fairly distinctive cluster in the southeast.
The prevalence of post-election racist tweets is not strictly a southern phenomenon as North Dakota (3.5), Utah (3.5) and Missouri (3) have very high LQs. Other states such as West Virginia, Oregon and Minnesota don't score as high but have a relatively higher number of hate tweets than their overall twitter usage would suggest.
The Northeast and West coast (with the exception of Oregon) have a relatively lower number of hate tweets.
States shaded in grey had no geocoded hate tweets within our database. Many of these states (Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and South Dakota) have relatively low levels of Twitter use as well. Rhode Island has much higher numbers of geocoded tweets but had no hate tweets that we could identify.
As an Alabamian, I'm saddened but not surprised. Sigh.
catrose
(5,071 posts)You'd think we could send a Democrat to DC.
KatyMan
(4,207 posts)from the DNC. I do not believe that I even saw any political ads for Sadler.
catrose
(5,071 posts)But I got a trees-worth of mailers, I felt like politicians should be paying my phone bill.
And now I have Michael McCaul AGAIN for a rep, and Kay Bailey Hutchison's been replaced by a teahadist.
KatyMan
(4,207 posts)even getting any mailers for Sadler. Can't believe we're stuck with Cruz.
stuck with Ron Paul
catrose
(5,071 posts)I didn't get mail or phone calls either about Sadler; those are all I can speak to, not TV or radio.
nc4bo
(17,651 posts)or just to satisfy a curiosity.
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/hate-map
demosocialist
(184 posts)embarrassed
ailsagirl
(22,898 posts)IMO, racists are a bunch of pathetic dummies. To actually subscibe to that ignorant mindset is astonishing to me. Change is happening, but so slowly.
Stuckinthebush
(10,847 posts)And all over the US.
Not all republicans are racists but I'd venture to guess that most racists are republicans.
ailsagirl
(22,898 posts)I know it exists here, albeit more subtly. It's such a pathetic thing and makes me feel so ashamed. But I'm so happy that it'll be "President Obama" for four more years!! He's our champion and his cool head and sound judgment give me real hope for our future.
Indpndnt
(2,391 posts)A whole lot of other states, too, including Illinois and Ohio.
There are a lot of Democrats in Texas. Instead of people bashing it on DU and elsewhere, maybe others should move here and help turn it blue, again. But, no, it's just a lot easier for them to sit back and point fingers. That makes them part of the problem.
Stuckinthebush
(10,847 posts)Texas is our next big thing in the Democratic Party. It will be oh, so sweet to take that State!
maximillian1974
(25 posts)I just love Rhode Island. Now they just need to pass gay marriage this year and they'll be tops in my book.