This timely, comprehensive study examines how racism manifests online and highlights the antiracist tactics rising to oppose it

From cell phone footage of police killing unarmed Black people to leaked racist messages and even comments from friends and family on social media, online communication exposes how racism operates in a world that pretends to be colorblind. In When the Hood Comes Off, Rob Eschmann blends rigorous research and engaging personal narrative to examine the effects of online racism on communities of color and society, and the unexpected ways that digital technologies enable innovative everyday tools of antiracist resistance.

Drawing on a wealth of data, including interviews with students of Color around the country and analyses of millions of social media posts over the past decade, Eschmann investigates the influence of online communication on face-to-face interactions. When the Hood Comes Off highlights the power of the internet as an organizing tool, and shows that online racism can be a profound wake-up call. How will we respond?

About the Author

Rob Eschmann is a writer, scholar, filmmaker, and educator from Chicago. He is Associate Professor of Social Work and a member of the Data Science Institute at Columbia University, as well as Faculty Associate at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society.

Contents

1. An Intellectual Puzzle
2. Once We Were Colorblind
3. Mask On: Rules of Racial Engagement
4. Mask Off: Revelations and New Realities
5. Digital Resistance
6. Double-Sided Consciousness
7. Protest, Posters, and QR Codes
8. Racism Is Trending

Acknowledgments
Appendix
Tables
Notes
References
Index

Reviews

"There’s a lot not to like about social media, some of which Eschmann explores in a discussion of a Facebook page that invites anonymous postings about race, among other topics, that seems to be a magnet for hate. . . . [Yet] Eschmann’s book reveals that there are opportunities for social media to be beneficial to people experiencing marginalization."
— Everyday Sociology

"The book makes a timely and relevant contribution both to the study of the societal impacts of masked racist ideologies widely fostered on social media and ways to resist this worrisome social phenomenon."
— Ethnic and Racial Studies

"Rob Eschmann documents how the subtle racism that people of Color experience in public spaces becomes crass, aggressive, and direct in private, online settings. Silent or hesitant on race topics when in public, far too many Whites become almost Klan-like when interacting with people of Color in the anonymous online sphere. Splashed with memorable, poignant personal examples and written in a highly readable and engaged way, When the Hood Comes Off is one of those precious few books that speaks to the concerns of scholars and the general public alike."—Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Duke University, and author of Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America

"Eschmann raises important issues about what it means to be a young person in our very online world at a time when White supremacy is resurgent. He draws on a huge trove of data and writes about it with lucidity and urgency. When the Hood Comes Off make a significant new contribution to our understanding of race, racism, and technology."—Jessie Daniels, author of Nice White Ladies: The Truth about White Supremacy, Our Role in It, and How We Can Help Dismantle It

"When the Hood Comes Off is a testament to the idea that social media platforms are critical spaces for racial discourse. However, Eschmann does not limit himself solely to studying what happens on social media platforms. He interviews students of color all across the country who experience online racist rhetoric and who forge online and offline spaces of antiracist resistance."—Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist and Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America

"A fascinating look at race and racism online. Based on sensitive interviews with those who must grapple with racist discourse, and complemented by analyses of large-scale patterns in social media, Eschmann digs into the depths of how technologies for social interaction have shaped our nation's continuous struggle with race. Informed by the author's personal experiences with racist discourse, When the Hood Comes Off is a consistently sensitive and probing book."—Mario Small, author of Qualitative Literacy: A Guide to Evaluating Ethnographic and Interview Research

“While a plethora of great works ask us to diagnose racism as it has happened, When the Hood Comes Off stands to change the way we think about the racism ahead of us, unfolding in digital space."—Saida Grundy, author of Respectable: Politics and Paradox in Making the Morehouse Man

About the Book

About the Author

Table of Contents

Reviews