Racial microaggressions are defined as subtle racial slights that can be offensive or hurtful. One of the defining characteristics of racial microaggressions is how difficult they can be to respond to, and the literature reports that not responding may be the most common response to microaggressions. This study addresses a vital gap in the existing literature by examining the extent to which the silence that characterizes face-to-face experiences with microaggressions extends into online social media spaces. Drawing on a dataset of 254,964 tweets over an 8-year period, we present and examine trends in the usage of the term “microaggressions” over time. Furthermore, we then generate a purposive sample of 1,038 of the most influential tweets to explore discussions and content themes through an in-depth qualitative analysis of these messages. Here, we find both a drastic increase in the usage of the term microaggression on Twitter over time and an intense contestation over its meaning and repercussions for both individuals and society. Implications of these findings in understanding the role of online social media discourse in challenging or reproducing hegemonic racial structures is discussed.

种族微侵略被定义为可能令人反感或伤害的细微种族差异。种族微侵略的定义性特征之一是它们有多难应对，并且文献报道不响应可能是对微侵略最常见的反应。这项研究通过研究表征微攻击的面对面体验的沉默在多大程度上扩展到了在线社交媒体空间中，从而解决了现有文献中的一个重大空白。在8年的时间里，利用254,964条推文的数据集，我们介绍并研究了“微侵略”一词的使用趋势。此外，我们随后针对1038条最具影响力的推文生成了一个有目的的样本，通过对这些消息进行深入的定性分析来探讨讨论和内容主题。这里，我们发现，随着时间的推移，微攻击一词在Twitter上的使用量急剧增加，并且在其含义和对个人和社会的影响方面都引起了激烈的争论。讨论了这些发现在理解在线社交媒体话语在挑战或再现霸权种族结构中的作用。