The authors investigate the association between self-reported experiences of discrimination and social media use among Black American adults. Experiences of discrimination were assessed using a 10-question scale of self-reported discrimination encounters. Data analysis was based on a sample of 220 Black American adult respondents residing in Texas. The results indicate that Black Americans reporting higher levels of discrimination use social media more frequently than those who report lower levels of discrimination. In addition, Black Americans who experience higher levels of discrimination are more likely to have accounts on Twitter or Facebook than those who experience lower levels of discrimination. Together, these findings suggest that social media sites such as Twitter serve as sites of expression for people of color to air their grievances, find community, and cope with online and offline forms of racism and discrimination.

作者调查了美国黑人成年人自我报告的歧视经历与社交媒体使用之间的关联。使用自我报告的歧视遭遇的10个问题量表评估歧视的经历。数据分析基于居住在德克萨斯州的220名美国黑人成年被调查者的样本。结果表明，与歧视程度较低的美国黑人相比，歧视程度较高的美国黑人更频繁地使用社交媒体。此外，遭受歧视程度较高的黑人美国人比受歧视程度较低的美国人在Twitter或Facebook上开设帐户的可能性更高。总之，这些发现表明，诸如Twitter之类的社交媒体网站是有色人种表达不满，