The Numbers Behind #Whitesplaining

Race relations between black and white Americans is a hot-button topic on social media, as shown by the ongoing #BlackLivesMatter movement.

Now, #Whitesplaining, a hashtag used to describe a white individual explaining racism to a person of color, is being used in posts at least once every ten minutes, according to data aggregated by SocialMention. 75 percent of those posts are coming from Twitter.

And although a Keyhole.co analysis shows that the the term is being used in other countries across the globe, most of #Whitesplaining posts are coming from the United States or Canada. California counts for 13 percent of domestic posts using it.

An Urban Dictionary user defined #Whitesplaining as early as 2010. Though the definition seems to vary depending on who is using the hashtag, the general sentiment seems to be that #Whitesplaining is the race-related equivalent to the popular phrase, “mansplaining.” Both essentially describe a situation in which an individual who benefits from a system of oppression (i.e. racism or sexism) explains the oppressive system to the very people who experience it firsthand.

In January 2016, Twitter users tweeted #Whitesplaining in response to a number of current events and pop culture talkers. On January 19, singer-songwriter Sam Smith (@SamSmithWorld) rapidfire tweeted six times about an incident in which his friend was “verbally abused racially” and received backlash:

Though some came to his defense, many Twitter used #Whitesplaining and were not happy with his reaction.

However, the largest spike of #Whitesplaining use across the web was on January 15, the day Oscar nominees were announced, and the second largest was on January 18 — Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The hashtag saw a dramatic increase again on January 22, the day that Macklemore released his song, “White Privilege II.”

The more interesting takeaway, however, is that Keyhole.co estimates only 140 uses of #Whitesplaining over the course of January, while a Google News search of the hashtag supposedly conjures more than 252 articles about Macklemore whitesplaining, 116 articles about Sam Smith whitesplaining and more than 44,600 articles with the keyword overall.

Though these search results are not necessarily accurate and likely also include blog posts that merely have whitesplaining as a matched word, there seems to be a higher number of pieces “covering” the backlash of these famous figures’ alleged whitesplaining than tweets hashtagging #whitesplaining as backlash in the first place. Nevertheless, there are several factors to consider in this analysis:

• Not all individuals posting negative feelings about Sam Smith, Macklemore or the Oscars may be hashtagging whitesplaining
• Though there are only 140 posts using the hashtag in January, Keyhole estimates a reach of 483,234 as well as 503,769 impressions during that time.
• Many of the “articles” about these incidents are possibly editorials or user-generated submissions
• Those who feel that Sam Smith, Mackelmore or Oscars supporters were whitesplaining may choose to share articles about it instead of writing their own post using #whitesplaining — and this sharing may encourage journalists to write more about these moments

It does seem like news coverage might be inflating the hashtag to be more than it actually is. Though this does not necessarily undermine the existence of “whitesplaining” or the argument that Sam Smith, Macklemore or Oscars supporters were whitesplaining, it’s interesting food for thought. When social media engagement is the story for news organizations, how much engagement is necessary to justify it as a story? Is there a minimum number of people that need to be using a hashtag before it qualifies as newsworthy, and can hashtags truly work as a standalone barometer of public opinion?

Regardless, the January usage of #whitesplaining did create opportunity to further amplify voices in the news media. Considering that news organizations picked these 140 tweets up as a story, perhaps this supposed “slacktivism” is accomplishing something, after all.