Rhetoric Society Quarterly May 2023

“I Wish I Could Give You This Feeling”: Black Digital Commons and the Rhetoric of “The Corner”

Catherine Knight Steele ; Alisa Hardy

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe unique experience of Black Americans in the United States produces a physical and cultural space with a long history of misuse, commodification, and theft of the Black imagination and Black culture. These spaces, which also historically complicate notions of privatization and ownership, are replicated online today. In this essay, we propose the corner as a lens through which to interrogate whether Black networks online potentially produce a rhetorical digital commons and, further, whether the theory and practice of “the commons” adequately make space for the particular historical reality of Black America. To do so, we focus on three social media platforms wherein Black digital praxis meets the possibility of the corner: TikTok, Twitter, and Black Planet. These digital corners provide lessons that center the Black experience on- and offline, and point toward possibilities and limitations in our digital future. Ultimately we argue that the corner contradicts hegemonic modes of white supremacy in public spaces while also spotlighting the brutal realities of gentrification, commodification, and theft that fortify the exploitation of Black communities.KEYWORDS: Black/African American rhetoricdigital commonsdigital rhetoricsocial media Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 We use Black liberation here to reference freeing Black persons from multiple forms of political, social, and economic subjugation. Black liberation movements, theories, and theologies have been espoused by numerous organizations. Here. though, we reference any orientation toward this perspective whether explicitly named by individuals or simply inferred through their online activities. See Stokley Carmicheal’s “Toward Black Liberation” and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor’s From# BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation.2 See André Brock, Jr.’s Distributed Blackness, especially chapter four, for an insightful analysis on breaking the dichotomy of ratchetry and antiracism.3 See Nakamura 181–93.

Journal
Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published
2023-05-27
DOI
10.1080/02773945.2023.2200704
CompPile
Open Access
Closed
Topics
Export
BibTeX RIS

Citation context

Cited by in this index (1)

  1. Alford (2026)
    The Paradigmatic Aftermath of Digital Rhetoric
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly

References (49) · 1 in this index

  1. 10.4324/9780367855055-15
     ↗
  2. Anderson Elijah (2003)
    A Place on the Corner
  3. 10.1080/17439884.2021.2018608
     ↗
  4. Aristotle (2012)
    The Art of Rhetoric
  5. Arthur Tori Omega (2020)
    Ohio Communication Journal
Show all 49 →
  1. 10.1080/14680777.2018.1447395
     ↗
  2. 10.4324/9781410617385
     ↗
  3. 10.1080/1369118X.2012.670661
     ↗
  4. 10.1080/00335630.2020.1744182
     ↗
  5. 10.18574/nyu/9781479820375.001.0001
     ↗
  6. 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00398.x
     ↗
  7. Carmichael Stokely (1966)
    The Massachusetts Review
  8. 10.18574/9781479845453-019
     ↗
  9. 10.30687/978-88-6969-534-6/010
     ↗
  10. 10.14763/2020.4.1530
     ↗
  11. Evans Jabari M. (2022)
    International Journal of Communication
  12. Everett Anna (2009)
    Digital Diaspora: A Race for Cyberspace
  13. 10.1215/01642472-20-2_71-125
     ↗
  14. 10.18574/nyu/9781479892464.001.0001
     ↗
  15. 10.1177/0894439320914853
     ↗
  16. 10.16997/wpcc.917
     ↗
  17. 10.1080/23736992.2020.1736077
     ↗
  18. 10.31269/triplec.v9i2.253
     ↗
  19. 10.1080/14680777.2021.1952468
     ↗
  20. Hartelius et al. (2021)
    Digitality, Diversity, and the Future of Rhetoric and Public Address
    Rhetoric & Public Affairs
  21. Hartelius E. Johanna (2020)
    The Gifting Logos: Expertise in the Digital Commons
  22. 10.1007/BF02804510
     ↗
  23. 10.7551/mitpress/10858.001.0001
     ↗
  24. 10.2307/j.ctv2ckjpp9.27
     ↗
  25. Jones Feminista (2019)
    Reclaiming Our Space: How Black Feminists Are Changing the World from the Tweets to the Streets
  26. 10.1177/1461444816663485
     ↗
  27. 10.1080/1369118X.2018.1437203
     ↗
  28. 10.1525/sp.2009.56.3.578
     ↗
  29. Liebow Elliot (1967)
    Tally’s Corner; a Study of Negro Streetcorner Men
  30. Lingel Jessa (2021)
    The Gentrification of the Internet: How to Reclaim Our Digital Freedom
  31. 10.1080/1369118X.2019.1575449
     ↗
  32. Lynn, Lonnie, et al. “The Corner.” Be by Common, Sony Music Studios, 2005.
  33. Nakamura Lisa (1995)
    Works and Days
  34. Oldenburg Ray (1999)
    The Great Good Place: Cafés, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hango…
  35. 10.1177/1350508417713217
     ↗
  36. 10.1177/14614448221080480
     ↗
  37. Peterson-Salahuddin Chelsea (2022)
    Social Media+ Society
  38. 10.1080/10999949.2018.1532757
     ↗
  39. 10.1111/j.1468-2885.2002.tb00278.x
     ↗
  40. 10.18574/nyu/9781479808373.003.0007
     ↗
  41. 10.1177/20563051211038236
     ↗
  42. Taylor Keeanga-Yamahtta (2016)
    From# BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation
  43. Wright Scott (2016)
    The Routledge Companion to Social Media and Politics
  44. 10.26522/ssj.v14i2.2243
     ↗
CrossRef global citation count: 3 View in citation network → Build reading path →

Related articles

  1. Pedagogy Apr 2025
    Contributors ↗
    modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism african american rhetorics cultural rhetorics first-year composition writing pedagogy basic writing graduate education two-year college teacher development writing centers technical communication professional writing labor and working conditions digital rhetoric multimodality social media literacy studies race and writing gender and writing community literacy literary studies editorial matter
  2. Pedagogy Jan 2022
    Contributors ↗
    modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism genre theory discourse analysis african american rhetorics decolonial rhetorics first-year composition writing pedagogy basic writing writing across the curriculum graduate education teacher development argument collaborative writing transfer assessment portfolios writing program administration writing centers peer tutoring technical communication professional writing archival research digital rhetoric social media grammar and mechanics literacy studies race and writing gender and writing disability studies public rhetoric community literacy literary studies editorial matter
  3. Rhetoric & Public Affairs Sep 2024
    Caught on Tape: White Masculinity and Obscene Enjoyment ↗
    Olivia Gellar
    rhetorical criticism qualitative research digital rhetoric social media race and writing gender and writing editorial matter
  4. Rhetoric & Public Affairs Dec 2023
    Trump and Us: What He Says and Why People Listen ↗
    Danee Pye
    rhetorical criticism discourse analysis voice and style digital rhetoric social media race and writing editorial matter
  5. Technical Communication Quarterly Jul 2022
    Black Professional Communicators Testifying to Black Technical Joy ↗
    Antonio Byrd
    rhetorical criticism african american rhetorics revision collaborative writing technical communication professional writing qualitative research digital rhetoric multimodality literacy studies race and writing disability studies editorial matter