New book.

When the Hood Comes Off

Racism and Resistance in the Digital Age


When the Hood Comes Off by Rob Eschmann book cover

Society for Social Work and Research 2024 Book Award Honorable Mention

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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?

What People Are Saying

What People Are Saying •

  • “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, author of, Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America

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Get in touch for talks or book events.

r.eschmann@columbia.edu