Lushmere Mernard, a psychology student at City College, explores how the term “dirty”—historically deployed as a derogatory descriptor toward Black people—has been reclaimed through digital spaces.
As part of her accelerated BA/MA program at CCNY, Mernard is crafting her Master’s thesis around how Black women on X (formerly Twitter) are actively reinterpreting what “dirty” means. The research, titled Dirty Talk: The Racialized Language of Dirt in Black Women’s Digital Navigation, traces “dirty” through themes of betrayal, sexuality, and hygiene—revealing how its usage extends far beyond mere cleanliness. Menard is on track to graduate in the fall of 2026.
“For my BA/MA I’m doing my master’s thesis, which is on usage of the word dirty and like black women’s faces on twitter, and sort of how they sort of redefine what it means to be dirty,” Mernard said.
Mentored by adjunct CUNY psychology professor Varnica Arora, Mernard used a Python code to search for the term in digital spaces for black women. She then analyzed how “dirty” appears within two women-only X communities: Eve Group, a Black women–centric space, and Insufferable Women Uncensored, where users often post memes and commentary about men.
‘Dirty’, a term normally used to describe something as unclean, has been used for years to target the Black community.
For her Master’s thesis, Menard originally wanted to focus on racial stereotypes. She found a more specific route to turn to, in her work exploring the term ‘dirty’ used towards black women, and how it “redefined what it means to be dirty,” she said. “Dirty is like a moral transgression.”
“A very prominent stereotype among, towards black people is that they’re dirty and unhygienic,” she said.
Menard continued her research on the term dirty towards black communities at the University of Maryland, with their Cultural Resilience, Equity, Technology (CREATE) Lab. There, her research focused on how being called dirty can lead people to feeling unclean, and formulate obsessive-compulsive disorder, “contamination of OCD.” She explained that when the term dirty is used towards a community so frequently, what is often used to describe something physical is now connected to emotional, moral, and mental “dirt.” Lushmere believes that her research can provide proof that black and brown communities who have been called unclean can begin to have obsessive actions like “repetitive hand washing and showering.”
After completing her degrees in fall 2026, Mernard plans to to use her findings when she applies to the CUNY Graduate Center for a Ph.D. in Social Psychology. Her long-term goal is to return to CUNY as a professor, where she hopes to conduct relevant research and support students of color in feeling more academically represented and connected.
“I feel like in a sort of school system that is majority people of color, I would like there to be more professors able to do research that caters towards that, and so that’s sort of what I want to add,” she said.
Emma is an undergraduate student at Baruch College, where she is studying Journalism and Psychology. She’s Editor-in-Chief for Dollars & Sense magazine and Business Editor for The Ticker newspaper. As well as a freelance writer at BK Reader.