She has an MA and a PhD in sociology from the University of Texas at Austin and has taught at colleges and universities around the United States. She is the author of White Lies (Routledge, 1997) and Cyber Racism (Rowman and Littlefield, 2009), both dealing with race and forms of media. Currently, she is at work on research projects about digital technologies, race, and gender, including a study of feminist bloggers and an analysis of the representation of bodies on YouTube.