GRSJ224:The Use of Twitter for Social Change
Background
Police Killings of African American Men and Discriminatory Policing
Travyon Martin, a teenager in Sanford, Florida was murder by George Zimmerman on February 26th, 2012. On 13 July 2013, George Zimmerman was acquitted of his murder. This acquittal was a defining moment, a boiling point, for American racial tensions with police and the wider public. After the verdict was released, the words “Black Lives Matter (BLM)” first appeared on Facebook, and later moved its discussion to Twitter. (Ince, 1814). Trayvon Martin’s death was the first of many killings which received national attention in between 2012-2015, a period of which birthed the Black Lives Matter movement and discussions regarding police brutality across the world.
Definition of Twitter – Twitter is an online social media platform which allows users to publish text posts under 140 characters in length. These posts can be accompanied by photos, or videos. These posts are called tweets, and can be categorized and organized by hashtags. These hashtags allow users from across the globe to see and interact with tweets. As a result, users can publish and interact with events and each other in real-time, creating a digital discussion space for the mass public. It has become a space for citizens to discuss social unrest, organize protests, and re-frame mainstream media portrayals of groups and cultures. Twitter has been a battleground for social movements prior to this namely, the Arab Springs (LINK TO WIKI ARTICLE!), and the Occupy Movements (LINK TO WIKI ARTICLE). Twitter is an effective digital megaphone for these movements which can be used to frame narratives not being presented by the main media to the wider public, as well as as an organizational tool for protestors activists.
Black Culture on Twitter
Black Twitter
Within Twitter, there exists a large and strong subculture who self-entitled themselves with the hashtag, signified using the # symbol, #BlackTwitter. Black Twitter uses a variety of different hashtags to identify tweets as a part of the community, so much so they have changed their language from hashtags to blacktags. Through an investigation of Twitter demographics, reports show that a remarkably large number of young African Americans use twitter; 40% of 18–29 year olds are active Twitter users, compared to only 28% of their white counterparts (Smith, 2). Black Twitter users are active users of the social media platform and engaged in social activism as well as their local communities. Hashtags which Black Twitter often shed insight into their shared experience, either in cultural and comedic situations, or in this case, with police brutality. Hashtags such as #APHeadlines, #ICan’tBreathe, #IfTheyGunnedMeDown, and #BlackLivesMatter all orginiated and gained traction with this community first before moving to trend across the United States. As a result, Black Twitter has been a powerful base on Twitter to expose racial biases, issues with racial justice and police brutality and violence. It is also a tool in which the community uses to unveil bias in the wider culture against their community. Black Twitter users can change the narrative of events which occur by participating in the discourse of these events (Graham & Smith, 433).
Social Movements on Black Twitter
According to Lee, there are three specific ways that Twitter has allowed social movements such Black Lives Matter on Black Twitter to thrive;
- Redefinition of Events
- Enforcing counter-narratives with testimonials
- Organizing and building communities offline
#Ferguson, #IfTheyGunnedMeDown and Michael (Mike) Brown
Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, MO, a suburb of St. Louis on August 9th, 2014. He was an eighteen-year-old African American man who was shot twelve times by Police Officer Darren Wilson for allegedly stealing a cigar from a local convenience store. Brown was unarmed. After Brown was killed, Black Twitter produced the following hashtags, #Ferguson and #BlackLivesMatter, as a cry for racial justice and to bring attention to Police Brutality. As a result of this killing, protests began to occur on the streets of Ferguson, and quickly spread to other cities around the country and globe. (Ince, 1819) Main Stream Media began to frame the killing in favour of the Police, using images which portrayed Brown as a thug. Wishing to change and challenge this narrative, Black Twitter users “tweeted and retweeted the picture of Mike Brown in his high school graduation cap and gown, the photo his family publicized after his death, instead of the photos the mainstream media were circulating.” (Lee, 8). Furthermore, #IfTheyGunnedMeDown, a hashtag produced by Black Twitter users aimed to question and critique this method and narrative used by mainstream media to characterize black men as dangerous. Users displayed photos of themselves, one which would be presented by main stream media, the other by friends and family. The contrasts illustrated how black men are unfairly portrayed when shown on news networks (Lee, 8).
#ICan’tBreathe & Eric Garner
Another critical moment of Black Lives Matter, Black Twitter and the social movement for racial justice is the death of Eric Garner. His death, captured via video, was broadcasted on social media. In the video, he can be heard gasping that he can’t breathe as a result of the chokehold New York City Police had placed him in. #ICan’tBreathe was used as a rallying cry against Police Brutality on Twitter, aiming to expose the incident globally. As a result, #ICan’tBreathe was named one of the most trending hashtags on Twitter of 2014 (Lee, 9)
#BlackLivesMatter
Alicia Garza, created the iconic phrase after Trayvon Martin’s death, ending an essay with the word, “Our Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter” (Ince, 1818). Opal Tometi, Patrisse Cullors & her are the founders of Black Lives Matter, both the organization and the hashtag. Their group didn’t gain national attention or traction until the murder of Michael Brown until early August of 2014 after the death of Michael Brown. (Ince, 1819). This can also be shown with Figure 1.1, where a significant jump in the use of the #BlackLivesMatter occurred in conjuction with Michael Brown’s Murder. Black Lives Matter’s purpose is to expose racial injustices to the national community in order to create social and legal change. The conversation is started on Twitter, using their hashtags #BlackLivesMatter. This phrase has taken many forms, as a hashtag, a battlecry for protests, as well as an ideology. Black Lives Matter has thrived past 2015 due to their embrace of non-violent tactics from civil rights movements as well as their active online and offline presence. Online through their hashtags, offline with their mass protests, and “demands for change on the state and federal level.” (Lee, 11). The use of hashtags and Twitter is monumental for the movement as well as publicizing police brutality across the States. The hashtag, #BlackLivesMatter, was tweeted more than 9 million times in 2015, according to a report published by Twitter. The hashtag holds a great amount of power, wielded by Black Twitter and organizations such as Black Lives Matter, for bringing national attention to racial bias and systemic violence against Black communities in America.
Figure 1.1 - Use of #BlackLivesMatter and the Police Killings of Brown and Garner, 2014.
Social Perceptions of Black Lives Matter and Social Movements on Twitter
Social Change of Communication and Public Discourse
Twitter creates a massive opportunity for marginalized groups to participate in the national discourse and dominate public discussion like never before. Contrary to mass media such as television or radio broadcasting social media allows users to actively create and participate with the media. Traditional media has formed ways in which perceptions of race, especially of black men, have been presented to the public. Twitter offers a new change in how the public can consume media, and offers marginalized groups narrative control. This is a major departure from mass media outlets where voices representing the majority, that is white perspectives, control national conversations.
All Lives Matter
According to findings by Carney, proceeding the viral use of #BlackLivesMatter, social media users produced and began to use the hashtag and slogan, #AllLivesMatter. This hashtag was created as a way to deny the specific and prominent violence against African Americans by falsely portraying these occurrences of police brutality as universal occurrences which do are not resulting from racial bias. The aim of #AllLivesMatter is disguised as needing to be all-inclusive, wherein by exposing injustices towards black men, the #BlackLivesMatter supporters are being prejudice or ignoring other violence. It’s an ill-considered argument created to deny the injustices committed by white Police Officers against Black men, disguised as being inclusive to all races.