1. Social Media Freaks Author: Dustin Kidd Chapter 7: Black Lives Matter
Racial Perspectives on Social Media
Instructors: be sure to use this notes section throughout to see my ideas on how to use these slides. You can also add in your own additional notes to use in class. If you print them to have in front of you during class, be sure to select “Layout: Notes” rather than slides, handouts, or outline.
Feel free to send your ideas and feedback to me!
-Dustin
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Overview
In this lesson, we will…
Examine how Black Lives Matter uses social media to challenge economic inequality,
Utilize theories of race to understand both BLM and the backlash against it,
Review the origins and contexts of BLM, and
Review three key principles for conducting virtual ethnography.
But first, an invitation…
This is broad overview of the slides that follow. Before proceeding, tell your students how they should consume the lecture/discussion. Talk about taking notes and what they should take notes about. Definitions are available in the glossary but it may be worth encouraging them to write them down as a learning tool.
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Invitation
Click on the image to visit a Pinterest board the examines Black Lives Matter: Click through the board to get a visual reminder of Black Lives Matter.
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Invitation
Ask students to identify these people from left to right: Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi, Patrisse Culors. Black Lives Matter is a household name; why don’t we all know who these women are?
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Theory
Eduardo Bonilla-Silva Duke sociologist, most known for his work on the sociology of race
Read the quote from Bonilla-Silva and discuss:
Why did our language around race shift?
Why is the second statement problematic and likely racist?
Why does this change in language matter? If it is a signal of entrenched racism, what do we do about it?
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Theory
Color-blind Racism
The image links to a video of Bonilla-Silva discussing his the idea of “Color-blind racism.” Show the clip, being sure to turn on closed captions. The video is ten minutes and 0 seconds long (10:00). After watching the video, discuss the idea that the meaning and character of racism can change over time.
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7. Theory Racism without Racists
Color-blind racism: Bonilla-Silva’s conception of racial ideology that argues against any explicit acknowledgment of race or racial identity and results in inequality because of its incapacity to acknowledge both historical and current racism.
Racial structure: The complex system of social relationships and social meanings that generate racial inequalities and affirm white supremacy and privilege.
Racial ideologies: Systems of belief about race that are used to explain racial differences and racial inequality.
Racial frames: Ideological clusters that give rise to specific and widely shared systems for legitimizing racial inequality.
Discuss these concepts in relationship to Black Lives Matter. For instance, the phrase “Black Lives Matter” is clearly an attempt to work against color-blind ideology, and “All Lives Matter” is a push towards color-blindness.
Examples of the American racial structure include police violence towards people of color and mass incarceration. When people point to the election of Barack Obama as evidence of the dismantling of the American racial structure, it is important to look to these examples to get a sense of the whole picture. Obama’s election did not end mass incarceration or create a new relationship between black people and the police (including black police).
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8. Concepts Police Shootings of Unarmed Black People
Dontre Hamilton, Milwaukee, April 30, 2014
Tamir Rice, Cleveland, November 22, 2014
Eric Garner, New York, July 17, 2014
Rumain Brisbon, Phoenix, December 2, 2014
John Crawford, III, Dayton, August 5, 2014
Jerame Reid, Bridgeton, NJ, December 30, 2014
Michael Brown, Ferguson, August 9, 2014
Tony Robinson, Madison, March 6, 2015
Ezell Ford, Clarence, CA, August 11, 2014
Phillip White, Vineland, NJ, March 31, 2015
Dante Parker, Victorville, CA, August 12, 2014
Eric Harris, Tulsa, April 2, 2015
Walter Scott, Charleston, April 4, 2015
Tanisha Anderson, Cleveland, November 13, 2014
Freddie Gray, Baltimore, April 19, 2015
Source: Quah 2015.
Akai Gurley, Brooklyn, November 20, 2014
This is the major context for the creation of Black Lives Matter. Clicking on the source will take you to a Buzzfeed post with photographs and stories about each person.
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Concepts
Black Twitter
An informal collection of primarily black Twitter users who have developed a cultural discourse around a range of issues that include race, humor, black scholarship, and many other issues.
Blacktags: slang term for hashtags used in Black Twitter
Example blacktags: #WordsThatLeadToTrouble, #ilaugheverytime, #annoyingquestion.
Example BLM tags: #BlackGirlsMatter, #BlackMenMatter, #BlackTransLivesMatter.
Black Lives Matter is built upon a set of conventions developed through Black Twitter. This helps to explain why social media, especially Twitter, has been such a major part of the response to police shootings of unarmed Black people.
Clicking on the links leads takes you to that hashtag in Twitter.
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Concepts
Digital Racial Divide
Black internet users are more likely to use Twitter than white internet users, although most Twitter users are white
Black Twitter users use Twitter more often than other groups of Twitter users
One study finds that Twitter plays a larger role for blacks than whites in getting users involved in social issues
Twitter use is also associated with high internet skills, celebrity culture, and entertainment news.
The move from MySpace to Facebook in has been described as ’white flight’, with many white respondents describing MySpace as ‘ghetto’ at a time when black and Latino use of MySpace was high.
Discuss:
Why embrace the leaderless approach? What are the promises and pitfalls of such an approach? Can the pitfalls be overcome without reverting to a top-down organization?
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11. Concepts Key Principles in Virtual Ethnography
The ethnographer needs to be immersed in the field.
The ethnographer needs to avoid cynicism.
The ethnographer needs to get off the beaten path.
Discuss with students how these principles apply to ethnography generally and what they look like when conducting research online.
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12. Analysis Origins of Black Lives Matter
“I was at a bar with friends and we were waiting for the verdict and when we heard that George Zimmerman had been acquitted, it was as if we had all been punched in the gut. Trayvon could have been my brother. And so I immediately felt not only enraged but a deep sense of grief that I can’t protect him. It really has to do with a society that has a really sick disease, and that disease is racism. So I started writing a love note to black people on Facebook, saying that it wasn’t our fault and it didn’t have anything to do with pulling up your pants or voting or education or any of that—that fundamentally what it has to do with is systemic racism, and what I said was something to the degree of: “Black people I love you. I love us. Our lives matter. We matter. Black lives matter. “–Alicia Garza, quoted in Guynn 2015
Read this quote from Alicia Garza, founder of Black Lives Matter. Discuss with students the role that social media played in the formation of the BLM movement.
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Analysis
#BlackLivesMatter
Founded after Zimmerman’s acquittal on July 13, 2013
Hashtag gained prominence in the year that followed
Little media attention prior to the Black Lives Matter Ride for Justice for Mike Brown, which arrived in Ferguson, MO, on Labor Day weekend 2014
BLM is an explicitly intersectional movement and emphasizes the intersections of race with gender, sexuality, and disability.
Discuss the concept of intersectionality with students.
Visit the “Herstory” page on the BLM website:
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Analysis
#AllLivesMatter
A rhetorical backlash against BLM
A silencing device: undermines conversation, offers no solidarity
The concept was reddited on the Explain Like I’m 5 (ELI5) board:
“Imagine that you're sitting down to dinner with your family, and while everyone else gets a serving of the meal, you don't get any. So you say "I should get my fair share." And as a direct response to this, your dad corrects you, saying, ‘everyone should get their fair share’.”
Discuss the reddit response and whether it seems effective.
The full Reddit discussion can be found here:
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Discussion
Watch:
Watch the video, making sure to turn on the closed captions. The video is a Ted Talk discussion with the founders of BLM, and is sixteen minutes and 5 seconds long (16:05). After watching the video, hold an open forum on the Black Lives Matter movement. Invite students to share the feelings they held before directly studying the movement and any ways their feelings may have changed.
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Discussion
Watch: Beyonce’s video for “Formation”
Ask students to identify the imagery that references Black Lives Matter. When this video was released, Beyoncé, Jaz-Z and Tidal announced a $1.5million donation to Black Lives Matter and other social justice groups (
Is the intervention of someone like Beyoncé a help or a hindrance to a grassroots movement? How do you think BLM participants react to the messages of the song, including the line “always stay gracious, best revenge is your paper”?
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Wrap-Up
Key terms, concepts, and names from this unit:
Black Lives Matter
#BlackLivesMatter
Alicia Garza
Opal Tometi
Patrisse Cullors
Intersectionality
Key principles in virtual ethnography
Trolls
#AllLivesMatter
Black Twitter
Blacktags
Color-blind racism
Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
Racial structure
Racial ideologies
Racial frame
Use this slide to review the concepts and quiz students on what they learned and what they recall.
Westview Press, an imprint of Hachette Book Group.

18. Resources To explore these topics further:
Watch the film 13th on Netflix and either live-tweet the film or post a response on a blog
Visit Project Implicit and take one of the following bias tests:
Race: Black-White IAT
Skin Tone IAT
Native (American) IAT
Asian IAT
Arab-Muslim IAT
Watch Blackish episode 2.16 “Hope”
This slide can be removed if you actually plan to incorporate some or all of these into the syllabus.
Westview Press, an imprint of Hachette Book Group.