Trayvon Martin and Social Media
In the past, police brutalities toward the black population have a been a huge issue. The case of Trayvone Martin is a lot worse because a life was taken away, and not just any life, but a 17-year old kid’s life. George Zimmerman, a white neighborhood watchman, shot and killed a 17-year-old Trayvone Martin. No sentence for George Zimmerman was unacceptable in many people’s eyes, especially among the black population. In some views, this killing was seen as a black on white crime and because Zimmerman was half white, he was mostly considered white in the eyes of the black community.
Where does social media come in? On social media, people took sides, some for Martin and some for Zimmerman. Exactly this, side taking and speaking out about what’s wrong and what is right, is what perpetuates anger and discourse between the races.
“Twitter has become one of the most important tools of modern sociopolitical activism, a powerful force in the Zimmerman trial aftermath and beyond.” It is already known that Twitter is used for different types of activism, but this is a specific case in which Twitter users displayed their anger through social media about a race related incident. Besides the obvious side taking between the black community and the Hispanic (White) community on twitter, there are other problems involved. On social media, African-Americans are quite often depicted as criminals and “thugs”. In this example specifically, after the incident, Trayvone was depicted as a “thug”, which, according to some, ultimately got him killed. This depiction is unacceptable and extremely stereotypical and is much more common among today’s society solely because of social media.
Jones, Feminista. "Is Twitter the underground railroad of activism?" Accessed December 13, 2015.
http://www.salon.com/2013/07/17/how_twitter_fuels_black_activism/.