Critical Theory in a Digital Age, CCU, ENGL 483 2017

#BlackLivesMatter

        Social media has provided a new way to fight racism. In fact, “the tools that we have to organize and to resist are fundamentally different than anything that’s existed before in black struggle” because of the ability to obtain the large outreach that social media provides as a grand result of electracy (Stephen). #BlackLivesMatter is global—people everywhere are becoming more aware of the struggle of blacks because of the hashtag; victims’ stories are being told and there is no surveillance to monitor what is being posted in the way that the telephone was controlled by a white operator. The raw truth does not have to be filtered anymore and it is creating a movement. #BlackLivesMatter creates a community among its victims, and even others sympathetic to their cause because of the publicity that the hashtag brings to itself. The connotations of Black Lives Matter can be different to the audience, whether it be positive or negative, sympathetic or not, but the story is still getting out there. It can make its readers cringe, or it can make them feel empowered. Regardless, the fact that social media can be used in such a positive way to shed light on a centuries old issue is groundbreaking. 
        The Black Lives Matter movement started in 2013 as a response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman. The entire history of the project can be read here.
 

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