User:Rwoo1/Black Twitter

Article Draft

Article body

Mural

The #BlackLivesMatter hashtag was created in 2013 by activists Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi. They felt that African Americans received unequal treatment from law enforcement. Alicia Garza describes the hashtag as follows: "Black Lives Matter is an ideological and political intervention in a world where Black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise. It is an affirmation of Black folks’ contributions to this society, our humanity, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression." Would add this image of the BLM mural

#IfIDieInPoliceCustody is another hashtag that started trending after Sandra Bland's death. Would add, With the growing tweets following the BLM movement police brutality was one of the major themes that struck the black culture. Unsure as to the exact cause of Sandra Bland death the hashtag started as a result. In the tweets, people ask what you would want people to know about you if you died in police custody.

mural

#ICantBreathe

add image

Reciprocity and community:

Furthermore, a 2014 dissertation by Meredith Clark, whom NPR called "the go-to person about Black Twitter in 2014, studied the topic of the African American practice of creating hashtags on Twitter by arguing that most people use them to “test their opinions with the assurance they are being shared within a space where fundamental values are still agreed upon". She explains that users on Black Twitter began to use hashtags as a way to attract members of society with similar ideals to a single conversation in order to interact with each other and feel as though they are engaged in a “safe space”. Clark characterizes the use of Black Twitter as critically important to the group, as the conversation helps “cement the hashtag as a cultural artifact recognizable in the minds of both Black Twitter participants and individuals with no knowledge of the initial discussion”. She argues that hashtags have transitioned from serving as a method of setting up a conversation between separate parties to an underlying reason behind how users outside Black Twitter learn about the thoughts and feelings of African Americans in the present world.