Social Media As A Tool For Modern Activism And Protest

People all over the world are receiving notifications from just about everything. Sports, music, famous celebs on the internet, etc. But people also receive news from social media, things like taxes, politics natural disasters, crimes, and now especially modern-day activism. People will rant about what they believe or what they think in their perspective. Sometimes these online protests can get a little out of hand. People are using social media for modern activism and that is to protest on what they believe in, exemplified by the BlackLivesMatter movement, ImmigrationRights protest

People can get really defensive when the topic of Black Live Matter gets brought up on social media. Especially for Alicia Garza who has started the protest of the importance of black people. She has written an “essentially love note to black people” telling how much she loves them and how their lives matter. With her trending hashtag: #BlackLivesMatter she wants the whole media to chime in and support it. She states “A call to action” ... “To make sure we are creating a world where black lives actually do matter.” (#BlackLivesMatter: the Birth of a New Civil Rights Movement, 2015, paragraph 7).

Shortly a little more than a year, an 18-year-old named Michael Brown was shot and killed by a white officer in Ferguson, MO. This broke out protests immediately. But since you can find almost everything on the internet and since social media starts trending it, people can get involved in it easily. Apparently, this protest did not continue to be peaceful, but actually the complete opposite. Cars were vandalized and police officers were called to calm down riots. Protests are still very dangerous because anything can happen. Same things from the 1960’s can possibly happen still, like being arrested. In the time of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, they were very difficult. Black people who were marching and pleading their rights were harmed by police dogs, they were hosed down, and even killed. Many other stories of black people being shot by white police officers.

Black Lives Matter

Another modern day activism topic that’s been going on, mostly on the news are immigration rights. Many Latinos are fighting for families to stick together, since the parents are most likely immigrants they sadly have to get separated. Many complaints have been made about our former president, Donald Trump for allowing this to happen and to be actually the one to start it. There were at least 600 children, that were separated from their parents. The Justice Department states that family separating is necessary since children can’t go to jail to face charges with their parents. Some people believe that separating families is wrong and also that families that jump the border are only looking for a better life here in the USA. People started protesting with posters, saying they are against family separation. And of course, whatever something major happens, news spread, especially on social media. “.just because somebody crosses the border, doesn’t make them nonhuman,” says Rep. Joaquin Castro, a protester. (Protesters Across The U.S. Decry Policy Of Separating Immigrant Families, 2018, paragraph 17).

Immigration Rights

Everyone wants to be equal and accepted, especially LGBT people. They really don’t like it when other people hate on them because of who they are. So to “get back at the haters” they did a huge Equality March for Unity and Pride, with a total of about 43,000 participants. They chanted “We’re here, we’re queer, get that cheeto out of here.” which was for President Donald Trump. (Across U.S., Thousands Rally for LGBT Rights, 2017, paragraph 3). Sure President Donald Trump supported LGBT but he still did things that did not please them. Such as having federal guidance advising schools pushed back, preventing transgender students from using bathrooms and locker rooms they wanted. LGBT really hates seeing homophobes doing something that harms the LGBT community.

It’s been a year since that shooting in Orlando that killed 49 people. That took place in a gay nightclub, to this day the LGBT community is still hurt. LGBT has a lot of supporters, such as Miley Cyrus who performed at one of the parades. Nina Firooz, a queer Iranian woman was worried about her rights as well as others. She states “...really doesn’t like me. It’s how not partisan issue for me. It’s how Trump treats people.” Again how do people know about what’s going on with LGBT? Through social media of course, people say things about what they think about LGBT, whether it’s good and supportive or bad and hurtful.

Sources:

Day, Elizabeth. “#BlackLivesMatter: the Birth of a New Civil Rights Movement.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 19 July 2015, 5:00, www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/19/blacklivesmatter-birth-civil-rights-movement.

Rose, Joel, and Marisa Peñaloza. “Protesters Across The U.S. Decry Policy Of Separating Immigrant Families.” NPR, NPR, 1 June 2018, www.npr.org/2018/06/01/616257822/immigration-rights-activists-protest-trump-administration-child-separation-polic.

Toppo, Greg. “Across U.S., Thousands Rally for LGBT Rights.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 12 June 2017, www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/06/11/across-us-thousands-rallying-and-marching-for-lgbt-rights/102753020/.