Black Lives Matter | Social Media Report
Activism in the Movement
Tia Simmons
Social Media and Online Activism
Professor Beasley
Black Lives Matter
Introduction
“I cannot breathe!” “Hands down don’t shoot!” “Stop killing us!” These three phrases
along with many more have become the slogans for the Black Lives Matter Movement as well as
the reasons this social movement was founded. The movement is referred to online as
“#BlackLivesMatter”. The movement was upstarted in 2012 after the brutal and uncalled for
murder of young Black male, Trayvon Martin. Martin’s killer was acquitted of all his chargers,
while Martin was unjustly blamed for his own death. Since the start of the movement, there has
been expansion across the country with more than 38 chapters split into five regions including
Canada. The organization writes on their website that they are “not just a moment but a
movement.” The movement has a massive amount of supporters that host unannounced rallies,
marches, sit-ins or ‘lay-ins where the participators lay down on their backs with their hands
beside them in silence. The social movement has an active presence on social media with an
account on each popular social site – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. The movement has a 169K
followers on Twitter and 18.7K on Instagram. They reinforce their presence by encouraging their
followers to use the hashtag followed by the phrase “Black lives matter”. This keeps the
movement trending and relevant on social media.
Importance
The questions that guide this study are as follows:
To what extent is this social protest’s Facebook page driven by the Tahir model?
To what extent does this social protest utilize a chain of equivalence?
To what extent is there a digital divide?
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Who are the leaders and choreographers of the movement? What is their role on the
movement’s Facebook page?
Does the movement utilize any pre-announced protests on its Facebook or Twitter
accounts?
Is there a symbol or sign?
Does organization drive communication of this protest movement or does communication
drive the organization?
Is there more emotional condensation than material precipitation or less?
What symbols or identities has this organization used to become that emotional rallying
cry?
How well does the organization’s Facebook site contribute to a “chain of equivalence”?
How could Occupy Wall Street serve as a model for the organization to become better?
Are there differences between those who post on IG and those who Tweeted or
Facebook?
I have chosen these questions because I feel they will guide me toward a deeper
understanding of the Black Lives Matter social protest. Prior to this research, I was unware of
that the movement had social media accounts on every popular website. I had not even looked at
these accounts. I began to take the movement a bit more serious than the way media and news
wanted to receive them. I now understand what activism is. I am able to differentiate it from
slacktivism. Gerbaudo (2012) wrote, “For Morozov slacktivism is ‘feel good activism that has
zero political or social impact’ but creates ‘an illusion of having meaningful impact on the world
without demanding anything more than joining a Facebook group” (7). Through the use of such
understanding, I decided to choose these particular questions. These questions have allowed me
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to break down and dissect different aspects of the protest movement that I would not have been
able to complete without them.
Methods
The Movement as a Whole
I use several quotes that serve as a guide to help me understand the type of followers the
movement attracts. Gerbaudo (2012) wrote, “Hardt and Negri repeat several times that the
multitude, unlike the crowd, goes beyond the reduction of plurality to a singularity – the so
called reduction ad unum” (p29). He also quoted Hardt and Negri, “[D]efining a new social
class: the multitude. The multitude is for them what the proletariat was for Marx: The
revolutionary subject. Yet different from the working class, the multitude, as its name suggests,
is characterized by an irreducible multiplicity. / [A] multitude which can act together without
being reduced to one identity or one place” (pgs26-27).
Mirroring the Tahir Model
Gerbaudo (2012) wrote, “[T]he Egyptian uprising and its use of social media as
‘choreographic’ tools it foregrounded came to inspire copy-cat movements in the West. As we
will see in the following chapters, activists in Spain and in the US were driven by a desire to
imitate and build on the ‘Tahir model’” (p75). I chose this quote to lead me into research to
determine whether the Black Lives Matter movement compared to the Tahir movement.
Oppositional Identities
Gerbaudo (2012) documented, “The Kullena Khaled Said page duly became an emotional
rallying point for the Facebook youth, who not only felt compassion for Khaled Said but also
identified with him, thinking, as Mustafa himself did, ‘that this could happen to me’” (p55). This
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quote exemplified a big part of the Black Lives Matter movement. Many followers of the
movement support it for the simple fact that the matter at hand they are fighting against could
happen to themselves or someone closely related to them.
Chain of Equivalence
“The Kullena Khaled Said page became a stage for collecting and cataloguing the extent
of the baseness of the regime, gathering all evidence in one place and thus creating ‘chain of
equivalence; (Laclau, 2005: 94) between the grievances of different groups of people” (p59).
This quote created an understanding and easy digestion for chain of equivalence. I was interested
in discovering whether or not this sort of thing was occurring within the realms of the social
media accounts for the Black Lives Matter movement.
Digital Divide
In terms of the barrier dividing old-aged social justice movements and the new modern
day social justice movements, Gerbaudo (2012) wrote, “Taking to the streets was the only way
for the movement to break the double barrier of the digital divide and the censorship of the state-
owned news media” (p64). In this quote Gerbaudo discussed the digital divide now in the way of
many social movements in modern day because of technology. I used this quote to decide if there
was a presence of the digital divide in the Black Lives Matter movement.
#tahirmodelinreverse #sept17
I sought to discover the Black Lives Matter organization’s use of making connections and
facilitating face to face communication to in turn juxtapose them against the Tahir protest
movement. I felt this quote stressed the idea of gathering in public assembly. Gerbaudo (2012)
wrote, “What is evident is that it began to gain considerable attention on Twitter only when
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occupiers eventually pitched their tents in Zucotti Park, and the police began their repression”
(p116).
#takeapicture #mysign
Gerbaudo (2012) commented on symbolism within a social justice movement: by taking
a picture of oneself with a sign and sending it to the website users could symbolically subscribe
to the identity of 99%, adding their own individual story to a collective assembling of anger and
indignation” (119). The depiction of Black life is all around us. I used this quote to further
understand if any of these depictions were symbolic to the movement itself.
Organization and Communication
While the relationship between organization and communication is characterized by
equivalence in literary cultures, in secondary orality or electracy cultures, the relationships is
reversed, Gerbaudo (2012) wrote, “it is communication that organizes, rather than organization
that communicates” (p139). This quote helped me to determine the difference amongst the
protest movement’s post on Instagram and those on Twitter.
Results
Posts that… Facebook usageCreate an oasis of assembly 25
Disseminate symbolic mediation 7Create oppositional identities 0Create a chain of equivalence 25
Bring together digital divide 0
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I viewed the latest twenty-five posts on the movement’s
Facebook account. The picture on the right is an illustration of a Black
male. He is to represent the ongoing never-ending issue hovering our
nation – fear of the Black male. Within only the first 35 minutes of the
image being published on the Facebook page, it received one hundred
twenty-five likes, seventy-six shares and two comments. The common
denominator many people following the page see in this image is racial profiling which may link
a multitude (diversity). I have not seen many of the same posts on their Facebook page. The
meaningful pictures that can be found on their Instagram account are not as present on their
Facebook. It seems as though the Facebook page is used for reporting relevant news stories that
connect by sharing the same message – the issue of police brutality. The symbolic hashtag -
#blacklivesmatter – can be seen in a few news post on the page but there is no consistent doing
of it. This equates to the movement’s Facebook page having a weak chain of equivalence.
Looking specifically at this movement’s page there is really no call for action. The page seems to
be a thirds-party news outlet. There is no clear evidence that it promotes the gathering of a
multitude or even crowd.
Posts that utilize… Twitter usageE-MOBILIZATION 1
CITIZEN JOURNALISM 1SECOND-HAND CIRCULATION RT 21 posts / Was RT 57 times
EDITORIAL COMMENT 1DELIBERATION 3 Posts RT
STRENGTHENING TIES 25E-TACTICS 2
*RT = Retweet/ed
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I viewed the latest twenty-five posts on the movement’s Twitter account. There was only
one post that facilitated face to face protests. The post was not a direct post from the account but
a protest march going on that was posted by a supporter taking place in the movement. This was
also what I considered to be live reporting. The person was recording the video live and posted it
to Twitter causing second-hand circulation, also contributing to strengthening ties by promoting
fellow activists. Protest gatherings for the movement are not promoted on Twitter until they are
under way. The twitter account does not help bridge the digital divide. There is no real time
coordination. There also is not any sign of cross posting, to my surprise. I scrolled for about
twenty-minutes on both the movement’s Facebook and Twitter and I did not come across any
evidence indicating that the two accounts were linked. Much of what the Black Lives Matter
Movement has on their Twitter page is second-hand circulation. Of the twenty-five posts I
viewed, twenty-one were retweets the account had done. The only direct tweet that came from
the account gained fifty-seven retweets. Not much of their posts had to do with the Black Lives
Matter movement but for the advocacy of people in Haiti. There is no evident collection of
tweets I have found that highlights the organizers of this movement orchestrating public
gatherings like the Occupy Wall Street Movement. Three posts that the account commented on
called supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement to support Haiti. Two of these posts I
found to be a facilitation of online-based actions – e-tactics, because it was calling supporters to
donate money. The Black Lives Matter Movement utilizes the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter
(#BlackLivesMatter ) which has become so popular that as soon as you
complete the final word of the hashtag and press the space bar three fists appear behind the
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hashtag. The (Black) fist was previously associated with the Black Panthers movement and the
Black Nationalist Movement. The fist still holds as the same meaning to Black people even
though it is now a symbol linked to the Black Lives Matter Movement. Participators of the
protest are often photographed holding up the sign that embodies the ironic hashtag while
pumping up a fist in the air. Using a catchy symbol and phrase makes it easier for the movement
to broaden its audience. By simply typing in the hashtag #blacklivesmatter in the search box or
attaching it to a post or photo you are now attached to the movement.
Posts that… Instagram UsageCapture Material condensation 3
Reconstruct & Facilitate physical proximity 0Capture Social textures 0
I viewed the last twenty-five post on the Black Lives Matter Instagram account. The last
of these post, counting from most recent to oldest, was posted on February 29th. The next post
was not until April 5th, followed by another post on April 21st. I found there to be no consistency
in this account’s updates unlike the movement’s Twitter and Facebook accounts. Of the twenty-
five posts I viewed, only three exemplified some sort of material condensation. Interestingly
enough, the other twenty-two posts did not promote places where people could gather nor were
there any suggestions on places to publicly assemble. There is a picture on the movement’s
Instagram page of a (Black) young female child. She is sleeping in her
bed, as pictured to the right, when a bullet flies through her window.
The caption reads, “Lay down sleepy head. Time to dream, have a
blast! Dream a good dream, for this dream is your last…” Similar post
as this one can be found on the movement’s Instagram. Many of the
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comments on this post as well as many others on the page were similar: “I can relate! That was
my niece! That could be my child. Police are killing innocent kids. Etc.”
Discussion
The Movement as a Whole
The movement has chapters in various places of the country which limits people from
taking part in the social justice movement. According to protocols found on Facebook, one has to
be approved by the head person over the chapter they are trying to join. What about the people
who are turned away perhaps for something as simple as phenotypical features? This would
create a crowd of people and dismiss the idea of a multitude if everyone is of the same
background. There is a consistency in many of the movement’s post on Instagram; the people
illustrated in the pictures are African Americans. This could be a dangerous thing when trying to
make an impact. These “wiki-revolutions, self-organizing” should be of a multitude because it is
the new wave of activism. The movement leaves no room to evolve into a multitude. The Black
Lives Matter Movement cannot fill the space of a multitude because its representation is not of
more than one face. The Twitter and Instagram accounts do not host a variety of faces and people
of different race and socio-economic background. Sticking to the definition Gerbaurdo used to
define a multitude, this movement, in its gatherings, do not gather as a multitude but rather a
crowd of people who look the same and share similar cultural beliefs. This crowd could be
reduced to one identity if we really wanted to do so.
The Gatherings
Out of result of being able to demonstrate online, the Black Lives Matter Movement
seem to rarely meet up to protest any more, at least according to their social media sites. The
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people behind the movement have done more talking on social media than they have gathering
around for the cause they are supporting. The movement does have pictures of them laying down
in the middle of the road or marching down highways. The fear of being arrested or receiving
some other social consequence of the like could be a reason for less collective action by the
group. Networking is at the sole root of this movement seemingly. There are no images of rallies
and meetings held since the initial upstart of the group – before their Twitter and Instagram
accounts became popular. Many of the things they feel are vocalized on Twitter for a mere
retweet I suppose. I propose the founders of this movement are slacktivist. I do not identify none
of the three founders (Patrisse Cullors, Opal Tometi, Alicia Garza) as leaders of this movement. I
did not find anything from these founders that prompted a call to action. By simply clicking the
follow button you are now a part of the Black Lives Matter Movement. Without having
advocated, marched, or any other physical work being done you are a social activist. The Black
Lives Matter Movement has not created any more innovations for Black life than what was there
when the group started in 2012.
Mirroring the Tahir Model
I feel the Black Lives Matter Movement’s Facebook page is not at all driven by the Tahir
model. It does not call for assembly anywhere on the page. There is no tab for events or even to
RSVP for any upcoming events. There are no pictures of the actual movement in action in public
space or fighting for what they claim to advocate for. The Facebook page fails horribly to
integrate online activism and public assembly. If the movement were to be mirroring the Tahir
model it would have at least some sort of advocacy for assembly to protest while cleverly and
strategically knowing when to make the public aware of these gatherings occurring in public
space.
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Oppositional Identities
I will point out only a few things that link the crowd
following this movement. The crowd of Blacks following this
movement particularly relate to each other in more ways than
one: racial profiling, wrongful deaths (of Black men) – which
everyone can relate to or empathize with whether having a
brother, son, nephew, etc. and many of the words in red
speak to the oppression they continuously undergo linking a crowd of people together.
Digital Divide
In my opinion, the Facebook page is only thriving because the people utilize the coined
phrase – Black Lives Matter. There is no one else posting but the page’s administrators. In terms
of comments, there is a surplus of people commenting under these post discussing their
opinion of the news reports. There is no evidence of white presence anywhere among the page,
positively supporting the movement. This page definitely attracts a crowd. By using the term
“people” it individualizes each and every person commenting on these posts.
Leaderless Movements
The founders of this movement are not leaders and choreographers of this movement.
They are simply the first to coin the phrase and get the hashtag circulating. Their presence on
Facebook is passive - posting articles on police brutality acts and photos. Nothing the three
founders have done has impacted the community at large. The founders, in my opinion, only
are here for thousands of followers and publicity. They do not coordinate events to promote
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assembly outside of social media nor do they have an agenda to explain the ways in which they
plan on inflicting social change or end goals. The founders are simply doing feel good activism –
enough to say they have made a change when really they haven’t.
The movement does not utilize any pre-announced protest on its Facebook or Twitter.
If there are protest gatherings they are not promoted on Twitter until they are underway.
Similar to what happened during the protests for the Occupy Wall Street movement,
participators are assaulted by police and forced to evacuate the public space they are
occupying. What is even more interesting, without being publicized the event at upstart is
already overflowing with participants. Despite the possibility of being thrown in jail or assaulted
by police, participators of the movement still pursue justice while marching and holding up
their signs. The government does not regulate when the movement can gather, however, they
do try to intervene once the protests are underway.
Monuments as Social Textures
In the photos below, Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. are pictured. King,
who was inspired by the peace Gandhi embodied, was a non-violence Civil Rights Activists and
Reverend. Dr. King spent majority of his life advocating for equality and acceptance of all races.
King directly relates to the Black Lives Matter social movement because ultimately both want
the same result – better treatment of Blacks and the recognition of them. This area could be a
place for facilitating assembly by highlight it on social media along with these two great men
and things they said displayed. One of the quotes on Dr. King’s monument reads, “Nonviolence
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is a powerful and just weapon. Indeed, it is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without
wounding and ennobles the man who wields it.” By displaying this on their Instagram account,
the Black Lives Matter Movement may create an up rise, prompting people to gather in this
area and protest peacefully and nonviolently for their race.
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Works Cited
Gerbaudo, Paolo (2012). Tweets and the Streets. London: Pluto Press.
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