#BlackLivesMatter: The Evolution of Collective Identity
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The document analyzes the evolution of collective identities within the Black Lives Matter movement on Twitter related to events in Ferguson, Missouri. It finds: 1) Leaders on Twitter, like DeRay McKesson, mirrored leaders identified in mainstream media. 2) Activity on Twitter was closely linked to offline protests. 3) The collective identity #BlackLivesMatter emerged and survived over time, focusing on themes like discrimination and police brutality. 4) The counter narrative #TCOT focused on validating police and criticizing #BLM as radical.
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#BlackLivesMatter: The Evolution of Collective Identity
- 1. #BlackLivesMatter: The Evolution of Collective Identities Melissa Brown Department of Sociology University of Maryland, College Park mcbrown@umd.edu
- 2. Summary O Significance of social media to 21st century social movements O #BLM is only new in name and presentation O Link between online activism and offline protests O Evolution of a leader in a leaderless movement O Evolution of collective identities and their alter versions
- 3. Significance of social media to 21st century social movements
- 4. COLLECTIVE IDENTITIES O Refer to “the set of operations by means of which social movements define their collective sense of self, who they are and what they stand for” (Gerbaudo and Treré 2015: 865) O Begin with the public expression of symbols and language that aims to challenge the cultural domination of a particular group (Polletta and Jasper 2014). O Often evolve due to a collective group of individuals’ response to they perceived social imbalances
- 5. How Does Twitter Matter?
- 6. Hashtags as Collective Action Frames O Hashtags that individuals use relate to their belief systems O Hashtags allow users to join with others in a form of solidarity O Using specific hashtags constitutes micromobilization
- 7. #BLACKLIVESMATTE R : NEW IN NAME ONLY
- 9. 250 275 300 325 350 375 400 425 450 475 500 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 Justifiable Homicides by Law Enforcement
- 10. 0. 200. 400. 600. 800. 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 U.S. Violent Crime Rate, 1960-2012
- 13. “When some people rejoin with ‘All Lives Matter’ they misunderstand the problem, but not because their message is untrue. It is true that all lives matter, but it is equally true that not all lives are understood to matter which is precisely why it is most important to name the lives that have not mattered, and are struggling to matter in the way they deserve... If Black lives do not matter, then they are not really regarded as lives, since a life is supposed to matter. So what we see is that some lives matter more than others, that some lives matter so much that they need to be protected at all costs, and that other lives matter less, or not at all.” —Professor Judith Butler #BlackLivesMatter
- 14. Research Questions 1) Do “movement entrepreneurs” (Valocchi 2001: 446) who are the most popular on Twitter correspond to activists mentioned by mainstream journalists as leaders of #BlackLivesMatter? 2) Does social media activism link to protests on the ground? 3) Do collective identities emerge and survive over time as they relate to Ferguson on Twitter? 4) What are the themes that are linked to the surviving collective identities on Twitter about Ferguson?
- 15. Ferguson Twitter Data Set O August 10 - August 27, 2014: Killing of Michael Brown O November 11 - December 8, 2014: Non- indictment of Darren Wilson O February 25 - March 3, 2015: Department of Justice Report on Ferguson Police Department O July 30 - August 11, 2015: One year after killing of Michael Brown
- 16. Ferguson Twitter Data Set OTweets per day (31,657,545) OTop 10 most tweeted users per day (446) OTop 10 Hashtags per day (293) OTop 10 Media files each day (670) OTop 10 URLs each day (670) OTop 10 Retweets each day (670)
- 17. Number of Tweets Per Period Death of Mike Brown (18 days) 13,238,863 Non Indictment of Officer Wilson (28 days) 15,080,082 DoJ Report on Ferguson (8 days) 2,033,898 One Year after Brown's Death (13 days) 1,304,702 Total 31,657,545
- 18. Activists Celebrity Scholars Other Percentage of Top Users and Retweets % of Users % of Retweets
- 19. THE EVOLUTION OF A LEADER IN A LEADERLESS MOVEMENT
- 20. 0% 13% 25% 38% 50% Brown Death Wilson Non- indictment DoJ Report One Year after Death DeRay McKesson (229K Twitter Followers) 19th 1st 1st 3rd
- 22. 0 1,000,000 2,000,000 3,000,000 4,000,000 11/12/18 11/16/18 11/20/18 11/24/18 11/28/18 12/2/18 12/6/18 12/10/18 Tweets during Non-indictment of Officer Darren Wilson
- 24. 0% 8% 15% 23% 30% Brown Death Wilson Non- indictment DoJ Report One Year after Death Evolution of a Collective Identity on Twitter: #BlackLivesMatter (381,834 Tweets) 3rd 57th 3rd 2nd
- 25. #BlackLivesMatter Themes % # Blacks Killed with Impunity and Whites Not 43.24% 224 Displays of Solidarity and Activism 34.36% 178 Historical References to Discrimination 6.18% 32 Demands for Policy Changes 5.60% 29 Response to Race Card Claim 4.63% 24 Media Double Standard 3.86% 20 Humanizing Police Brutality victims 2.12% 11 Total 100% 518
- 26. Black Suspects Killed with Impunity While Whites Are Not
- 29. Demands for Policy Changes
- 30. Humanizing Police Brutality Victims
- 33. 0% 4% 7% 11% 14% 18% Brown Death Wilson Non- indictment DoJ Report One Year after Death #TCOT: The Counter Narrative (331,439 Tweets) 4th 6th 1st 14th
- 34. #TCOT Themes % # Validating Justifiable Homicides 26.25% 110 White Victims of Black Criminality 21.72% 91 #BLM as Radical Terrorists 14.80% 62 Black Problems for Black People 14.32% 60 Media Double Standard 11.69% 49 Tokenizing Examples of Blackness 8.35% 35 Humanizing Police Officers 2.86% 12 Total 100% 419
- 36. White Victims of Black Criminality
- 37. #BLM as Radical Terrorists
- 39. Tokenizing Examples of Blackness
- 41. CONCLUSION O Social Media are a platform for the formation of collective identities and execution of collective action in social movements O Collective identities associated with Ferguson on Twitter O Leaders on Twitter mimic leaders identified by mainstream media O Activity on Twitter is closely linked to offline activity
- 42. Where We Are Going From Here? O Intersectionality and social movements O Postcolonialism indigenous movements and movements in developing countries O A Digital Social Psychology? O Partnership with MITH to a repository for new forms of data to conduct social science research on race and social inequality O Ethnography and in-depth interviews to examine 21st century social justice efforts
- 43. O Rashawn Ray O Neil Fraistat O Edward Summers O University of Maryland Critical Race Initiative Melissa Brown mcbrown@umd.ed u
Editor's Notes
- I’m Rashawn Ray and I have a game changer for the field of sociology Social movements live and die by the narratives they make We want to know how narratives get created and sustained in mainstream America via social media However, sociologists typically examine social movements long after they occurred like the Civil Rights Movements, Women’s Rights Movement, Stonewall, and even the Civil War. I wanted to find innovative ways to ramp up the impact of sociology and have current relevancy to what is happening in the world. Social media gives us a portal to use our skill set and methodologies to do so.
- Why #BLM is only new in name and presentation Why social media? Why now? Evolution of a social media-driven movement Evolution of a leader Analysis of tweets The power of counter narratives Analysis of tweets Number of tweets
- Why should you care about this? In real-time; “documenting the now” to formulate scholarly conclusions and inform present-day policy decisions New methodologies in sociology and the humanities overcome limitations and give us new ways of understanding important social movements through focusing on what is happening in social media Speak to the new push for big data by matching social communities with physical communities Tells us how people are organizing and communicating Creates its own archive with regular people in a way that is distinct from print media, which is controlled experts and gatekeepers Shows and tells us what people say and do that is not captured in mainstream media Brings voices of those who are doing activist work in silence Provides an important present-day social context to movements such as #BLM
- Refer to a network of social relationships where activists express moral and emotional solidarity and share common interests
- A collective identity begins with the public expression of symbols and language that aims to challenge the cultural domination of a particular group (Polletta and Jasper 2014). In the social media sphere, individuals may showcase the same or similar shared symbols such as pictures, videos, memes, or vines that display a particular response about a social issue. These symbols, however, are not purely symbolic. Rather, they are linked to power discrepancies in social differentiation and resource allocation (Eisenstadt and Giesen 1995). These symbols also differentiate “us” from “them” (Snow 2001).
- Micromobilization - includes leveraging opportunities for communication to link the individual and sociocultural processes of identity, solidarity, and consciousness. Individuals may showcase the same or similar shared symbols such as pictures, videos, memes, or vines that display a particular response to a social issues These symbols, however, are not purely symbolic. Rather, they are linked to power discrepancies in social differentiation and resource allocation (Eisenstadt and Giesen 1995). These symbols also differentiate “us” from “them” (Snow 2001).
- On February 26, 2012 in Sanford, Florida, during halftime of the television viewing of the National Basketball Association’s all-star game, Trayvon Martin (who was on the phone with a friend) was walking back from a local convenience store to his father’s girlfriend’s apartment with a bag of skittles and a bottled iced tea. There was a light rain in the air and Martin had on a jacket with a hood, which is commonly called a “hoodie.” George Zimmerman, who was the self-appointed neighborhood watchperson, thought Martin looked suspicious and began following him. Zimmerman then called 911 and reported that a police officer should be sent to the apartment complex because he saw a suspicious man walking around. Minutes later, an altercation ensued between Zimmerman and Martin leaving Zimmerman bruised and bloodied and Martin shot dead. Zimmerman, who had a gun permit and was previously arrested for assaulting a police officer, was arrested for questioning and later released under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law. The law allows individuals to defend themselves by using deadly force if they feel their life is in danger (Cheng & Hoekstra, 2012). Zimmerman claimed he felt his life was in danger and had no other choice but to shoot Martin. For Martin, his body was initially labeled a “John Doe” and not identified until the following day when his father filed a police report. Calling this incident a national tragedy, President Barack Obama stated, “When I think about this boy, I think about my own kids… If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon.”
- Gilbert and Ray 2015 Journal of Urban Health “Why Police kill Black Males with Impunity: Applying Public Health Critical Race Praxis (PHCRP) to Address the Determinants of Policing Behaviors and “Justifiable” Homicides in the USA
- Gilbert and Ray 2015 Journal of Urban Health “Why Police kill Black Males with Impunity: Applying Public Health Critical Race Praxis (PHCRP) to Address the Determinants of Policing Behaviors and “Justifiable” Homicides in the USA
- Second, a college education, good job, or high income doesn’t protect Black men from criminalization. Regardless, in most social contexts, their Black male identities are continuously linked to criminality. Note my work on physical activity and neighborhood racial composition Note my work on SCI and race
- As Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi conceptualized, #BlackLivesMatter is not about placing Black lives on a higher pedestal or asserting for a segmented social group based on race. Rather, #BlackLivesMatter is asserting that the current social arrangement of society makes Black lives culpable and less worthy. Professor Judith Butler said it best: “When some people rejoin with ‘All Lives Matter’ they misunderstand the problem, but not because their message is untrue. It is true that all lives matter, but it is equally true that not all lives are understood to matter which is precisely why it is most important to name the lives that have not mattered, and are struggling to matter in the way they deserve... If Black lives do not matter, then they are not really regarded as lives, since a life is supposed to matter. So what we see is that some lives matter more than others, that some lives matter so much that they need to be protected at all costs, and that other lives matter less, or not at all.”
- Joined forces with MITH (Neil Friestat, Ed Summers, and Melissa Brown)
- Describe coding scheme and decisions made in relation to
- Chris Bail talks about in Terrified how the same thing happened during the 70’s with the NOI
- Leaders are as we define them.
- Examining how social media narratives impact attitudes and policy Matching Twitter activity with survey data to gauge perceptions, attitudes, and expectations Within a single hashtag, people are countering the dominant sentiment; we want to know how counter narratives emerge in a particular hashtag and how it Helping to make UMD a repository for new forms of data and a premier place to conduct research on race and social inequality (e.g., Discovery tools, Coding App, Online appendix for images and derivative data) Building social networks and human capacity in Prince George’s County to examine these trends on the ground to make social change