#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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Notas do Editor
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