[Air-L] A good way to respond to a query from a student about activism?

[Radhika G]

Hi all

Not to suddenly clutter up the space again but sharing an Instagram post to
“southasiansagainstblacklives” - and yes I understand Sarah’s student is a
black woman - but we all need to understand the issue at hand clearly
before we make it about ourselves on social media which I’m afraid wasn’t
created as a space for activism but rather as a space for marketing and
self- branding (as Crystal Abidin among others so clearly writes about in
her research).

Activists leverage these tools like any other - results in revenue for the
social media platforms even though they are often structurally complicit in
the Oppression- But none of the tools were made for freedom and activism.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CBHjD29ga1s/?igshid=3o05ba94de8f


On Sun, Jun 7, 2020 at 4:42 AM Marianne Gunderson <marianne.gunderson at uib.no>
wrote:

> Dear Prof. Sarah Oates and others
>
> This may not be one of the deeper contributions, but since your student was
> asking for resources on "the potential to leverage social media for
> positive social change beyond likes and retweets", maybe some of the
> various discord servers dedicated to Black Lives Matter could be relevant?
> I have the impression that these platforms are increasingly being used for
> mobilizing, organizing, and coordinating activism and other direct action
> often kept off public platforms like Twitter. I haven't personally explored
> the ecosystem of activist discords, but here is an overview over servers
> tagged with #blacklivesmatter, maybe some of them could be relevant for
> your student?
>
> (NB. A few of the servers seem to be using the tag in bad faith, but it's
> fairly obvious which ones are not.)
>
> https://disboard.org/servers/tag/blacklivesmatter
> https://disboard.org/servers/tag/black-lives-matter
>
> Hope this is useful!
>
> Best regards,
> Marianne Gunderson
> --
> Ph.D candidate in Digital Culture with The Machine Vision Project
> <https://www.uib.no/en/machinevision>
> University of Bergen, Norway
> UiB homepage <https://www.uib.no/en/persons/Marianne.Gunderson> /
> Academia.edu <https://uib.academia.edu/MarianneGunderson> / Twitter
> <https://twitter.com/mareinna>
>
> On Fri, 5 Jun 2020 at 00:05, Sarah Ann Oates <soates at umd.edu> wrote:
>
> > Dear AOIRers,
> >
> > I wanted to ask this great list a question for our times. See the message
> > below from a student I taught in an online social media and society
> course,
> > in which we had a module on #BlackLivesMatter. Can you think of a better
> > way to respond than just with a list of campus groups and a note that I
> was
> > impressed that she wanted to commit to activism for her beliefs? That's
> > what I did, but I'd like to help a bit more because it's heartening both
> to
> > see students wanting to put their scholarship into action. Thanks in
> > advance. BTW, I asked her if I could ask the list and she said that was
> > great.
> >
> > Here is her message:
> >
> > As a young black woman, I am struggling to cope with all that is
> happening
> > in our country right now. Looking at social media I am further saddened
> to
> > see images of Black men being murdered and their deaths reposted and
> > reposted for all to see. I fear people will become desensitized to these
> > images and names like George Floyd will just become another hashtag and
> > forgotten victim of a corrupt system.
> >
> > *... I was wondering if you had any advice or resources for action beyond
> > social media. I know the Black Lives Matter module discussed the sort of
> > "wind tunnels" we create where like-minded people swirl ideas among
> mutual
> > followers, but little action is taken beyond likes and retweets. I want
> to
> > do something that goes beyond liking a post or ranting about it on
> Twitter.
> > If you have any ideas or resources regarding the potential to leverage
> > social media for positive social change I'd love to learn more about
> them!*
> >
> > Sarah Oates
> > Professor and Senior Scholar
> > Philip Merrill College of Journalism
> > University of Maryland
> > College Park, MD 20457
> > Email: soates at umd.edu
> > Phone: 301 455 2332
> > www.media-politics.com
> > Twitter: @media_politics
> >
> > *Support the UMD Student Crisis Fund
> > <https://giving.umd.edu/giving/showPage.php?name=crisis-funding> today.
> *
> > _______________________________________________
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-- 
___
Radhika Gajjala
Managing Editor: Fembot Collective
Co-editor of Ada: Journal of Gender and New Media (adanewmedia.org)

Professor,
School of Media and Communication
and
American Culture Studies Program

Bowling Green State University,
Bowling Green Ohio
http://www.radhikagajjala.org