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

[Radhika G]

Oops “southasians4blacklives ” sorry for that slip ...


Over and out - will try and stay quiet again.

R

On Sun, Jun 7, 2020 at 7:45 AM Radhika G <gradhika2012 at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
>
-- 
___
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