span of four months American police
officers murdered unarmed Eric Gardner
in New York unarmed Michael Brown in
Ferguson and 12 year old Tamir rice in
Cleveland and as a result I like many
around the world looked for ways to
collectively and productively respond to
the in justices that we had seen and one
popular mechanism became to utilize
Twitter the social media platform that
for years had been used by many black
activists and black users of the
platform and the viability of Twitter as
this response mechanism was seen in the
aftermath of the brown Durant Gardner
murders when the hashtag black lives
matter erupted amongst twitter becoming
one of the most popular hashtags tweeted
of 2014 and for those unaware a hashtag
is simply a way for users on Twitter to
key into conversations and engage in
conversations with other users on the
platform and ever since 2014 the hashtag
black lives matter has become a rallying
cry of source for this new online
generations black liberation movement I
follow black activism on Twitter since
around the spring of 2015 and since I’ve
observed three reasons for the
platform’s effectiveness in black
activism Jews number one is protest
powered black activists on Twitter have
utilized the platform as a megaphone for
their protest messages look no further
than the hashtag black lives matter as a
prime example additionally black
activists are utilizing the platform’s
protest power to cause real change in
the streets and in live time for example
we have we saw in 2014 when uprisings
erupted in Ferguson after the Michael
Brown murder black activists and users
took to the streets of Ferguson to tweet
live pictures video commentary straight
from the heart of the protests and
suddenly their voices became the
dominant news source on the ferguson
uprisings they became an empowered unit
to speak about the protests that they
were engaging in Twitter as the
in platforms was able to provide a
vehicle for those protests to exist
additionally number two is educational
opportunities black activists on Twitter
have a wide range of opportunities to
teach and spread knowledge we see this
in examples like topics ranging from
black women in politics or a hyper
masculinity in the black male community
or revolutionary black leaders of the
past and much more right and black
activists and black intellect on Twitter
are using these topics and teaching them
and it inherently serves as another a
form of protests because these are often
topics that go under discussed or
flat-out ignored in our societies other
educational spaces and so I’ve learned
so much from black activists and
intellects on Twitter because I’ve had
an opportunity to engage in a wide range
of perspectives as well as challenge
myself to learn a wide range of ideas
this again is another example of black
activism effectiveness number three is
the unavoidable undeniable influence and
impact of black activists and black
users on the platform of Twitter black
activists have become crucial talking
points in society as well as black
hashtags right nowhere you can go in our
society today is devoid of mention of
black lives matter or black issues that
have been raised largely because of the
visibility of black activism on Twitter
for example in 2016 and the presidential
election campaign we saw a presidential
candidate Hillary Clinton sit down with
some of the black lives matter activists
to discuss a range of black issues some
of the same activists who in 2014 were
live tweeting video and pictures from
the streets of Ferguson so think about
that ascension as well additionally
we’ve seen international acceptance and
embrace of black activism on Twitter we
saw protests of black lives matter erupt
in Canada South Africa all across Europe
and this international acceptance of the
black lives matter movement is extremely
important to understand why it’s so
effective but let’s take a step back
because the the impact of black activism
on Twitter is clearly something that has
become a new sort of phase over the last
few years but at the same time
who could have imagined that in 2014
black activists tweeting from the
streets of Ferguson and me reacting all
the way in New Jersey could suddenly in
two years see those same black activists
meeting with presidential candidates and
having their ideas represented on an
international scale and so that’s kind
of why it’s so important for me because
black activism on the platform of
Twitter has become a crucial idea in our
society and that’s why it’s important to
understand and engage in his future
black activism has often been suppressed
and silenced by America historically but
now black activists through a platform
like Twitter are centralizing their
voices empowering their perspectives and
changing the narrative on a daily basis
right and so personally I’ve also seen
the impact of black activism I’ve
learned so much over the last few years
about myself and my identity my status
in America as a young black man growing
up in this country my perspectives on
ideas relating to my community I’ve
learned so much about my history because
of black activism on Twitter and black
users utilizing the platform and in
general this is just a place where I’m
able to express my ideas as well as
learn new ones and so undeniably right
now in this moment black activists
around the world
and here in America are leaving an
undeniable influence and impact on our
society on our generation and on our
future thank you [Applause]