Blog Post 2: Ferguson, race, and Social Media

As we all probably know by now, the town of Ferguson, Missouri has been in the news since earlier this summer. It all started when (white) police officer Darren Wilson shot the unarmed (black) young man Mike Brown. While different news outlets covered the story, there was very little consensus on what happened. It was primarily through social media that the residents of the town and people in the surrounding area were able to document and report on the events that began to transpire and give the world more of the story while also pointing out the still prevalent racism in America.

 Tweet from August 23rd pointing out the harmful support people showed towards the officer that shot and killed Mike Brown. Also shows how people took the "I am Mike Brown" movement similar to the hash-tag trend "if they gun me down." In this hash-tag black people showed two pictures of themselves, one of them doing something the media would show as "bad" and another of them either with their friends, families, at school, or at their career. Unfortunately, some (mostly white) people tried to make jokes in the hash-tag, not respecting what the movement was for.(Buzzfeed, another social media source, and information about the movement)  

While these events happened a few months ago, there has been a steady stream of activities and demand for justice coming from Ferguson and supporters of the town. 

       In my last post I talked about the voice social media has given to people of color and while there have been many speaking about the this event, the Black residents of Ferguson and the surrounding area have been in the front lines, largely using Twitter, Vine, and Facebook to share what has happened and what is still happening with the rest of the world.

When the memorial for Mike Brown was burnt down, the police claimed it to be an accident, but people took to social media claiming act was malicious and of racist intent. 

Through different panels and hearings the people of Ferguson and their supporters have kept documenting every decision being made and calling out the injustice of calling peaceful protests "riots," trying to portray black people fighting for justice as "dangerous," "violent," or "thugs." Very recently, violence broke out at the New Hampshire Pumpkin Festival. While this indecent is unrelated to Ferguson in origin, many people have compared the two places to demonstrate how the news, media sources, and social media users are a source of hypocrisy when portraying acts by different people. 

 While the protesters in Ferguson were portrayed as a "riot" and as "looters," the same portrayal was not given to the immediate coverage of the violence in New Hampshire. Many tweets also made jokes trying to get the point of comparison across and point out the flaws of many people's reactions to Ferguson. 

  

Sources: "How The Powerful #IfTheyGunnedMeDown Movement Changed The Conversation About Michael Brown's Death." BuzzFeed. N.p., 13 Aug. 2014. Web. 19 Oct. 2014. 

https://twitter.com/CarlNyberg312

https://twitter.com/WesleyLowery

https://twitter.com/kcarr78

Pearce, Matt. "Riot Breaks out at New Hampshire Pumpkin Festival." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 19 Oct. 2014. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.

Kaufman, Scott. "Whites Riot over Pumpkins in NH and Twitter Turns It into Epic Lesson about Ferguson." Raw Story. Rawstory, 19 Oct. 2014. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.

https://twitter.com/ShaunKing

https://twitter.com/kgosztola

https://twitter.com/JamilSmith

https://twitter.com/anildash