The emergence of Black Twitter has given voice to younger African-Americans. Young black people are using Black Twitter to expand African-American perspectives on current events, civil rights and cultural issues. According to the Washington Post nearly two thirds of black Internet users are on Black Twitter. The 140 characters has given voice to young black people who enjoy the slang and references used on Black Twitter. But it’s also a new way to express their frustrations and anger. In some ways you can say that Black Twitter is our conversation.
Recently Black Twitter exploded when Michael Dunn was convicted of attempted murder rather than murder of Jordan Davis in Florida. Images of black children and toddlers were posted under the hashtag of #dangerousblackkids.
A Pew Research Center report indicated that despite fewer African-Americans using the Internet than whites, 80 percent to 87 percent, more black people used Twitter; 22% compared to 16%.
Meredith Clark, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill doctoral student, is writing her dissertation on Black Twitter. She compared Black Twitter to the “Freedom’s Journal” the first black newspaper in the U.S. That publication’s front page read; “We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us.” Clark tweets under the hashtag @meredithclark. She stated, “If you are from a particularly marginalized community or one where others have spoken for you, but you have not had the agency to really speak for yourself or make your truth known, then it is absolutely necessary that in any instance you can take on that agency that you do so. And so that is what you see happening in Black Twitter.”
Clark maybe right. Black Twitter has flexed its muscle on several occasions. Recently Black Twitter took on George Zimmerman. If you remember Zimmerman was found not guilty in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. A promoter planned to have him fight rapper DMX in a celebrity boxing match. Because of the storm on Black Twitter the fight was cancelled. Black Twitter also claimed to have killed a book deal with one of the Zimmerman jurors.
Although Tweets are only 140 characters long they can be powerful messengers. Black people are using Black Twitter to express their own perspective on everything from crime to politics to fashion.
Mainstream media portrayal of black people can often be negative, even racist. But when I think of Black Twitter I remember what one college instructors taught me; “He who controls the image controls the mind. He who controls the mind has no fear of the body.”