Taking activism beyond Twitter: Young minority activists on modern movements

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Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites exploded with outraged users after the not-guilty verdict in the George Zimmerman trial, more than two weeks ago.

A lot of those comments came from young people, some of whom were having their first experiences with this kind of perceived injustice.  Calls for justice for Trayvon Martin and his family flooded Twitter, and it seemed that many people shared a similar disappointed feeling: the justice system has failed us once again.

Many 20-somethings may not have marched with civil rights leaders in the 60’s, experienced the death of Emmett Till, or remember much about the Oscar Grant shooting. But, they are rallying together for Trayvon Martin in what looks like a revived interest in activism and using social media to participate in the movement.

Thenjiwe McHarris, a community organizer who helped start the 2012 Million Hoodies March after Trayvon Martin was killed, said that that movement was organized almost solely online via Twitter and Facebook.

“People are not just talking about tragedy and news online, they are talking about their outrage and the beauty about taking action when they feel an injustice has occurred,” said McHarris. “Young people engage politically in this way… We have the potential of mobilizing faster than we ever have before and young people are the vanguard of that.”

Young people are not only showing up online, they are using social media to strengthen more traditional forms of organization.  A generation that is described by some as “apathetic” seems to be doing a lot more organizing than their older counterparts have given them credit for in the past.

Lori Salmon is a young woman from Harlem who works with organizers to advocate against police brutality, and has mobilized people after events such as the shooting death of Kimani Gray by a police officer in Brooklyn, NY.

She said that she began her relationship with activism simply as a concerned community member, and has seen Instagram, Twitter, and group texting as trendy tools to help get her peers involved.

“It’s not just about what we do in our communities locally, but nationally and internationally. Social media has helped us see each other’s struggles on a much larger scale,” said Salmon.

So, what can young people do to go beyond social media hype?

It may be time to move past the notion that young people are not “out there” mobilizing. Many grassroots organizers say not only are young people participating in activism, they are leading the way in more creative ways.

Lori Salmon suggested a different way that young people could step up social media for activism: YouTube. She thinks people should document everything that they see and use it to start the conversations that “need to happen.”

Aidge Patterson, a commissioner for People’s Justice, has engaged other young people by hitting them in their interests, specifically in the arts.

Last week, Patterson and his peers performed guerrilla theater skits on the NY subways. He described being able to move from train to train acting out one-minute skits to educate people about their rights. In addition to acting, Patterson is organizing people to put social justice up on the walls in the form of painted murals.

“Young people need to do things in different ways sometimes. Not everybody is in to your traditional marching and your traditional ideas about how we do things. That is why our programming adds art so much into the mix to bring young vision to life,” said Patterson.

He mentioned that young people have taken on their own forms of art as activism, and warn organizers not to get stuck on what they think organizing needs to look like.