Activism & Social Justice Latinos in Social Media

Activism & Social Justice

One thing that I noticed while doing the readings on Activism & Social Justice is that is the use of social media as means to a call to action that is similar in both the latino and black community. A call to action that manifested itself in offline protest and using social media as an outlet to have the voice of the community be heard.

The use of social media to retrieve real life results can be seen in the case of “After the Arab Spring, Comes a Boricua Winter” by Christina Constantini. Where Constantini writes about the people of island Puerto Rico voicing their disapproval of the slandering of murder victim Jose Enrique Gomez on the television show Super Xclusivo character “La Comay”. Which is puppet like character that talks about the private affairs of Puerto Ricans on the island.  Viewers organized on social media and took their protest to the shows sponsors that removed their advertising from the show. These companies included Walmart, Dish, AT & T and Borden. It is clear to see that these companies have heard the message of the community and have responded in support. 

A Spanish translation of Walmart’s stated reads as the following “Walmart is a committed to improving Puerto Rico's quality of life. In response to the controversy that arose from the "SuperXclusivo" program, we have decide to cancel our advertising plans for the show. We reiterate our commitment to Puerto Rico and the communities we serve.”

In addition "SuperXclusivo" which was on the island’s top programs was cancelled from WAPA network.

Another markers of social media that manifested into real life protest was highlighted in posting from Aljazeera.com website the Stream titled “Can social media tackle Puerto Rico's crime wave?” (http://stream.aljazeera.com/story/201212110143-0022434) It was the holding if of signs that read  "Todos Somos José Enrique" which translates to "We are all José Enrique". The hashtag #Todos Somos José Enrique also accompanied many posting Everyone from the regular Puerto Rican standing both singularly and in groups, even singer Ricky Martin joined the cause holding a  "Todos Somos José Enrique" sign.

This is similar to the signs that were used during the protest of the killing of Travon Martin where people posted photos of the themselves wearing hoodies social media with the caption with the hashtag #I am Travon Martin. Everyone from the regular person to celebrates of all kinds for example movie star Jamie Fox to the Miami Heat Basketball team upload photos of them selves with hoodies. Some people were going as far superimposing the face of black icon in hoodies for example Martin Luther King to further the point. This alignment transference of self to another self is sign of unity.