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.

Social Media Activism : Bring Back Our Girls

Bring Back Our Girls

A recent anomaly on my Facebook stream is a post on Bring back Our Girls that was at the same time as our reading “Is the Bring Back Our Girls Movement a Failure?” by Demetria Irwin from May 18,2014 (thegrio.com/2014/05/18/is-the-bringbackourgirls-movement-a-failure). The posting on my stream was titled “Remember #BringBackOurGirls? This Is What Has Happened In The 5 Months Since” written by Charlotte Alfred on huffingtonpost.com/TheWorldPost Posted on September 14,2014 and updated on September 19,2014 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theworldpost/ , Posted: 09/14/2014 11:57 am EDT Updated: 09/19/2014 9:59 am EDT ) and posted on Facebook on September 16,2014. The World Post is partnership with Huffington Post and Berggruen Institute on Governance. For my edification I had to go the The Berggruen Institute website find out who and what they are all about. On their website they describes themselves as the following “The Berggruen Institute is dedicated to the design and implementation of new ideas of good governance -- drawing from practices in both East and West -- that can be brought to bear on the common challenges of globalization in the 21st century.”

On the Facebook post there were 553 comments and it was shared by 23,651 people with that many shares and comments there is a wide range of reactions. The remarks span from the political discourse in the Ukraine to the Ebola virus outbreak in Africa to Ferguson, even recent topical trending talk for in stance the ice bucket challenge. The two posts share the same sentient that a hashtag activism by itself cannot make the total change. But in some cases it works very well. In the section “Hashtag Activism Successes” of thegrio.com text Alfred points out some victories outcomes.

“Hashtag activism seems to work best when it is tied to some type of public relations nightmare that could negatively impact a company or person’s finances. When IAC public relations executive Justine Sacco tweeted an insensitive, racist “joke” about AIDS,  Black Twitter took her to task with the #HasJustineLandedYet hashtag. Sacco was en route to South Africa, and the by the time she landed, she was out of a job. IAC is the umbrella corporation for a slew of companies, including Match.com, Vimeo, Tinder, the Daily Beast and many other popular brands. The digital media powerhouse was not interested in keeping an executive who made potentially brand damaging comments. Score one for hashtag activism.”

Now I’m not going to get into the fact the that the Nigerian military seemed to be incapable of getting the girls back. And that leads to the question why? when getting some support was offered to provide assistance. Or the fact the Nigerian military actually stated that they know where the girls are being held on national television. And the fact the girls have not as of this posting have not be returned. Because that is not what this blog post is about as a whole.

When I shared the story on my Facebook page the comments were not as many as a big media outlet such as The Huffington Post, but I still received a passionate share of voices to the post. One post being from my friend Eddie Hussein Nwabuoku who is actually from Nigeria, and well versed in the geo political state of his home country. He states “If anyone expected a mere Twitter hashtag to result in the return of those girls, they are high on something. As someone who lived in that part of the world for yoinks, I can tell you categorically: One does not simply walk into that area of Borno state of Nigeria”. His post is accompanied by a meme that helps to bring his point home that the problem is bigger than any hashtag can ever solve. 

#socialmediablacklatinohunterCUNY

Digital Divide #socialmediablacklatinohunterCUNY

Digital Divide

My position on the “Digital Divide” is that it is not just a divide of access to the internet but, of race, class, health, education, influence, environment, money. Many of the inequalities that have plagued black and latino communities around the world are also reflected in the “Digital Divide”.

As I was reading Professor Shivers’ piece “Threading Disparities in the Digital Divide”, race, class, health, education, influence, environment, money and access became common themes that surfaced. These are partially seen in the Black and Latino community of The Hunts Point Area of the Bronx, New York City and The Bay Area of California.

Let start with the problems that are happening in the Bay Area of California where tech companies are parking private buses in poor and unprivileged areas for their employees to get to work in Silicon Valley. They have met with protesters who don’t think that the tech companies are being responsible in their operation of these private buses. There are many problems that manifest with the buses. One being that the buses are idling in these neighborhoods polluting in the community.

Some tech companies make the argument that the private buses run on bio fuel or other low emitting fuels, but if they are bringing more vehicles in to the community, it can only make more pollution, period.

These buses have been able to operate without notice for some time, which speaks to the “influence” on and “access” to city government the tech companies have. Much of the residents of these areas are poor or people of color.

These private buses also take advantage of the city bus stops to pick up passengers. This also causes an effect on other city resources for, example reducing access to bike lanes, double parking that delays city buses from making their appointed stops, etc. All at the low cost of nothing, which really surprises me considering that these tech companies are making so much money. As of late the city has begun to charge them a nominal fee, which might not have come about without public protest.

 Other problems of the “Digital Divide” in the Bay area include that the tech boom has contributed to a gentrification boom in that it has left many of the Bay area’s poor and elderly residents without a place to live. The same can be said for some small business owners that used to be plentiful in the Bay area, but now cannot afford the over inflated rents for a storefront.

Tech’s private buses point out health concerns that are similar to those of the Hunts Point area of the Bronx, New York. This is the home of the Hunts Point Terminal Market, where almost daily idling caravans of trucks wait to enter the market.

You may be wondering what does the Digital Divide have to do with the Hunts Point in the Bronx, New York? Well there is a new player in the game in the form of the online grocer Fresh Direct moving into the market. With easy access to the Cross-Bronx and Bruckner Expressway it becomes a very desirable location.  Their trucks will cause more pollution to a population that has largest cases of asthma in New York City according to New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s study from 2007 and 2008.

In addition to many of Hunts Point residents being poor and people of color, many of their homes are not wired for the internet or broadband access, a problem similar to some of the residents of the Bay Area. Less than 50% of Hunts Point residents have internet or broad-band access according to story posted The Environmental Justice in Action Blog on May 22,2014. So it is safe to say that they are not the bulk of Fresh Directs consumer base.

According to a report that was posted on Techwire.net on August 18^th, 2014 from the utility commission, the amount of internet and broadband access in the North Bay is “3.2 percent of Marin’s households are either underserved or fully unserved for broadband. Sonoma is 1.8 percent underserved or unserved and Napa 1 percent. The remaining six counties are under 1 percent.” Most of North Bay and Hunts Points residents are black and latino. All this looks like a digital version of the haves and the have, nots.

#socialmediablacklatinohunterCUNY