Social Media

BY: LEVI BOLLS, SARA LARA, EDISON

What is racism?

The belief that all members of each race

possess characteristics or abilities
specific to that race, especially so as to
distinguish it as inferior or superior to
another race or races.

Santa Ana High School

Shooting
We think danger is black, brown, and poor, and if
we can just move far enough away from those
people in the cities well be safe.
Two suspects were not found; both remain at
large. They were both described as Hispanic
males in their late teens. The shooting
appeared to be gang-related, according to
police.
- ABC7News

Recent studies reveal

that most school
shooters are White
males, with 97
percent being male
and 79 percent White.
http://www.alternet.
org/story/10560/school_shooting
s_and_white_denial

James Holmes

Columbine
Massacre
[We hope it] starts a
conversation about
depression, about
people who are
suffering in silence, and
being able to explore
and see these signs
and prevent something
like this from happening
ever again.
- Fox6News.com

Washington
State
School
Shooting
-

Unnecessary personal
photos
Emphasizing race
Using photos
representing the shooters
heritage
Brings negative
awareness towards the
Native American culture

 1 Case Unknown
1 Case Native
American
6 Cases Asian
11 Cases Black
44 Cases White

Activism

Power Dynamics Between Races

The power differences between
groups, rather than differences in
population size among groups.

Cop/Security Statistics

Michael Brown

18 year old African

American Adult.
Shot down in the
streets of Ferguson,
Missouri.
The officer, Darren
Wilson, that open
fired was a Caucasian
male.
Police force is
dominantly White.
Leads to activist
marching the streets.

Michael Brown is
portrayed as a thug
on the media.

The image shows Brown throwing up gang signs. This

automatically makes him look bad to the general publics
eye. However could the gang sign be a peace sign?

#IfTheyGunnedMeDown
This # was used to spread awareness
about Browns death.
The reason supporters created this hash
tag was to show how the media was
portraying Brown as a thug.
Supporters were of all ethnicities
including white.
This movement opened the eyes of the
public.

Twitter pictures such

as this were posted
with the hash tag
#IfTheyGunnedMeDo
wn.

Larrell Christian a 21year old African American male.

Currently active duty in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Born February 5, 1995

17 year old AfricanAmerican
Lived in Miami Gardens,
Florida
Killed by George Michael
Zimmerman

Trayvon Martin

#HoodiesUp

Statement made by
supporter.
Exemplified how
young man was
innocent.
Helped get
attention from the
president.

Obama's Reaction

Outcome of Protests
#IfTheyGunnedMeDown and #HoodiesUp
created a heart breaking message to the
public.
Black males are being treated unfairly in
media representations.
Protestors on the street began to chant the
hash tag in order to send a message.
Gained media attention which lead to
Obama speaking.

Social
constructionists
maintain that
humans construct
the world through
social practices
(Allen 36).
Hands joining together representing the stand against
racism!

 Our theory argues that the

powerful do not need to pay
attention because nothing is
riding on the other person;
their fates do not depend on the
other, so their attention should
Everyone is equal!

be more superficial (Fiske

627).

Incarceration Rates

http://www.sentencingproject.
org/template/page.cfm?id=107

http://www.sentencingproject.org/template/page.cfm?id=122

Louisiana Man Gets Life Sentence for Minor

Drug Offense
-

http://www.theweedblog.com/louisiana-man-serving-a-lifesentence-for-minor-drug-possession-struggles-for-freedom/

Jody Butler sentenced to life

without parole.
New Orleans Judge
sentenced skilled painter and
father, to spend life in an
infamous Angola State
Penitentiary; the nations
largest and maximum
security prison.
Serving sentence for a nickel
bag of marijuana and five
rocks of cocaine.

Mother Sentenced to Life for Conspiracy

of Distributing Drugs I will expire in the federal system,
-

32-year-old mom, Sharanda

P. Jones, with 9-year-old
daughter.
No prior arrest from caught in
drug sweep, which led to 105
arrests in her Texas town.
Everyone arrested is black.
No drugs found on Jones, but
co-conspirators testify
against her for reduced
sentences.
Minimum life sentence
without parole.
Expected to die for a first
offense.

Jones told the American Civil Liberties

Union of her sentence.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/14/opinion/kristof-serving-lifefor-this.html

Turns Out Telling White People About Americas Racist

Prison System Actually Backfires

White people seem to believe that more black

prisoners is a sign of an effective criminal justice
system, even when they have the racial inequalities
of that system waved in front of their noses.
-

http://mic.com/articles/95814/turns-out-telling-whitepeople-about-america-s-racist-prison-system-actuallybackfires

White people believe the criminal

justice system wouldnt arrest
someone innocent.
Stanford University research tests
how; ironically, the exposure of
evidence of racial disparity may make
the public less responsive to attempt
lessening those disparities. Instead of
supporting them.
According to article, to reduce
inequality, It takes more than simply
presenting people with evidence of
extreme inequality.

What is Microaggressions?

Racial Microaggressions are daily brief, verbal, behavioral, or

environmental indignities, whether intentional or not, that communicate
hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward people of
color.

#itooamharvard

Bryan Stevenson
The opposite of poverty is not wealth, its justice.
-

Bryan Stevenson, a
professor at New
York University
School of Law.

Speaks on how the

justice system treats
you better if youre
rich and guilty, than
poor and innocent.

Makes us believes
that its not our
problem;
disconnected.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2tOp7OxyQ8

Following
presentation, he
raised $1 million
by attendees to
fund a campaign
run by Stevenson
himself to end
practice of putting
children in adult
jails and prisons.

NAACP
Mission: To ensure
the political
educational and
economic equality
of rights of all
people by
eliminating raced
based profiling.
http://www.naacp.
org

Solution
Games Against Racism
Goal is to create a movement that unites all races.
Our message is that discrimination is alive and it is
up to the younger generation to stop it by
promoting weekly game nights between different
communities.
Video: http://youtu.be/tFZvwm50se4

Thesis
Social media elaborates on the main event of the story and
makes a problematic correlation between race and crime;
instead of focusing on the subjects race, more awareness of
microaggressions and discrimination, as well as the use of
intersectionality and social construction, can subvert this
oppression.

Sources

http://time.com/3100975/iftheygunnedmedown-ferguson-missouri-michael-brown/

http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/11/us/missouri-ferguson-michael-brown-what-we-know/

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mrloganrhoades/how-the-powerful-iftheygunnedmedownmovement-changed-the-con

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/24/1324132/-How-Often-are-Unarmed-BlackMen-Shot-Down-By-Police#

http://www.lawyerscommittee.org/admin/site/images/files/0223.1.jpg

http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/05/us/trayvon-martin-shooting-fast-facts/

http://www.rebellesociety.com/wpcontent/uploads/2013/07/1069405_10152596650344041_1514336759_n.jpg

http://www.motherjones.com/files/imagecache/top-of-content-main/shooter-race-630.
png

http://www.getyourbuzzup.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Hoodies-Up-COver.jpg

http://www.alternet.org/story/10560/school_shootings_and_white_denial

http://www.politicalresearch.org/2014/06/19/mass-shooters-have-a-gender-and-a-race/#