Glossary
The Digital Narratives of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement Archive highlights a wide variety of social media posts that often include terms that currently do not have a centralized definition. After aggregating various definitions from several sources we have compiled a controlled vocabulary that will continue to evolve with the growth of the archive.
We hope that this glossary offers some clarity as you explore our archive. And as always, we welcome your feedback! If you have any edits or suggestions that you would like us to consider, please feel free to reach out.
Anti-Racist: A person who actively opposes all forms racism and promotes racial equity and equality.
Black Commodification: The transformation of Black culture for a commercial purpose.
Black Lives Matter Movement: is a movement that was founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer. Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, Inc. is a global organization in the US, UK, and Canada, whose mission is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes. By combating and countering acts of violence, creating space for Black imagination and innovation, and centering Black joy, we are winning immediate improvements in our lives. (Description from the Black Lives Matter movement website.)
Blackout Tuesday: was intended to be a collective action on social media to protest racism and police brutality. The action which took place on June 2nd, 2020, was originally organized within the music industry in response to the killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor and was deliberately organized to amplify Black voices. Unfortunately, the digital protest backfired as users flooded popular hashtags such as #BLM and #SayHerName with black squares, unintentionally doing the exact opposite by making it more difficult for Black content creators to be seen and heard on these various social media platforms, particularly on Instagram.
Performative Activism: activism that is done to increase one’s social capital rather than because of one’s devotion to a cause.
Personal Narrative: A prose narrative relating personal experience usually told in first person; its content is nontraditional. "Personal" refers to a story from one's life or experiences. “Nontraditional” refers to literature that does not fit the typical criteria of a narrative.
Influencers: are individuals who have built an audience and become known for their knowledge and perspective on a specific topic. These individuals will often make regular posts about that topic on their social media channel(s), and engage with the people who follow them.
Instagram: is an American photo and video sharing social network created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. In 2012, Facebook purchased Instagram for US$1 billion
Instagram Carousel: is a post that can include multiple photos or videos that can be viewed by swiping or clicking left. A user can use up to 10 images or videos in a single post on the feed using this carousel format. Like any other Instagram posts, a user can include a caption, alt-image text, geotags, and other related metadata tags.
Police Brutality: The excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement.
Police Accountability: The act of holding police officers and law enforcements agents responsible for their actions.
Racial Gaslighting: A convenient tactic used to derail accusations of racism and shift the scrutiny onto the accuser – forcing them to question and re-asses their own response to the racism.
Screenshot: also called a screen grab is an image that captures the content on the screen of a digital device (i.e.: cell phone, laptop, desktop computer).
Slacktivism: the practice of supporting a political or social cause with low stakes measures such as social media reposting or signing online petitions, characterized as involving very little effort or commitment and minimal action or follow through.
Systemic Racism: A form of racism ingrained through laws in society or organizations.
Twitter: A free ‘microblogging’ network system that allows you to send and receive short posts called tweets.
Twitter Thread: is a series of connected Tweets created by one person. With a Twitter thread, a user can give additional context, update, or extend a point by stringing multiple Tweets together.
White Allyship: a white individual who actively works both personally as well as collaboratively with the BIPOC community to promote racial justice, equity, and equality while also advocating for the ending of personal, institutional, and systemic racism and marginalization.
White Fragility: A book about race relations written by Robin DiAngelo in 2018 that was widely discussed during the 2020 Black Lives Matter Protests. The book has had mixed reviews and has become somewhat synonymous with the perpetuation of virtue signaling and performative activism.
White Savior Complex: a white person who provides help to non-white people in a self-serving manner.
Read more:
https://metro.co.uk/2020/06/18/what-racial-gaslighting-why-damaging-people-colour-12866409/?ito=cbshare
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www.blacklivesmatter.com