Social Media: A Vital Tool in Teaching Contemporary Black American Protest

Abstract

Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have of course become one of the most familiar frames for many students. Gibson describes her work to bring these platforms into the classroom. She begins with a survey of the ways college students have participated within the history of African American activism from the Civil Rights Movement to Black Lives Matter. She then explores how social media has become a generative space for such activism, especially as the Trump presidency has exposed the fantasy that the US became a "post-racial" society during the presidency of Barack Obama.