Black in New Media: The Good, the Bad and the women working toward change
I used this video to explain this topic in a concise way. Take a look.
One of the things I really liked and appreciated about Comm 200 was the fact that everything was optional and up to the students. This sounds very risky considering college kids are known for having lots on their plates and even more on their minds from school work, to executive board positions and internships and everything in between… So when I was given the opportunity to do any form of a digital artifact for a final project, I thought, “why not use this a means to directly connect this class to my major?” And then I thought, “why don’t I connect this class directly to myself.” So here I am, doing something I’ve never done before, out of fear that it looks like I’m “preaching” to a predominately white audience. Thanks to Professor Doughtery’s encouraging words, I decided who better do a project about how Black women are depicted and changing micro aggressions in new media than a Black woman herself?
Scene setter: When I get on my Instagram, it’s a little different than what many of white students may see. Yes, I follow reporters and news organizations, I follow friends, but I also follow a lot of Black women who are building up other Black women. I’m not sure what lead me to somehow having a huge Black male following, perhaps we’re all supporting one another, I’m not sure, but in today’s society, I follow back because it’s all about retention in my book (haha). I noticed that the only negative things I saw about Black women, were posts from Black men and people who were not or did not self identify as “Black.” This is the hegemonic society we live in. Hegemony is “a set of cultural values that favor a group of power and that are replicated and normalized in popular culture in such a way that those who are oppressed come to identify their own good with the good of those in power.”
This is why there is a need for campaigns like Black Girls Rock. This oppression of Black women is deeply rooted, believe it or not, in slavery. We were considered the bottom of the totem pole. At the tope there were white men, then white women, then other races that seemed “closer to white” in their respective male dominant orders and the pole ended with Black men grounded by- you guessed it: Black women. We had no voice. No respect. No “value” in society’s eyes.” So little respect that rape and abuse was a regular, run of the mill aspect of being a Black woman in America. We were the breeding ground and the white man’s secret. And please, let me pause here. I’ve noticed, just form being around some my white friends, that once the term “slavery” comes up, the conversation turns defensive. I hear “times have changed, it’s time to get over it,” or often times, the person will zone out. I ask, if you’re reading this out of curiosity, and feel you’ve “heard it all before,” don’t zone out. Don’t put up a wall. What I’m saying my strike a different cord…
There was once a time when the lighter skinned slaves were treated better and worked in the house, than the darker ones who worked in the fields. Now, today, people accuse black women of status like Beyonce or Kerry Washington of bleaching their skin or dying their hair blonde to look more white. This does NOT stem from the desire to look more “white,” as it is a simple fact that those who did have more “Anglo” features during rough times like slavery were treated better. Quite honestly, today, their treated better, too. Having a slave master father and a Black mother was not uncommon, yet the scenario was “hushed.” Hence the varying skin colors today. Hence the #teamlightskin #teamdarkskin battle on social media. Hence the background for my project.
I spoke to Professor Jennifer Richardson, at UIC. She teaches what Chicago has deemed the “Beyonce” class and focuses on how the music mogul is impacting feminism as she is a self proclaimed feminist. Richardson’s latest research project is based on what people are actually doing on social media. She says those who were once stripped of their ability to express themselves (like black women, judging from the history lesson I just gave) are “now being heard.” I use it for primarily networking or personal purposes. Everything is squeaky clean (except for the occasional expletive a follower may comment on a picture). But when I scroll through my feed and see pictures about Black women having attitudes, being over weight or “the least wanted race of women in the world,” that’s when something needs to be done. Call me preachy, call me opinionated, but the sad thing is, this is the first class I’ve ever taken a stance on something like this.
In 7th grade, one of my peers asked me why there wasn’t a “White Entertainment” television and the answer is privilege. Whites can turn on almost any channel, including Black Entertainment Television, and see themselves depicted as pragmatic, intelligent, self criticizing and able characters along with the idiots who blow things up or get arrested. The negative is not all of a sudden the poster mark for what a “white person” is.
This is different among Blacks and other ethnicities. While my Black friends love Empire, Black women are portrayed as catty self hating creatures. While I love a story that encourages love of all races, Scandal originally portrayed a Black women as a white man’s secret sex toy. We are often times considered a commodity. Interesting to see on TV, intriguing to think about and even use for the bedroom, but not what you take seriously or respect.
Black women are working to change this. Like the article, “Straight White male: the lowest difficulty setting there is,” I am not trying to say everyone has it “easier” than the Black woman. But I will say that not every thinks about the Black woman’s struggle. And I HATE using that phrase: “The Black woman’s struggle.” We are more than women who came from oppression, struggling to make ends meet with 6 babies and no husband or father figure in sight.
All of what I have explained, has been addressed on social media. Now, if white people are seeing it- I doubt it. Why? Filter bubbles. My Google account must have some insight that I’m Black because every once in a while, ads like “25% Malaysian hair” show up on the side of my Facebook… but I digress…
Being an aspiring journalist, I thought this clearly applies to a larger population. I spoke to Black women. I found their comments relevant. I looked up their social media, I found a trend. I found a survey from the Washington Post and Essence magazine that claimed that most Black women feel as though they have not defined themselves. They think society has. So I asked them what they want to be portrayed as and I asked white people what they view them as. Naturally, the responses from white people were along the lines of “anyone can find good and bad things about all races on social media,” but the comment that stood out most to me, was from Meghan Hayes, a white women and gender studies major at UIC. She is a student in Professor Richardson’s Beyonce class. “If it weren’t for the Black women I follow on social media, I would not understand where they are coming from,” Hayes said.
Aliya Jervier is a freshman health systems management major at Loyola who has participated in multiple protests for what she considers a “lack of Black rights.” She has documented her experiences on social media. While she has a large number of supporters, she constantly loses friends and followers on Facebook, Instragram and Twitter for the things she posts. She recently posted a picture of a woman’s reproductive organs. Inside the ovaries were Black people, stacked like the depiction of slave ships. The fallopian tubes lead to the uterus. Inside of it was Africa which then dripped and formed into America. This is a controversial photo. It suggests Blacks and Africans made America. This defies the patriotic society we see on our campus with women (many of them in predominantly white Greek organizations) in bikinis hold up the American flag. Aliyah knows this. Aliyah says she wants to shed light on issues to make people think.
This was so satisfying to me. Even though, I may not agree with all of the ideas about Black women, even though I may not post things saying that “white people just don’t get it,” (mainly because I think many white people do “get it.”) I appreciate the peaceful and intelligent form of bringing about conversation. It relates to Meghan from UIC’s comment. If we, Black women, that is, show other races that we really are “just like them,” if we prove that we can be articulate, wear our natural hair, like and date multiple races, support our own… people may view us as just that… people.
I think that the beauty of this class is that we acknowledge just how ridiculous we can be in today’s society. I have said something similar to this before in a previous reading response. I, myself, am guilty of posting a picture during “prime scrolling hours” or using social media because my desired field encourages it, but other Black women are using those “prime like hours” to show how other people who we are. The sad thing is it really isn’t that much for other races to learn about us becausewe’re no different from anyone else, we just haven’t been viewed that way. Society hasn’t told us our hair, skin, lips and bodies are beautiful, at least not until Kylie Jenner unknowingly mocks it. Hence the need for Black Girls Rock. Hence the need for more people as recpetive as Meghan from UIC. Hence the need for me to start talking about these issues instead of remaining “neutral” in an attempt to be a better journalist. Sometimes, the most introspective moments are the ones when we act the most social, when we don’t yearn for human interaction, when we don’t thirst to be with people, but instead when we observe what others are saying, what others are posting and soaking up some knowledge. I do this. Often. I look at my Muslim followers, I look at my Asian followers, my Hispanic follower, my Latino followers… I learn. The course did a great job of explaining how social media brings about social movements. I loved how mature the class was during the privilege portion. I really appreciated the insight from other students. It goes to prove that we’re all still learning about one another, but considering the civil strides America has made in the past 50 years alone, I could only hope that social media and those who aren’t afraid to use it as a source of change propel us into a more accepting society.
