Media for Black Women… Weapon versus Tool
As Smit Chitre puts it, social media is a double-edged sword. I think this metaphor can certainly be extended to all forms of media and is not exclusive to social media specifically. On one hand, social media is a weapon on suppression for Black women; in fact, media use is associated with traditional gender beliefs among Black students and higher rates of media consumption are correlated with stronger support of traditional gender beliefs and greater support of stereotypes about Black women). So, yes… media is clearly a weapon of suppression. Research has demonstrated the influence of the media on the perpetuation and support of stereotypes associated with Black women. The most frequent associated imagery (which was identified as negative, inaccurate, and offensive) falls into the categories of Black women as unusually sexual, taking care of others, strong, and angry.. Again, here we have statistically supported evidence that the media is in fact a weapon that utilizes the perpetuation of harmful categorization stereotyping to suppress Black women.
**TW: Sexual Assault**
One common tool within media use is the utilization of a hashtag. However, not all hashtags are of equal impact for Black women. For example, those who engage with #SayHerName are also engaged in intersectional mobilization by highlighting Black women victims of police violence while #BLM focuses primarily on Black men… despite having been founded by three Black women. Wagatwe Wanjuki has started two hashtags, #JustSaySorry and #SurvivorPrivilege, as digital media campaigns to challenge the status quo (cite). I do not know enough about the origin or progression of these campaigns to speak on them; however, the advocacy that Wanjuki is promoting with these hashtags is aimed at ending rape culture in general. By this I mean, these hashtag campaigns are not using a framework that elevates the difference of sexual assault for Black women, despite Black women being at a disproportionate risk for sexual assault. I would like to clarify that I am not in any way attempting to critique these campaigns, I am attempting to highlight that there is a distinction that must be made in media contexts - but, why? The answer is simple (as in, one word)... whitewashing. Such as the whitewashing that took place with the #MeToo movement, which can be read about here. All of this is to say that there are many forms of media suppression that can occur for Black women, including the use of hashtags. Prior to engaging in intersectional conversations I had no idea how that hashtag was being whitewashed or what that really meant. This realm of media usage is important because hashtags are used across all platforms, and media consumers must realize the implications that their usage can have on Black women.
The same concept can be applied to media in the form of television or film. Jude Casimi writes about this in reference to Tall Girl, a Netflix show that “represents only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the ways in which white women have wantonly and shamelessly co-opted the cultural cognizance of oppressive structures.” Manaal Farooqi points to The Social Dilemma as a film that neglects race. Big tech companies engage with diversity and inclusion rhetoric, boasting their inclusive environments, yet fail to actually engage in diverse hiring practices. From 2014 to 2019, the teams of Black and/or Native technical workers rose by less than one percent at Google and Microsoft. Ah, yes, performative activism. These examples highlight the ways in which media can negatively impact Black people, and particularly Black women, through media decisions such as plot lines and perspective gaps.
So, how can there be a caveat? How can media, which is very evidently a tool of suppression, also be a tool for change? These questions aren’t mine to answer. I do not know the experience that Black women have with media consumption, and I cannot simply project what I think that experience would be. Dr. Sherri Williams, a Black professor at American University, speaks about today’s technology in the following way:
“But today’s technology enables Black academics to take ideas out of the Ivory Tower and share them with the masses directly, immediately and without barriers. Twenty years ago, academics may have conducted television, radio, or print interviews about social injustice or academic associations may have issued statements. That communication would not have the reach that the Black digital syllabus movement has through Black digital culture.”
An example of this is the student journalism project titled Black on Campus, led by Dr. Williams and Dr.Melissa Harris-Perry, which garnered 449,000 views. A main goal of the project? To teach the students the importance of developing a social media strategy to draw readers to their work. To this end, social media has demonstrated its ability to be a tool for change through the promotion of content and information.
In sum - I believe that social media is both a weapon on suppression and a tool for change for Black women based on the sources I have read above; but, it's really not for me to decide or give an unreferenced opinion on because, again, I do not know what it is like to engage with media as a Black woman.