Weighing In

Elon Musk at a news conference Feb. 10.Jim Watson / AFP via Getty Images

Elon Musk is alienating one of Twitter’s most valuable assets: Black influencers

12/1/22

Black users have long been one of Twitter’s most engaged demographics, flocking to the platform to steer online culture and drive real-world social change. But a month after Elon Musk took over, some Black influencers are eyeing the exits just as he races to shore up the company’s business.

Several high-profile Black users announced they were leaving Twitter in recent weeks, as researchers tracked an uptick in hate speech, including use of the N-word, after Musk’s high-profile Oct. 27 takeover. The multibillionaire tech executive has tweeted that activity is up and hate speech down on the platform, which he said he hopes to make a destination for more users.

At the same time, he posted a video last week showing company T-shirts with the #StayWoke hashtag created by Twitter’s Black employee resource group following the deaths of Black men that catalyzed the Black Lives Matter movement, including the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown. His post contained laughing emojis, and someone can be heard snickering off-camera as the T-shirts are displayed.

Musk later posted and then deleted a tweet about the protests — fueled in part by activists on Twitter — that followed in Ferguson, Missouri, pointing to a subsequent Justice Department report and claiming the slogan “‘Hands up don’t shoot’ was made up. The whole thing was a fiction.”

He has also moved to restore many banned accounts despite condemnation from civil rights groups such as the NAACP, which accused him of allowing prominent users “to spew hate speech and violent conspiracies.” Civil rights leaders have also urged advertisers to withdraw over concerns about his approach to content moderation.

Twitter didn’t respond to requests for comment.

In a blog post it published Wednesday, the company said its “approach to experimentation” has changed but not any of its policies, though “enforcement will rely more heavily on de-amplification of violative content: freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach…We remain committed to providing a safe, inclusive, entertaining, and informative experience for everyone.”

Downloads of Twitter and activity on the platform have risen since Musk took control, according to two independent research firms. The data lends support to his claims that he is growing the service, though some social media experts say the findings may not shed much light on the company’s longer-term prospects. And while there is no hard data on how many Black users have either joined or left the platform over that period, some prominent influencers say they’re actively pursuing alternatives.

Jelani Cobb, a writer for The New Yorker and the dean of the Columbia Journalism School, said he has joined two decentralized microblogging apps — Mastodon and Post News — after leaving Twitter, telling his nearly 400,000 followers last week that he’d “seen enough.” The reinstatement of former President Donald Trump’s account was the “last straw,” he told NBC News.

Jelani Cobb at an event in New York.Roy Rochlin / Getty Images for Unfinished Live

“I can say confidently that I will not return to Twitter as long as Elon owns it,” he said. “Some people think that by staying on the site they’re being defiant, defying the trolls, the incels, the ill-will they’re encountering. But Elon Musk benefits from every single interaction people have on that platform. That was the reason I left. There are some battles you can only win by not fighting.”

Imani Gandy, a journalist and the co-host of the podcast “Boom! Lawyered” (@AngryBlackLady, 270,000 followers), recently tweeted that she isn’t enthused enough by Twitter alternatives to switch platforms.

The longtime Twitter user said in an interview that a combination of blocking, filters and “community-based accountability when it comes to anti-Blackness” make her less inclined to leave, for now. “Sure there are Nazis and jerks on Twitter, but they’re the same Nazis and jerks that have always been there, and I’m used to them,” she said.

Fanbase, another social media app, has seen usership jump 40% within the last two weeks, according to its founder, Isaac Hayes III. “We contribute so much to the culture and the actual economy of these platforms,” he said, “but do we own them?”

Investors in the service, which lets users monetize their followings by offering subscriptions, include Black celebrities such as the rapper Snoop Dogg and the singer and reality TV star Kandi Burruss. Other Fanbase investors — including the often polarizing media personality Charlamagne Tha God (2.15 million Twitter followers) and former CNN analyst Roland Martin (675,000 followers) — have touted it as a Twitter alternative.

For more than a decade, the community known as “Black Twitter” — an unofficial group of users self-organized around shared cultural experiences that convenes sometimes viral discussions of everything from social issues to pop culture — has played a key role in movements such as #SayHerName and #OscarsSoWhite.

In 2018, Black Americans accounted for an estimated 28% of Twitter users, roughly double the proportion of the U.S. Black population, according to media measurement company Nielsen. As of this spring, Black Americans were 5% more likely than the general population to have used Twitter in the last 30 days — second only to Asian American users, it said.

Some signs indicate a slowdown among Black Twitter users that predates Musk. In April, the rate of growth among Black Twitter users was already slower than any other ethnic group on the platform: 0.8% in 2021, down from 2.5% the previous year, according to estimates provided by Insider Intelligence eMarketer. (Growth among white users was 3.6%, down from 6%.)

A recent Reuters report cited internal Twitter research pondering a post-pandemic “absolute decline” of heavy tweeters — which the report described as comprising less than 10% of monthly users but 90% of global tweets and revenue. Twitter told Reuters that its “overall audience has continued to grow.”

Catherine Knight Steele, a communications professor at the University of Maryland and the author of “Digital Black Feminism,” said the departures of Black celebrities may not foreshadow a broader exodus, but she expects Black Twitter users to engage less on the platform over time.

If that bears out, she said, “without a robust Black community on Twitter, the only path forward for the site is to increasingly lose relevance as it becomes more inundated with more hatred and vitriol,” risking further panic among advertisers. The watchdog group Media Matters estimated last week that nearly half of Twitter’s top 100 advertisers had either announced or appeared to suspend their campaigns within Musk’s first month at the helm.

Any decline among highly engaged user segments would add pressure on Twitter’s business, analysts say, as 90% of the company’s revenue last year came from advertising.

“No platform wants to alienate any group of users, particularly an incredibly active group of users,” said Jasmine Enberg, principal analyst at Insider Intelligence eMarketer. “Twitter’s value proposition to advertisers has long been the quality and the engagement of its core user base … so the more that that addressable audience becomes diluted, both in terms of size and in terms of engagement, the less attractive the platform becomes.”

Steele said she has seen Black women in particular disengage amid threats and harassment over the last few years. And in recent weeks, high-profile Black women have been among the most vocal about leaving the platform.

TV powerhouse Shonda Rhimes tweeted to her 1.9 million followers in late October that she’s “Not hanging around for whatever Elon has planned. Bye.” Rhimes, who didn’t respond to a request for comment, has had an outsize stature on the app — having helped popularize live-tweeting with her Thursday night “Shondaland” block on ABC. The practice has been offered a proof point for advertisers wary of marrying Twitter and TV.

Other celebrities including the singer Toni Braxton (1.8 million Twitter followers) and Whoopi Goldberg (1.6 million followers) have also announced their departures, citing concerns about hate speech. The Oscar- and Emmy-winning co-host of “The View” said on the ABC talk show that she is “done with Twitter” for now. “I’m going to get out, and if it settles down and I feel more comfortable, maybe I’ll come back,” she said. Representatives for Braxton and Goldberg didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Steele said the history of Black communities’ withdrawal from other arenas, including offline, bodes ill for Twitter if it can’t turn the tide.

“It’s crippling to the economies of cities when Black folks leave, platforms when Black folks leave, entertainment sites when Black folks leave,” she said. “Twitter would suffer a similar fate.”

Steele said the history of Black communities’ withdrawal from other arenas, including offline, bodes ill for Twitter if it can’t turn the tide.

Muslim women in France protest the plans for banning the headscarf, which is on the agenda of politicians, with the ‘Don’t touch my headscarf’ movement on social media.

Commentary by Sahar Khamis: Countering Islamophobia One Tweet at a Time

6/16/21

This commentary sheds light on some of the most creative online campaigns which have been launched to counter Islamophobia and overcome the negative stereotypes and skewed (mis)representations of Islam and Muslims, especially in the West. It provides a number of scholarly definitions of Islamophobia and explains why, and how, social media could act as a double-edged sword, which may fuel Islamophobia, on the one hand, while providing effective tools to counter it, on the other hand. It highlights several examples illustrating both effects of the social media, while focusing on the factors behind the success of some online countering Islamophobia campaigns, such as the amplification of Muslims’ voices, including gendered voices; the deployment of humor; and the selection of suitable strategies, tactics, and tools. It concludes with a few thoughts on what needs to be done to ensure the success and continuation of countering Islamophobia efforts, moving forward.

Introduction

Muslims globally are using the internet, not just as a window to see and be seen by the rest of the world, but also as a tool with which to push back against the many attempts to sideline them, profile them, stigmatize them and silence them.1 Their efforts to deploy digital media as a platform that gives voice to the voiceless, thus helping them to amplify and spread their messages, became particularly important in the midst of the rising wave of Islamophobia after 9/11, especially in the West. With the alarming increase in incidents of hatred against Muslims worldwide and the dangerous new wave of Islamophobia that has been witnessed more recently, many Muslims have resorted to online campaigns to fight against negative misrepresentations, rectify their images, and spread correct awareness about their faith and traditions, their multifaceted identities and lived realities. This commentary provides various examples illustrating how different groups of Muslims are engaging in tireless online efforts to achieve all of these goals.

Definitions of Islamophobia
The idea of fearing a certain group of people because of their culture, race, traditions, religious beliefs, or simply because they are different is not new. It has been around for centuries. This process of ethnic, racial, and religious profiling has been commonly referred to as stereotyping. One example of the process of profiling and stereotyping the ‘Other’ is Islamophobia.

Islamophobia could be defined as “an exaggerated fear, hatred, and hostility toward Islam and Muslims that is perpetuated by negative stereotypes resulting in bias, discrimination, and the marginalization and exclusion of Muslims from social, political, and civic life.”2 Its spread has prompted “an increasingly visible ‘backlash’ against Muslims across Europe and the United States.”3 The term ‘backlash’ encompasses all of the negative messages received by Muslims and all harmful acts against them, whether physical, psychological, or both. This includes the controversial cartoon drawings of Prophet Muhammad by Danish artists in 20064 that triggered negative reactions among many Muslims and some non-Muslims.

Some authors define Islamophobia as “an unfounded hostility towards Muslims, and, therefore, fear or dislike of all or most Muslims,”5 while others define it as “an allegedly irrational fear of losing life or liberty to Islamic rule merely because the laws, sacred texts, and traditional practices of Islam demand the submission of culture, politics, religion, and all social expression.”6 This last definition, unlike previous ones, mentions ‘losing life’ as a direct result of Islam. This fear could be attributed to the fact that many terrorist attacks are covered extensively and disproportionately, on national media in the West, especially if the attacker happens to have an Arab or a Muslim name, creating an association in the minds of Western audiences between Muslims and acts of terrorism. However, only a very tiny fringe of the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims support terrorism, let alone engage in it.

There is no doubt that the rise of recent international trends, such as right-wing politics, populism, and White Supremacy, and the rhetoric associated with them, especially from some of the political leaders in Europe and the United States in recent years, have fueled Islamophobic sentiments, resulting in attacks on mosques, Islamic centers, and Muslim individuals on an unprecedented scale. These Islamophobic acts have a greater impact on those with visible Muslim identifies, such as women who wear the hijab (Islamic headscarf), for example.

Muslims in Europe suffer from different forms of discrimination, including racial and religious profiling, and sometimes even restrictions on their rights to adhere to various aspects of their Muslim faith. One glaring example is France’s repeated efforts to impose restrictions on Muslim women’s religious attire. The most recent of such efforts is France’s 2021 decision to ban girls under eighteen years of age from wearing the hijab in public, and prohibiting mothers wearing the hijab from accompanying their children on school field trips.7 These decisions are just the latest among a series of actions by the French government aimed at restricting the hijab in France.8 These include banning the wearing of the hijab in public schools in France, banning the burkini (the modest, religiously compliant swimwear worn by some Muslim women), and banning the niqab (full-face covering) by law in 2010 –an action that was subsequently critiqued by the UN Human Rights Commission as an unjustified decision that disproportionately targets the minority of Muslim women who wear it, thereby violating their rights of religious freedom.9

Islamophobia has been steadily on the rise in the United States since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, which marked a seismic geopolitical shift in the portrayal of Muslims across the media. It changed people’s perceptions of Islam and made them anxious and fearful of an entire group of people. The attacks made people wonder if all Muslims were extremists and, if they were, when would they attack again? Given that thousands of people died that day, they were right to fear terrorists, who belong to extremist groups like al-Qaeda. However, the problem was the proliferation of overgeneralized stereotypes that are still widespread, even though terrorist groups represent only a tiny fraction of the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims.

Already a problem, Islamophobia became exponentially much worse after President Trump came to office in 2016. During his presidency, some of the most prominent Islamophobes launched campaigns online, using the internet to spout hatred and fuel anger and discrimination against immigrants and minorities in general, and Muslims in particular.10 This new wave of Islamophobia during Trump’s presidency extended beyond mere rhetoric to include serious discriminatory policies targeting Muslims, such as the infamous Muslim Travel Ban,11 which was revoked by President Biden on the first day of his presidency.

As the above discussion clearly illustrates, we must acknowledge the complexities and nuances of the concept of Islamophobia by situating it within the appropriate historical, social, political, and cultural settings, as well as the appropriate temporal and spatial contextualization. Like all forms of discrimination and xenophobia, Islamophobia is part of an ever-evolving, multifaceted and elusive process that takes different forms; and is expressed through various manifestations, based on a multitude of underlying factors and shifting influences.

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Maryland ‘GoVAX’ campaign seeks to aid people reluctant to get coronavirus vaccine to overcome mistrust, cultural barriers

1/29/21

Click here to read the full article.

By PAMELA WOOD and EMILY OPILO

[Excerpt:]
But a communications expert questioned whether the campaign might actually create more frustration as people seek a product that remains in short supply.

“If you’re dealing with an issue of trust, this kind of campaign might actually work against that, especially if you’re dealing with not having enough vaccine for people,” said Paola Pascual-Ferrà, associate professor of communications at Loyola University Maryland.

Linda Aldoory, a professor of health communications at the University of Maryland, said she was encouraged by the initial crafting of the campaign, especially as it leaned on trusted figures in the community — pastors, community leaders, local celebrities — something that’s “been shown time and time again to be a really effective way to reach the people you want to reach.”

She added that the state should consider on-the-street marketing — delivering flyers or pamphlets through churches or supermarkets, for example — to reach an older population. A frequent request from older residents during community health campaigns, Aldoory said, is for “something I can put in my purse” or take home to pass along to a friend or neighbor.

David Nevins, a public relations executive and president of Nevins & Associates in Baltimore, said some might see a marketing campaign as counterintuitive given how many people are desperately hunting for the few available doses.

“There’s a huge number of people for whom marketing is obviously not needed,” Nevins said. “But we’re also aware of the fact that there are a number of good people who are nervous and scared and have a bit of trepidation about the efficacy of the vaccine and the ultimate safety of the vaccine.”

Martha McKenna, a Democratic media consultant, applauded the launch as “a good first step.” But she said the state appears still to be struggling with getting out information about how to sign up for appointments and actually get a dose. The process currently involves not only signing up for local health department wait lists but scouring numerous other providers — pharmacies, clinics, hospitals — for possible appointments.”

“We should be making sure people have a 1-800 number they can call if they don’t have the internet,” McKenna said. “Where can you get the vaccine? When can you get the vaccine? How easy is it going to be to get the vaccine? That’s going to be the next step.”

The first two vaccines, produced by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, became available in Maryland in mid-December, initially for hospital workers and residents and staff of nursing homes, which have been hard hit with infections and deaths.

State health officials have been concerned that there initially has been a low vaccination rate, with more people declining the shot than expected. In the first weeks, only 30% of eligible health care workers took their first of two doses of the vaccine, a number that’s now closer to 80%, Hogan said. Earlier this week, Johns Hopkins estimated participation among its employees at about 50%.

“We were a little bit surprised, as were the hospitals, at the reluctance of some of the health care workers,” Hogan said.

The initial rollout also has been slow, with less than half the doses received in Maryland so far actually being administered, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state Department of Health’s estimate of doses used is higher, at 56%.

In the weeks since, eligibility has expanded significantly, now including all residents age 65 and older, first responders, some government officials, long-term care residents and staff, educators and certain essential workers. Many, including seniors, have reported difficulty in securing vaccination appointments through hospitals, pharmacies and local health departments.

Some local health departments aren’t providing shots to all those eligible, instead focusing on those 75 and older.

#BLACKWOMENATWORK SHOWS WHY SOME WOMEN IDENTIFY AS WOMANISTS, NOT FEMINISTS

3/30/17

By Mabinty Quarshie | USA Today

"When Bill O'Reilly insulted Rep. Maxine Water's hair and White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporter April Ryan to "stop shaking your head," the comments by the two white men hit a nerve.

"Black women — who often face a one-two punch of racism and sexism in their daily lives — immediately took to social media using the hashtag #BlackWomenAtWork to air out their grievances, including those about other women.

" 'The things that black women need to push for are quite different than what we think of as the mainstream feminist movement,' said Sheri Parks, a professor of American studies at the University of Maryland and author of Fierce Angels: The Strong Black Woman in American Life and Culture."

Read the complete article at USA Today

THE COST OF CUTTING THE ARTS

3/7/17

By Tom Hall & Bridget Armstrong | Midday on WYPR

"The National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities are two of 17 federal agencies that appear to be targeted by the Trump administration for elimination, as its budget inclinations lean heavily toward defense spending. The state of Maryland funded arts institutions at the highest level ever last year, and the Governor has proposed an additional $1 million this year, bringing the allocation for the arts to $21 million in Fiscal Year 2018. Ironically, Baltimore City Schools are facing drastic cuts. Principals looking to trim expenses, may have to make cuts to music and visual arts programs.

"An organization called Arts Every Day is holding a symposium this weekend that will call attention to the role that arts education plays in boosting attendance, improving test scores and making schools vibrant parts of their communities.

"Tom and Dr. Sheri Parks speak with arts educators and advocates about what the arts can do for kids and their families. They also talk about the cost of funding arts programs and if that cost is worth it when belts are being tightened locally and nationally."

Listen to the complete podcast: Midday on WYPR

PRESIDENT TRUMP'S PLAN TO DEFUND TWO ENDOWMENTS THREATENS UMD ARTS AND HUMANITIES FUNDING

1/26/17

By Christine Condon and Danielle Ohl | The Diamondback

"President Trump plans to defund the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities, a move that could jeopardize funding for the arts and humanities at the University of Maryland and in this state.

"A Jan. 19 report in The Hill detailed a meeting between White House staff and Trump's transition team, who fleshed out a plan to cut back on bureaucracy and government spending. The plan included eliminating the two endowments, which have granted this university about $2.5 million for research, performances and projects since 2010.

" '[The NEH and NEA] have been important in a lot of ways,' said arts and humanities college Dean Bonnie Dill. 'They are a very important part of the work that we do.' "

Read the complete story online at The Diamondback.

Image: The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. (File photo/The Diamondback).

ROUGHLY SPEAKING PODCAST: THE PRESIDENT VS. THE PRESS

1/19/17

By Dan Rodricks | Roughly Speaking Podcast

In this podcast, culture commentator Sheri Parks talks about the transition from Obama to Trump, and Friday’s inauguration.

Listen to the complete podcast online at Roughly Speaking.

ARHU RECEIVES GRANT TO EMPOWER MIGRANT YOUTH THROUGH DIGITAL STORYTELLING

The Center for Synergy in the College of Arts and Humanities (ARHU) has received a $100,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to fund “Home Stories,” a digital storytelling project that empowers migrant youth to create and share their stories with the wider public.

The award is part of NEH’s inaugural Humanities Access grants, which provide cultural programming to underserved groups and were awarded to 34 organizations. The grant is designed to encourage fundraising and sustainability of ongoing programming.

The project co-directors are Ana Patricia Rodríguez, associate professor of Spanish and Portuguese in the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures and Sheri Parks, associate dean of research, interdisciplinary scholarship and programming and associate professor of American studies.

The project responds to the growing number of often-unaccompanied migrant youth who travel to the U.S.-Mexico border and eventually seek to reunite with families, relatives or friends who live in the long-standing Central American communities near the University of Maryland. These newcomers navigate multiple identities but rarely have the opportunity to reflect on or share these experiences. Despite the scale of youth migration to this area, there is little research or ethnographic work generated about or by these youth.

“We are living in a historical moment where there is an explosion in migration,” says Rodríguez. “Digital storytelling is a way of uncovering these stories and making them accessible to a wider public, and it is something that anyone can learn.”

“Home Stories” extends the Center for Synergy’s ongoing Social Innovation Scholars Program into the public humanities. Through the project, undergraduate students at the University of Maryland will enroll in a multi-semester course with Rodríguez to learn about the migrant experience while collaborating with migrant youth from local middle and high schools to explore digital storytelling. Digital stories are multimedia movies that combine voiceovers, video, sound and text to create a narrative. Both in and out of the classroom, they are a tool for not only developing technical skills, but also promoting self-reflection and critical thinking.

“The project is a way of connecting students who have the technological skills with migrant youth in communities who have important stories to tell,” says Rodríguez. “Digital storytelling is a democratizing tool that allows these stories to be created and shared across communities.”

The project will work with youth in local schools that enroll large numbers of recently arrived migrant youth from Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean and culminates in a community screening of the filmed stories these youth produce, which will then be available on a public website.

“The humanities help us study our past, understand our present, and prepare for our future,” says NEH Chairman William D. Adams. “The National Endowment for the Humanities is proud to support projects that will benefit all Americans and remind us of our shared human experience.”

WHAT WILL A DONALD TRUMP PRESIDENCY MEAN?

11/11/16

Tom Hall | "Midday" WYPR

"On November 8th, voters chose Donald Trump to be the next President. As Americans come to terms with the idea of a Trump presidency, many questions still remain. What does the election of Donald Trump tell us about our country’s apparent embrace of unprecedented change, and what does it tell us about what Americans are repudiating? Is this a repudiation of civility in politics? Is it an embrace of isolationism, and a repudiation of tolerance? Is it, as Mr. Trump suggested early this morning, a cry from those who have been forgotten, or is it a mean-spirited and fear-fueled affirmation of a system that favors white people over people of color? "

Listen to the complete postcast on WYPR.

Image: Hillary Clinton supporters emotional at campaign headquarters. Via WYPR.

ROUGHLY SPEAKING PODCAST: THE THIRD & FINAL DEBATE

10/20/16

Dan Rodricks | The Baltimore Sun Roughly Speaking Podcast

"Sun columnist Dan Rodricks and American culture commentator Sheri Parks talk about Wednesday night's third and final (and nasty) debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Sheri Parks is an associate dean at the University of Maryland, College Park and a regular contributor to Roughly Speaking. "

Listen to the complete podcast here.

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