Evolution of the #BlackTwitter Hashtag #F
This post originally appeared on December 26, 2013 written by founder, Tara L. Conley.
This post originally appeared on December 26, 2013 written by founder, Tara L. Conley.
Did you know that the first person to tweet the phrase “Blacktwitter” was Juan Freire (@jfreire) six years ago? When Juan tweeted out the phrase back then he was referencing Blacktwitter in the context of new forms of mobile and social media marking the death of PCs, notebooks, blogs, and web 2.0.
Oh, how times have changed.
Today the term Black Twitter takes on an entirely new meaning. Black Twitter even has it’s own Wikipedia page and scientific diagram (but not really).
According to Topsy, the first time the hashtag #BlackTwitter was tweeted out was back in 2009 when @ungaro tweeted a link to a now defunct URL.
Perhaps the most widely cited moment when the hashtag #BlackTwitter (and subsequent Brown Twitter birds) hit mainstream headlines was when Farhad Manjoo (@fmanjoo) published an article on Slate, “How Black People Use Twitter”. In the article, Manjoo writes:
Black people—specifically, young black people—do seem to use Twitter differently from everyone else on the service. They form tighter clusters on the network—they follow one another more readily, they retweet each other more often, and more of their posts are @-replies—posts directed at other users. It’s this behavior, intentional or not, that gives black people—and in particular, black teenagers—the means to dominate the conversation on Twitter.
The meaning of Black Twitter as a cultural phenomenon has transformed over the past several years. The hashtag attached to Black Twitter conversations signals to the archiving of cultures online; an evolution of being and signifyin’ in a digitally social world. As Dr. Andre Brock (@DocDre) writes,
Black Twitter’s public element revolves around the hashtag, a user-created meta-discourse convention. The hashtag (“#topic”) was initially deployed to filter and organize multiple Tweets on a particular topic (Messina, 2007). Initially intended as a curational feature, hashtags quickly evolved into an expressive modifier to contextualize the brusque, brief Tweet. The hashtag’s evolution, I argue, led to the “discovery” of Black Twitter. Black Twitter hashtag domination of the Trending Topics allowed outsiders to view Black discourse that was (and still is) unconcerned with the mainstream gaze.
Every now and then I chime in about Black Twitter, a community I’ve claimed long before it was a thing to claim.
Over the summer, I chatted with Marc Lamont Hill (@marclamonthill), Kimberly C. Ellis (@drgoddess), Feminista Jones (@FeministaJones), Rosa Clemente (@rosaclemente), and Samuel Foster (@blunted215) on Huff Post Live about how Black Twitter, particularly in 2013 has been used as a tool for engaging in online social activism. I also talked about how experiencing Twitter, especially Black Twitter, is like sitting on your back porch talking with friends and acquaintances, but instead of talking face-to-face, our interactions are mediated by way of @replies, retweets, and hashtags.
How do you think Black Twitter has evolved? Speak on it below and tweet us at @hashtagfeminism, use the hashtag #BlackTwitter!
Is Christmas a Feminist Issue? #FeministXmas #Fcurates
This post originally appeared on December 25, 2013 written by Hashtag Feminism’s first head writer, Kelly Ehrenreich.
This post originally appeared on December 25, 2013 written by Hashtag Feminism’s first head writer, Kelly Ehrenreich.
A week ago British writer Richard Godwin tweeted “Christmas is a feminist Issue”
WHY CHRISTMAS IS A FEMINIST ISSUE. A special festive column for y’all: http://t.co/w0jtlcg7ec
— Richard Godwin (@richardjgodwin) December 18, 2013
Godwin’s article points to the prevalence of gender stereotypes and alarming upticks in domestic violence during the holidays. This got @hashtagfeminism thinking about other ways feminism overlaps with December 25th. How do feminists treat Xmas in whatever way they recognize it? There are devoted Christians who identify as feminists. There are also fairly secular feminists who celebrate Christmas, and then there are those who don’t celebrate at all. In some way or another we all have something to say about feminism this holiday season.
On this Christmas Eve we are looking at feminism and faith. Do the two conflict? http://t.co/BiXzsUrRYo — MillennialWomanSpeak (@milwomanspeaks) December 24, 2013
If you celebrate Christmas, how do you incorporate feminism into your celebration? Do you prefer feminist Christmas carols or feminist Christmas movies? We found a few suggestions from the#TwitterFeminism community on how to bring a little feminist cheer to your holidays.
There’s feminist napkins and t-shirts…
Feminist napkins at Christmas Eve cuz that’s how the Swigarts roll pic.twitter.com/QAIYtwPGX5 — Alyssletoe Swigart (@alyssaswigart) December 24, 2013
Wearing my Xmas gift. Music on. Food prep underway. Totally set to #destroythejoint. How goes your #FeministXmas? pic.twitter.com/Bftr6ggvNe — Destroy The Joint (@JointDestroyer) December 24, 2013
Cook-your-own-damn-dinner feminists…
Gotta let Mom know that, I’m a ‘Nigerian Twitter Feminist’ so I’m not cooking anything for anyone this Christmas.
— Aeon (@4Laa) December 24, 2013
Militant feminists….kinda.
"my favorite Christmas carol is We Three Queens"- oma, a militant feminist
— Grace Curtin (@gurtin) December 24, 2013
Charitable feminists…
Wouldn't it be great if all #twitterfeminism Tweeps donated a gift to a woman or child in a refuge this Xmas? #feministXmas
— Claire OT (@claireOT) December 22, 2013
Awesome feminist daughters with awesome dads…
"Well behaved women rarely make history." My dad knows me well. #christmas #present#bracelet #feminist http://t.co/mTq2PBjhtl
— muñeca canela. (@_terpsich0re) December 25, 2013
Feminist books!
Brilliant Christmas present for kids: a picture book of feminist heroes, from Aung San Suu Kyi to @tavitulle: http://t.co/ckNSlp92UA
— Benjamin Law (@mrbenjaminlaw) December 21, 2013
What does feminism mean to you this holiday season? Do you have any feminist wishes for the holidays? Tweet us @hashtagfeminism, include the hashtag #feministxmas.
Happy Holidays From Your New BFF #Feminism!
This post originally appeared on December 25, 2013 written by founder, Tara L. Conley.
This post originally appeared on December 25, 2013 written by founder, Tara L. Conley.
What Happens When You Make A Wordle of #TwitterFeminism? #F
This post originally appeared on December 24, 2013 written by founder, Tara L. Conley.
This post originally appeared on December 24, 2013 written by founder, Tara L. Conley.
Wordle: a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source.
After spending hours in front of the computer scanning tweets and hashtags over the past few days, I wondered about how our words (and sentiments) might be represented by each individual hashtag. Given the overwhelming response to Top Feminist Hashtags of 2013, (by the way, thank you! Please donate to my labor), I wondered what it means to give meaning to a hashtag. I’m obsessed with data. And whether we like it or not, numbers and words have a unique way of telling their own story.
So what happens when you make a Wordle of the hashtag #TwitterFeminism? By way of Topsy, I took a random sample of 30 tweets (of 598) within the past day that were associated with the#TwitterFeminism hashtag, which roughly amounts to a 5% sample size. I copied and pasted each tweet (manually!) into the a Wordle text box. I removed the hashtag #TwitterFeminism and only placed words without hashtags and Twitter handles in the text box.
#BlackFemMusic Trends Globally, Missy Elliott Retweets #F
This post originally appeared on December 23, 2013 written by Hashtag Feminism’s first head writer, Kelly Ehrenreich.
This post originally appeared on December 23, 2013 written by Hashtag Feminism’s first head writer, Kelly Ehrenreich.
Beyonce garnered lots of attention this week after releasing her latest album in secret. Many have pointed to Bey’s dominance in the last year. The highlights include: singing the National Anthem at President Barack Obama’s second inauguration, SHUTTING DOWN THE SUPERBOWL, and winning her 17th Grammy, thereby becoming the third most honored female artist in Grammy history.
The latest tribute to Beyonce’s power came from News & Then, a PBS program that started a Twitter chat using the hashtag #BlackFemMusic, which then trended globally by this afternoon.
#BlackFemMusic is a chat w/ @dreamhampton @thetrudz @feministajones @Blackamazon@karnythia on Black feminism in music. 11 am EST, 12/23.
— News and Then (@NewsAndThen) December 20, 2013
#BlackFemMusic was inspired by the lively debate that #Beyoncé‘s latest album has sparked about what feminism is and who can be a feminist.
— News and Then (@NewsAndThen) December 23, 2013
That is, #Beyoncé is one of many Black women producing feminist/womanist texts through music, and part of a longer tradition #BlackFemMusic
— News and Then (@NewsAndThen) December 23, 2013
Beyoncé has always upset mainstream feminism; message isn’t “generic.” Does tend to speak to BW intersectional experiences. #BlackFemMusic
— Trudy (@thetrudz) December 23, 2013
The discussion about Beyonce and her role in the Black feminist music world led to further conversations about other influential #BlackFemMusic artists, what is means to be a Black feminist, and what the music of Black feminism represents.
#BlackFemMusic shows the world that Black women are beautifully diverse, amazingly talented, and have stories to tell.
— A$AP Feminist (@FeministaJones) December 23, 2013
The five invited experts and hundreds of Twitter users created lists of current and past inspiring #BlackFemMusic including Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu, Tina Turner, Janet Jackson, Missy Elliott, Salt-N-Pepa, TLC, Eartha Kitt, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Queen Latifah, Eve, Lil Kim, Nina Simone, Betty Davis, Tracy Chapman, Lady Saw, Joi, and Ashanti.
One of the mentioned #BlackFemMusic artists, Missy Elliott, even joined the conversation, RT’ing several fans who praised her influence and individuality in hip-hop.
RT @FeministaJones: @MissyElliott Defied beauty standards, brought raw sexuality/sensuality &writer, producer, emcee &singer #BlackFemMusic
— Missy Elliott (@MissyElliott) December 23, 2013
What did you get out of the #BlackFemMusic conversation? Were some of your favorite artists and music genres missing from the discussion?
Is #BlackFemMusic solely R+B and Hip Hop? Where are our jazz and classical divas at?
— P. Mimi Poinsett MD (@yayayarndiva) December 23, 2013
What makes a #BlackFemMusic artist? Does Beyonce typify and/or misrepresent this generation of empowered Black women musicians?
Speak on it. Share your brilliance below and on Twitter with @hashtagfeminism. You can also tweet me @kellybycoffee!